4 Attachment(s)
Shopmaster Mill Turn 2017
Things are pretty slow around here so I thought I'd upload some photos of my Mill Turn 2017.
I traded my old Tri-Power machine in to Shopmaster around the end of June 2017. JT gave me 50% of the original purchase price as a trade in. He said that I could make a few more bucks if I sold it myself on Ebay but I didn't do that. There is a link to the sale a few threads down.
My new machine arrived at the beginning of August which seemed like an eternal delay, but looking back, it was nothing. I paid a little extra to have the machine delivered to my garage door, but it was worth it. It arrived in excellent shape with everything it was supposed to. Setup was pretty straightforward but I would recommend following the owners manual to the letter as everything is there for a reason. Speaking of the manual, it was not written by a professional technical writer, but, I was written by someone that knows what the hell is going on, JT I suspect. If you have questions, email JT, doesn't seem to matter if its early, late, weekend, or holiday. He always responded quickly. In fact I started feeling guilty for occupying so much of his time.
There is a huge learning curve to CNC and Mach 3 and the learning continues for me. The machine is not perfect but it's not a 100K Haas or even a 20K Tormach, but I'm pretty happy with it.
Attachment 382996
Attachment 382998
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGsjRJUI6QM
Re: Shopmaster Mill Turn 2017
Hello Goodlet and how is your Shopmaster working?
I would like your opinion on if the Shopmaster is the machine for me. I re profile rifle barrels in my business. I take a 24" barrel and cut them down to various lengths. I then have to, in steps, take the old OD from about .7" down to .620", .600", .562", and .510". These new barrels will be 16" long and 17.5" long. After the barrel is contoured I used to take it and put it in my milling machine and use the indexer to cut 1/8" keyways in it. I then drill a gas port hole of .067" and thread the end of the barrel with 9/16" 32 threads.
Do you think the Shopmaster, in its new form, is capable of doing all this on its own? Hit a button, completely automated, walk away, come back to a finished product? I can't even figure out if the spindle indexes and I haven't been able to get Shopmaster to either offer training or programming help if I went down to Vegas.
I would have to remove my old 11x26 WT lathe to make room for the Shopmaster. I don't have the time to go without a lathe for a "learning curve". My neighbor is competent in Mach3 but I'd be a 2nd grader around this thing. I really need to be able to press a button and have the thing do its job.
I am not afraid to spend the money on a Tormach but I frankly don't know if a Tormach is set up for this physically.
Re: Shopmaster Mill Turn 2017
@timshufflin,
I don't know much, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
I think the Shopmaster is capable of all the operations that you mentioned, turning, threading, milling keyways, drilling, etc., but, I don't think there is any chance of completing all these operations in one set-up, hit cycle start, and walk away. There is no way to switch from lathe to mill as an automated task. Also the spindles do not index, so, a rotary table would be needed for that.
Please don't take it the wrong way as I not trying to be rude, but, you not having time for a learning curve and your neighbor being competent in Mach 3 is a bit of an unrealistic expectation for wanting a fully automated process. CNC machines are dumb, you must tell them exactly what you want them to do in exacting detail. Then add in tool wear and tolerances and things get extremely complicated very quickly. I'm not saying what you want can't be done, because, I'm sure it can. I just don't think the Shopmaster is the right tool for the job.
At a minimum, I think you need a machine with an Automatic tool changer or a turret lathe with live tooling.
Re: Shopmaster Mill Turn 2017
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Goodlett
@timshufflin,
I don't know much, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
I think the Shopmaster is capable of all the operations that you mentioned, turning, threading, milling keyways, drilling, etc., but, I don't think there is any chance of completing all these operations in one set-up, hit cycle start, and walk away. There is no way to switch from lathe to mill as an automated task. Also the spindles do not index, so, a rotary table would be needed for that.
Please don't take it the wrong way as I not trying to be rude, but, you not having time for a learning curve and your neighbor being competent in Mach 3 is a bit of an unrealistic expectation for wanting a fully automated process. CNC machines are dumb, you must tell them exactly what you want them to do in exacting detail. Then add in tool wear and tolerances and things get extremely complicated very quickly. I'm not saying what you want can't be done, because, I'm sure it can. I just don't think the Shopmaster is the right tool for the job.
At a minimum, I think you need a machine with an Automatic tool changer or a turret lathe with live tooling.
Great post Goodlett and just what I was looking to learn. My neighbor could easily program this thing, he runs an entire very large CNC shop, but I can't have a multiple steps/programs required between lathe and mill. The spindles not indexing is a deal breaker I'm afraid as now I'd have to tear down and put a Rotary indexer up, no thanks. The tool wear stuff I'm completely up to handling as I have been doing this stuff manually for 12 years so I know tool wear. You have been a wealth of knowledge and I thank you.
Re: Shopmaster Mill Turn 2017
Have been playing with engraving using a spring loaded engraving tool from 2L inc. At 3000 rpm and 15 ipm, it seems to work really well and the software that came with the tool is super simple.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yin9oz1kw94
Re: Shopmaster Mill Turn 2017
Hi, I am a cnc machinist and I am very interested in buying a shoptask “turnado” lathe for my home shop. I currently run a ProtoTrak 1630 at my current job. I am well versed in conversational programming and do not anticipate it would be difficult to pick up mach3.
I am looking to make production runs of around 5-50 pieces of primarily brass and aluminum parts. My tolerance would typically be within .002-.005”.
Does that sound feasible for the shop master lathe?
I guess my main concern with the shop task machines is making sure mach3 is configured correctly. Any insight into this machine would be helpful. I bought a 1400$ cnc “kit” on eBay a couple years ago and was never able to configure mavh3 and eventually gave up.
I just want to know for sure that this machine will work for me.
Thanks
