[mattpatt]

Thought I'd share this with you guys just for a laugh.

My Local machine shop can't keep up with the turned parts we need, so seeing as I have had success in the past using my VMC to turn parts (two stroke cylinder heads), I thought I'd give it a go.

I had to make a fixture to throw the tools in, and then had to 'fudge' my generated program in Cimco Edit by swapping Z and X moves, but the results are perfect!

Here's my set up and the finished article (below). To be honest it wasn't that tricky and it'll save me money too. For your info, it takes 3 minutes to machine the part.

I'm now looking forward with far more confidence to turn other parts now too.

The process is turn the OD down first, then drill a 14mm hole in the centre, followed by an M8 tapped hole (Rigid tapping), then use a parting tool to cut to length and then part off.

Rather pleased with myself.

[pinguS]

I gotta admit, that looks cool, can you post video. I got quite a few turning machines, but doing this for a laugh would be funny on a mill

[mattpatt]

I didn't take a video of this, and the job is now done. 140 parts done in no time :-)

I have some other stuff to do, so I'll be sure to video that.

Next some more aluminium parts, and then some stainless 304.

[Brakeman Bob]

That's impressive Matt.

This could be an opportunity Matt. I wonder how long it is before some starts marketing an attachment for VMC's that holds lathe tools in the correct orientation.

[mattpatt]

Hey that's true Bob. Maybe I should delete my pictures and start making the fixtures for sale:devious:

Its that old saying of necessity is the mother of invention.

Even with the programming there isn't really anything that tricky about it once you know what you're trying to do.

The next job is a relatively simple part. turn the OD and drill and tap an M6 hole up the center.

After that it gets a but more in-depth with stepped internal bores. But I've already done the program for that and it simulates OK, so I'm confident it'll be ok.

Then I've got tapered internal bores to figure out. That'll be the fun one. Haven't started on that yet.

Annoying thing is that I just popped around to see an Aussie guy up the road who runs a turbo shop. He has a CNC lathe that has sat idle in his workshop for a year now as he 'can't be bothered' to use it. But he won't give it to me!! Grrrrr.

[jess fuqua]

Thats exactly how a gang tooling lathe works. I use to run an old wasino gang tooling lathe. That picture just reminded me of old memories.

Thanks,

[pinguS]

Yep, it looks like gang tooling, got some of them too, but just sticking a chuck on a spindle holder is cool.

[mattpatt]

Thanks for the comments.

Of course my business partner (the guy who counts the money) now says that we don't need a CNC lathe as we can do it on the mill!

[dak1]

Thanks for the comments.

Of course my business partner (the guy who counts the money) now says that we don't need a CNC lathe as we can do it on the mill!

LOL. Always cool to do something "unconventional" with good results. But be careful who you share that info with.

[mattpatt]

"But be careful who you share that info with"

Yeah, tell me about it!

Well I just finished the SC work for the little stainless bush I need to make. Tapers on the ID and OD.

A fair bit of messing about with additional sketches and what have you, but it's looking like it'll work.

The trouble is that the more I get into this, I'm getting the need to order tooling. So far I've just been nicking my lathe tools from my little Chinese lathe at home, but you know what it's like......I need this....I need that....Blah Blah Blah!!

Got a nice way to machine the taped bore inside. Using 3D contour and fudging the MAC position so that the tool will actually stay in the bore and not try to fight it way out!

Gotta love SC. So many ways to do so much, and very user friendly.

If I do too much of this I might just write a dedicated GPP file that flips all the X and Z moves around for me, and keeps all the moves safe. Then again, it's not always the case as some of the ops are simple drilling, so no need to flip those around, but hey, wouldn't take too much to figure out.....(famous last words!).

Cheers!

[smokeshow]

Thanks for the comments.

Of course my business partner (the guy who counts the money) now says that we don't need a CNC lathe as we can do it on the mill!

But you can be doing another job while that is being done on the lathe and double production rate. :banana:

[underthetire]

Cool set up, reminds me of the hitachi seiki upside down lathe. Just a word of caution though, those scroll chucks can open up on you with fast start/stops. And most are not rated for high rpm, the cast iron bodies tend to explode. Keep the doors closed!

[mattpatt]

Interesting what you say about the chuck exploding.

The chuck is rated up to 4200rpm (marked on the chuck), but I've only hit a max of 4000rpm while in action.

I must confess that I did run it up to 5000rpm and put a finger on the machine....no vibration.....so it's well balanced (well enough anyway).

The chuck's 100mm OD, so at 4000rpm that would give a peripheral speed of 21m/s.

4200rpm would be 22m/s.

Does anyone know at what peripheral speed it will explode?........I could keep pumping it up until it did, but can't really afford to:devious:

As for buying a lathe, yes it's in the plan, but only when we have a spare $50k, which unfortunately won't be this week.

Cheers,

Matt

[dak1]

"Does anyone know at what peripheral speed it will explode?........I could keep pumping it up until it did, but can't really afford to"

I most certaninly wouldn't want to be standing anywhere close for this test.

[Aussie_CNC]

Nice work Matt - always great to see some different thinking!

I would certainly be interested in seeing a video of it in action!

[underthetire]

Interesting what you say about the chuck exploding.

The chuck is rated up to 4200rpm (marked on the chuck), but I've only hit a max of 4000rpm while in action.

I must confess that I did run it up to 5000rpm and put a finger on the machine....no vibration.....so it's well balanced (well enough anyway).

The chuck's 100mm OD, so at 4000rpm that would give a peripheral speed of 21m/s.

4200rpm would be 22m/s.

Does anyone know at what peripheral speed it will explode?........I could keep pumping it up until it did, but can't really afford to:devious:

As for buying a lathe, yes it's in the plan, but only when we have a spare $50k, which unfortunately won't be this week.

Cheers,

Matt

I'm sure it would take quite a bit, that's a pretty good rpm rating. At least till something made contact with it, then all bets are off. A lot of old chucks were cast iron, not steel bodied. Those old cast iron ones could have an invisible crack that shows up in a real bad way!

[mattpatt]

Best I keep an eye out for cracks then!

[KUWill]

Best I keep an eye out for cracks then!

Going to go ahead and throw it out there that the crack will probably form below the surface of the chuck, i.e. invisible as mentioned before. So how'd you set this up in SolidCAM? I wouldn't mind trying this with our VMC.