[Green0]

I had allready gone to your page and read everything you had on parting tools.

I got a Shars tool model that looked similar to your Aloris.

I took a 1/2" VRX endmill to cut the .625" shank to .550 for compatibility with my adaptors. My Syil mill was really rocking good, so I think the material was just too hard for it, but it got the job done, even though it beat up the endmill in the process.

I have fogbuster coolant comming for the mill, but I was running flood coolant on the lathe (I just didn't fill the tank for this precursory project).

I had welded 304 tube that I was trying to part and it was just too hard. I don't think this lathe will be doing any stainless work. I tried .002, .003, .004, .008" infeeds and everything crashed tools, made light cuts, and then gave up the ghost.

In Aluminum the new insertable .120" wide blade will slice like butter at .008"/Rev feed... It sounds like frying bacon which I heard is ideal. The finish on the aluminum is nice and smooth and straight, so I think I'm finished with the parting tool debacle.

I did have an additional problem, when I updated Mach3 to the 2.00065 lockdown, I noticed a strange deceleration in mid rapid movement that would sometimes lock up a stepper and lose steps. I installed the newer developmental upgrade, and it was the same. That was frustrating to me, and I couldn't get it to run right, so I turned off backlash comp, and don't know how it will run, but at least for now it isn't missing steps in rapid jogging.

I have no idea why that is occurring.

[KSKID]

You can't beat Bob at Lathemaster for excellent service, I highly recommend them.
I am helping a friend retro-fit his 9x30.
There is also a Yahoo N.G. for the lathes.
He also has them on Ebay sometimes for $100 less if you can get them for the opening price.
Al.

I don't know what kind of results you have had with Lathemaster, but I have tried unsuccessfully to get a hold of them 4 times already via email and they have yet to email me a response back, so far im not TOO impressed.

[Al_The_Man]

I don't know why for some reason he does not respond well to email, which is strange when you are operating a business like that.
I had to phone him in the end, he usually answers or will get back to you by phone fairly quickly, I know he has an excellent record of solving warrenty/damage issues quickly.
Al.

[Al_The_Man]

I bought it from Lathemaster, but it is the 100 series toolpost availible trough Shars tool and Shars tool has it cheaper.

If doing away with the compound rest, would it be better to go with the BXA size rather than the AXA?
Al.

[Green0]

I'm not sure whether the heavier toolpost would have made a difference, but I'm sure mounting it would have eaten X travel that I don't have a lot of.

Maybe someone could point me in the right direction.

I need a steady rest with ball bearings so I can thread long pieces of tubing.

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...418&category=1

Like that above... maybe someone knows where I could go to get one?

[Al_The_Man]

Could you not do the same as they did and modify the standard one?
Al.

[Green0]

I suppose I could modify it, but I don't have any plans, or any parts, and I'd rather buy one so I don't have to waste time on it.

That way I can make parts to sell with the time I have.

[KSKID]

I don't know why for some reason he does not respond well to email, which is strange when you are operating a business like that.
I had to phone him in the end, he usually answers or will get back to you by phone fairly quickly, I know he has an excellent record of solving warrenty/damage issues quickly.
Al.

Do you have their phone number, I do not see it listed on their web site ?

Thank You.

[Green0]

I aggree with the lathemaster people being a pain in the ass.

They don't answer the phone either.

[KSKID]

I aggree with the lathemaster people being a pain in the ass.

They don't answer the phone either.

Is there another source to purchase the 9x30 lathe or are they the only
outlet here in the US ?

[Green0]

Honestly, this is a decent little machine, but if I were buying again, I would place more precidence on spindle bore diameter than bed length.

that 3/4 spindle bore really limits the machine for semi-production work.

It makes me dream about the big old piece of garbage at my buddies fabricating place. HAHA.

Or an old turning center on it's last leg for like $6,000. That would be great.

[Al_The_Man]

Do you have their phone number, I do not see it listed on their web site ?

Thank You.

Bob 225-377-7001

[Green0]

Getting this machine to turn a useable product has been extremely challenging.

Today I got to the shop, and I have a working perfected code written with about 570 lines,

It's all hand written, because I don't know how to use automatic roughing and finishing, or drilling cycles with Mach3 and it won't take the cycles I am familiar with.

The control is stalling out at ~159. The notepad file doesn't display beyond that, nor will it run past that point.

I ran a Mach turn update, and that changed nothing.

So now a day is wasted.

[Green0]

I tried to load the code on my laptop that isn't running a machine, and it loaded fine.

So there might be a bug in my Mach running my lathe, unfortunately, I think I would have to un-install and re-install to fix it, and that would mean losing my settup information which would be bad.

I'd like to see an example of a automatic roughing/finishing cycle and peck drill cycle mach takes, if anyone has one.

The manual doesn't explain it well enough.

[rcazwillis]

Sounds like you are missing the license for Mach. Click Help - About to see if you have a license installed.

[pzzamakr1980]

Hey green, did you ever get everything working out okay?

[Green0]

Yeah the lathe got working. It still has a little too much backlash to be that hot of a production machine (with tolerances of about .006" on the diameter in some parts), but the Z is pretty accurate and I've used it for roughing runs of parts to be milled later.

I have a SYIL mill, and it's a good solid machine, and I have maybe 40 hours on my machines and want to sell the mill, lathe, and all tooling and workholding equipment (benches, computers, coolant systems etc,) for $9000 right now (It's about $16000 worth of equipment and I'd throw in a free $2000 gun safe for 30 long guns and 20 pistols plus ammo as a deal sweetener to anyone who wants to buy.)

I pay rent where I store my equipment so it would be great to sell and get out of the shop.

http://ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=7&f=132&t=528943

[Ron111]

Alan,
Look at post #40, #41 (PDFattachment on spindle syncs), #47