[kstrauss]

Have you seen the YouTube video Tormach made on first part on the slant Pro? I thought Daniel did a very nice job explaining all of this

I'm unsure which video you mean but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyjg6k-NWaQ does a good job. Thanks for the tip!

[kstrauss]

It would be pretty easy to make a gang tooling holder that mounts onto the spindle nose even if Tormach doesn't. The real question is how would it be supported in PP? The most flexible approach might be to stack the ganged turning tools vertically and then use the mill z-axis to change which of the tools is presented to the workpiece. Boring tools could be staggered horizontally to add additional tool positions.

[AVRnj]

I'm unsure which video you mean but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyjg6k-NWaQ does a good job. Thanks for the tip!

Yes, that's the one.

[tmarks11]

The most flexible approach might be to stack the ganged turning tools vertically and then use the mill z-axis to change which of the tools is presented to the workpiece. Boring tools could be staggered horizontally to add additional tool positions.

The Z-axis gang tooling seems reasonable, since the video shows rapid turn moving the z-axis to position the turning tool on the part. So stacking tools in the z-axis would work just like the SPL15 does along the lathe x-axis.

The staggered tools in the y-axis would be nice, but that doesn't mimic the SPL15 functionality, so it probably wouldn't be support by PP as it is currently written.

[keen]

No.

The RapidTurn mounts on the mill table. The cutting tools mount to the spindle nose using the "rapid turn toolpost stabilizer". No idea if it supports gang tooling (you can only catch brief glimpses of it in the video). You can't mount tools to the table, because then the mill can't reposition them relative to the headstock (which is also fastened to the table). Watch the video:

Yes I know that. I realise the gang tooling will need to be mounted on the mill head. I realise that hardware will need to be made up.

I want to know how well that will work with Pathpilot and its conversational facilities.

Keen

[kstrauss]

I'm not sure. The video seems to show using the mill Z-axis as the X-axis on the SlantPro. That is, the mill Z-axis is used to feed the tool into the work and I didn't see the mill Y-axis being used anywhere. If the mill Y-axis is kept stationary then vertically stacked tooling would be mostly useful for work with slender stock and no tailstock.

[keen]

I'm not sure. The video seems to show using the mill Z-axis as the X-axis on the SlantPro. That is, the mill Z-axis is used to feed the tool into the work and I didn't see the mill Y-axis being used anywhere. If the mill Y-axis is kept stationary then vertically stacked tooling would be mostly useful for work with slender stock and no tailstock.

H kstrauss. Well the video does show a reduced size Y DRO - I am unsure how much function this has though.

I guess time will tell - do we know if the 10% price increase applies to rapidturn - if not then there is less of a rush to find out.


Keen

[kstrauss]

H kstrauss. Well the video does show a reduced size Y DRO - I am unsure how much function this has though.

I guess time will tell - do we know if the 10% price increase applies to rapidturn - if not then there is less of a rush to find out.


Keen

What 10% increase? Is that on the Tormach website or an evil rumour?

[keen]

What 10% increase? Is that on the Tormach website or an evil rumour?

That's funny - Tormach had a warning one was coming in a few days - most products 10% - I think I read it on their blog, but now I cant find it?

Was it a bad dream?

Keen

[tmarks11]

I hope it is a bad dream. I want to buy a lathe, but now is not the time...

EDIT: maybe you were reading the archives, here is a post of a 10% price increase in Sept 2011. Thank goodness, I was starting to juggle in my head what I would tap to get enough to buy.

https://www.tormach.com/blog/new-pri...ctive-sept-15/

[MichaelHenry]

That's funny - Tormach had a warning one was coming in a few days - most products 10% - I think I read it on their blog, but now I cant find it?

Was it a bad dream?

Keen

I found a Tormach post like that while searching their blog and failed to notice that the post was dated several years ago. Could that be what happened to you?

[CadRhino]

Wow, that sucks that you have to manually index it. I can't see how this would have any production value and compete with a real cnc lathe. I guess for the occasional prototype it might work.

ouch, yes I missed that one. To switch PP from mill to lathe mode, I am guessing you would have to reboot path pilot as well.

