[Delw]

You bet it can when it comes to plastic. Dont over look your mill for doing lathe work it can be a real time saver and create less frustration.
before I had a lathe I did lots of lathe work on a mill mostly out of alum and steel ya gotta do what you gotta do.

lathe job uhmw about 4" dia 5" tall
lathe runs about 2.50 seconds from part to part then we still have to tap on a rigid tap machine due to the small tap and you just WONT get a good thread otherwise. even with a tapmatic we had problems pulling the 1st to threads.

mill runs each part at about 1.20 seconds each doing 4 at a time each and I havent tweaked it. 100% perfect part better od and id finish. parts are round with in .001 were taking a 2.2" long 3.750 dia od cut also with taper less than .001

not only are the parts better and faster you also dont have to dick with stringy chips mill has shreaded cheese chips that come out of chip convery and dont get tangled like they do in the lathe.
both machines lathe and mill have chip conveyors.
Lathe runs 4 tools mill runs 8 or 9 tools
0 % scrap on the mill
2-4% reworkable scrap on the lathe. mainly finish due to chip build up
both machines burr free.

Delw
fake edit
this was on a haas vf2ss

[Anders6612]

If it works, then it is perfect. I have done some turning in a milling machine,
with a chuck in spindle and turning tools at the table, it works perfekt.
Need is the mother for all inventions.

[Delw]

now thats cool, Ive only done that a few times and on a few pcs.
one was a 4" 10-32 special bolt, I put a die in the in a 5c collet holder and put the stock in a collet holder then fed it down that was on my hand mill, came out with a perfect 10-32 thread. the other one I did was turn a small od on the mill with a tool holder in a vice. wasnt too bad.
ive heard of guys doing exactly what your saying on 10-20 part runs but never seen it done.

Delw

[Geof]

I agree many operations that 'traditionally' would be done on a lathe can be done faster on a mill. I wanted some Delrin pins 3/32" dia, 3/4" long with a 1/4" dia head 0.20" long. Turning Delrin that diameter and length is impossible but a new tool in the mill interpolated it in a matter of seconds; to size and parallel within +/- 0.001".

[Delw]

How ya been geof,

Never say impossible, you should have started with 1" dia delrin use one pass to make hole part

I saw a guy do a diamon knurl on a mill with a lathe cut knurl cutter and the part in the spindle.

[Geof]

.....Never say impossible, you should have started with 1" dia delrin use one pass to make hole part ......

Tried it, with 3/4", didn't work.

[Delw]

then its impossible. now you got me thinking I wanna try it. lol

[txcncman]

You bet it can when it comes to plastic. Dont over look your mill for doing lathe work it can be a real time saver and create less frustration.
before I had a lathe I did lots of lathe work on a mill mostly out of alum and steel ya gotta do what you gotta do.

lathe job uhmw about 4" dia 5" tall
lathe runs about 2.50 seconds from part to part then we still have to tap on a rigid tap machine due to the small tap and you just WONT get a good thread otherwise. even with a tapmatic we had problems pulling the 1st to threads.

mill runs each part at about 1.20 seconds each doing 4 at a time each and I havent tweaked it. 100% perfect part better od and id finish. parts are round with in .001 were taking a 2.2" long 3.750 dia od cut also with taper less than .001

not only are the parts better and faster you also dont have to dick with stringy chips mill has shreaded cheese chips that come out of chip convery and dont get tangled like they do in the lathe.
both machines lathe and mill have chip conveyors.
Lathe runs 4 tools mill runs 8 or 9 tools
0 % scrap on the mill
2-4% reworkable scrap on the lathe. mainly finish due to chip build up
both machines burr free.

Delw
fake edit
this was on a haas vf2ss

Unbelievable. 2.5 seconds with 4 tools changes on lathe. 1.2 seconds with 8 or 9 tool changes on mill. Not counting machining time, less than 0.6 seconds per tool change. Unbelievable.

[Geof]

I rather suspect the correct time interpretation is 2 minutes 50 seconds and 1 minute 20 seconds.

[Delw]

thaanks geof, thats what it is. I hit . instead of :

[txcncman]

Well, shoot. Now I am disappointed.

[Machineit]

Many years ago when I used to drag race, we used to have meets where you just "Run What You Brung." No classes, just a safety inspection and you ran. The reason was that most could not afford to run competitively in any class, but just wanted to race.

Well, it is somewhat the same in the machining world. Not all of us have all of the toys that we would like to have. Yup, sometimes an enterprising person can figure ways to do jobs in a mill faster than a lathe. One thing that makes this doable is multiple work offsets.

Then you have the shop like mine where there is no CNC lathe, just plans for the future, so you have to do some lathe work on the mill.

This weekend, while most were having fun, I was working to do a job for an ex-employer. They have no CNC lathe either, but they do have numerous mills. They just have anyone who can figure another way to do the job.