So the sequence would be (if you had an 1100, 770 skips steps 1-3)
1. Power down the VFD with keyswitch
2. Plug in the smartstick (not a USB thumb drive as JW pointed out)
3. Power up the VFD to make it load the new constants
4. Shutdown and restart the PP controller to switch modes.

So if you were hoping to seamlessly switch from milling to turning and back to milling without losing your workpiece zero, I guess you are out of luck.


I am assuming that you are talking about stripping the headstock of the G0602, not using the thing like the duality lathe was used. Otherwise, the footprint is too big for the 1100 table, and it would be sheer terror to load a 430 lb lathe onto the mill.

The G0602 carries along a lot of parts that you don't need (such as QCGB) in this application, and I suspect the headstock itself is 3x the weight of the RapidTurn, making it very inconvenient to load. You would be better off finding a belt-driven headstock for this application.

[tmarks11]

Wow, that sucks that you have to manually index it. I can't see how this would have any production value and compete with a real cnc lathe. I guess for the occasional prototype it might work.

Well consider that "indexing" on a cnc lathe only does you any good if you have live tooling (i.e. c-axis that you can mill with). Now we are talking about $75k and above.

But it would be nice if they had built this thing so it can function as a fourth axis for the mill. You know, like Steve's InTurn can do....

[keen]

I found a Tormach post like that while searching their blog and failed to notice that the post was dated several years ago. Could that be what happened to you?

It could be - I am a bit full of a virus this weekend so anything is possible.

Apologies if I am wrong.

keen

[CadRhino]

Good point. Adding some 4th axis capabilities would be great.

Well consider that "indexing" on a cnc lathe only does you any good if you have live tooling (i.e. c-axis that you can mill with). Now we are talking about $75k and above.

But it would be nice if they had built this thing so it can function as a fourth axis for the mill. You know, like Steve's InTurn can do....

[kstrauss]

Well consider that "indexing" on a cnc lathe only does you any good if you have live tooling (i.e. c-axis that you can mill with). Now we are talking about $75k and above. But it would be nice if they had built this thing so it can function as a fourth axis for the mill. You know, like Steve's InTurn can do....

But don't you have live tooling on the C-axis with the RapidTurn? You use the normal mill spindle... The thing missing is a way to rotate the workpiece to any any angle with GCode rather than manually moving a locking pin.

[tmarks11]

But don't you have live tooling on the C-axis with the RapidTurn? You use the normal mill spindle...

No. RapidTurn spindle is driven by the 1100/770 VFD. You unplug the mill spindle motor from the VFD (using the "quick connection" kit) and plug in the RapidTurn spindle motor. You don't get both spindles at the same time, so "automatic indexing" (if it had been available) of the part by the RapidTurn would be of only limited value.

Taking the time to manually index the spindle is not going to significantly increase the time required to do a "c-axis" operation, since you have to power down the VFD, upload the constants, power back up the VFD, switch PP to mill mode, re-zero your workpiece (if needed), etc.

Again, it would be have been nice if Tormach made the RapidTurn to act like a fourth axis for milling operations.

[kstrauss]

I understand that that is how they appear to have designed the RapidTurn. I have ordered a suitable switch in anticipation of changing from mill to lathe without having to unplug things. The biggest waste of time will be having to re-zero things when changing from mill to lathe. I'm still not convinced that the RapidTurn will do what I need. The biggest issue is how I can use gang tooling. Unless I can program several ops without operator intervention the RapidTurn will be only marginally more productive than my manual lathe.

[keen]

I understand that that is how they appear to have designed the RapidTurn. I have ordered a suitable switch in anticipation of changing from mill to lathe without having to unplug things. The biggest waste of time will be having to re-zero things when changing from mill to lathe. I'm still not convinced that the RapidTurn will do what I need. The biggest issue is how I can use gang tooling. Unless I can program several ops without operator intervention the RapidTurn will be only marginally more productive than my manual lathe.

Exactly - this point is key.

keen

[kstrauss]

To work the way that you would like the tool table would have to have three offsets (mill X, Y and Z) for each tool. That way calling for a tool change would magically make things work. I suppose that you could write a simple subroutine that does the adjustment in Z. I believe that PP supports loading subroutines from a file separate from the running Gcode. That would centralize the Z-axis constants but it is not particularly elegant.