Below are some parts I did this weekend on my Haas VF-2 and my Haas HA5C. A little tricky but overall it was a fun challenge. It was a very profitable weekend. Material is Stainless Steel.

Think out of that box and figure a way to do the job. That CNC mill can do some awesome work!

Mike

[Bob La Londe]

Entertaining and educational as usual. Not everybody has a Haas though. I found this thread very educational. The G0704 is a "hobby" machine, but this guy managed to use it "like" a conventional lathe. I doubt I would ever use one that way myself (unless I had to), but I found the whole thread highly educational. A very definite "run what you brung" kind of application. The R8 taper lathe chuck he used would work on any R8 machine, but with his swivel head hobby machine it turned his CNC mill into a CNC lathe.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bencht...tup_lathe.html

Here is one of the videos he posted. I didn't recognize it as a mill at first. LOL.

G0704 CNC Mill Turning - YouTube

[Delw]

Entertaining and educational as usual. Not everybody has a Haas though.

sounds like a personal problem thats why it was posted in the haas forum. if I had done it on my fadal it would be in the fadal forum. I should post it in there as I am running 4 double vises in that one on the same operation same part. but the time is embarressing so I didnt.
the finish and everything is the same just not the time due to tool changes.
Delw

[Delw]

cool parts machineit

[millingkevv]

I'm sorry but anybody that says making round parts on a mill is just as accurate as precision lathe is OUT of there mind. How can you beat a perfectly concentric part spinning rather than a mill interpulating. Don't get me wrong, we did without a cnc lathe for many, many ,many years, but it is very hard to beat a lathe when it comes to to round parts. Can it be done??YES. But you guys are talking about holding +/- .001 like its a crazy tolerance....Try doing a job that requires +/-.0002 and then come tell me a mill will do round parts just as easily,accurate as a lathe...common now folks

[millingkevv]

machineit= thats a trick little part , nice job!

[millingkevv]

:bs::bs:

[Delw]

I'm sorry but anybody that says making round parts on a mill is just as accurate as precision lathe is OUT of there mind. How can you beat a perfectly concentric part spinning rather than a mill interpulating. Don't get me wrong, we did without a cnc lathe for many, many ,many years, but it is very hard to beat a lathe when it comes to to round parts. Can it be done??YES. But you guys are talking about holding +/- .001 like its a crazy tolerance....Try doing a job that requires +/-.0002 and then come tell me a mill will do round parts just as easily,accurate as a lathe...common now folks

Millinhkev.

I think your missing the point of what was being discussed.
it was about running the parts faster with less hassle, better chip control then on a lathe and still be in tols. , not to mention having more time in between cylcles to do other things, imagine that No one sitting on the lathe hitting the cycle start button after every M00 which is about every 1/4" DOC pass to clear chips.
this group isnt a bunch of rednecks using junk machines and saying ahh its close enough.
.001 a crazy tol nope not really except for plastic and the size and thickness of o.d to i.d. if you cut much delrin or uhmw especially with .125 wall thickness at a depth of just over 2" you know concentricity and already erratic on a lathe. due to chip build up and wrap arounds alone. not to mention the finish was eratic due to chip build up.
and to top it off concidering I know what the parts are used for and they dont even spin let alone have any real functionanility other than holding pencils I highly doubt is makes any difference.
BTW I been running lathes for over 25 years and was forced into mills, so I do know the difference as I am sure most of the guys that are here in this section of the forum.
I can tell you this running them on the mills reduced my rework rate big time,(do again to chip wrapping) cuts the parts down less than a about half and you dont need an operator to stand there with scissors in one hand and his other hand on the start button all day long, plus th down time of clearing strings out of the conveyor every 4 parts ad changing drums every 20 -25 parts. in a 8 hour day the spindle was only turning about 5 due to this, with the mill the spindle is turning constant as it only take about 20 seconds to unload and load parts and hit the start button again.
is it as good as a lathe? Yup even better in this circumstance, as a lathe wont even come close to mill in dimensions rework rate and run time.
lets put it this way the job will be finished by end of week, it was projected into end of next week. glad one of my mills opened up.


if ya wanna try to compare apples to oranges lets go even one better O.D/I.D. or centerless grinder vs Lathe

Delw

[millingkevv]

Lathe runs 4 tools mill runs 8 or 9 tools



Not to be a complete ass, but the sentence is your writing...Your going to tell me that a precision lathe that is running at full capabilities,100% rapid, most of the time much less Z travel, with a well written program wasting no time, with 50% less tool changes is faster than a mill??and more accurate if not just a little less??? I'm no lathe guy at all, don't run them, but to say that a mill is better for round parts is false...MAYBE faster for a few things when you need to tap, but I have a hard time seeing a mill being faster than a lathe when it comes to turning parts....but then again, I might be looking like a complete dumbass righ now Like I said I dont run them, BUT I see our lathes turning parts at a incredibly fast rate in our shop daily, and the accuracy is second to none!!! correct me if I'm wrong please...