[Travisr145]

I run Swiss bar feeder machines and I am trying to figure out a way to use the 1 to 2ft. bar ends. The parts I usually make are less than an inch in length so I would like to turn those ends into parts instead of recycling them. I thought about threading them and screwing them into a measured piece of stock. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[SirDenisNayland]

Considered doing a similar thing before.

What made us not bother with it is the fact that you've gotta drill/tap or turn/thread each bar end manually, then manually load and unload the bar extension and then umscrew and screw on a new bar end, load the whole thing again. Then you've gotta make sure you run just enough pieces and don't accidentally cut past the bar end and mess everything up.

There is a chance the spindle could torque on that thread super hard and maybe strip it even.

Then there is the loaidng and unloading aspect.. on say an edge/iemca bar feeder its pretty easy, but on say a CAV its a ***** to unload a bar length if its large enough that you can't just bend its way out.

Id say its definitely possible, but worth the time? That I cannot say for certain.

We have a job that we still run in stages, as well as in one shot on a swiss, so we use the bar ends in the chucker lathe for part blanks which we then finish on the mills.

First of all I would address your issue of 2 foot bar ends.. even on my 32mm machines my bar ends are at the most one foot long.

Cheers

[txcncman]

Run them in a chucker with manual pull out.

[Travisr145]

Thanks for the input. I had thought about some of those issues, but was wondering if someone had somehow found an efficient way to do it. It may cost more than its worth.

[danrudolph]

Why is your remnant 1-2ft long?

My remnants on most jobs are no more than 8 inches.

I just used some ground 3/8" remnants to make some locating pins for a fixture I was making.

Not to dilute my market, but I have had success selling my remnants on eBay. There are a lot of guys clearly selling remnants from swiss machines on eBay.

[SirDenisNayland]

Why is your remnant 1-2ft long?

My remnants on most jobs are no more than 8 inches.

I just used some ground 3/8" remnants to make some locating pins for a fixture I was making.

Not to dilute my market, but I have had success selling my remnants on eBay. There are a lot of guys clearly selling remnants from swiss machines on eBay.

I cant say this is true across the board, but Ive noticed that my newer machines have increased remnant lengths, I believe to be because the distance between the face of the spindle and the face of the guide bushing is quite increased. For isntance my L720 with TF25 and TD25S collet and guide bushing typically gives about a 6-8" remnant like you, yet my newer A20 with the same collet/guide bushing and running a similar length part is about 8-10 inches :/

It doesnt quite make sense, but I set up the bar feeds the same way and use the same spacing distances and barfeed program values etc.. its the only difference I can possibly think of. The Z axis forward limit must be further away from the face of the guide bushing, its the only thing that makes any sense

But yes, id definitely be looking into reducing the remnant as much as possible, before thinking other methods of dealing with them.. who knows though, maybe he is running foot and a half long parts and it just can't get out another part! XD

[Travisr145]

The remnants from the bar feeder are closer to 8"-10". Using brass bar stock, 9/16 mainly. Some times we have a bent bar end and have to saw a foot or 2 off, that could be straightened. If it was worth the time. I'll have to check out the market on EBay for these though. The parts are from .5 - .875 in length.

[danrudolph]

SirDennis: my 8" average remnant, probably 8-9", is on an A20. Is the distance from the back of the machine to the front of the bar loader what the manual calls for? And I think my end of bar distance is like 3900mm on the C-320. That and the part length setting in the bar loader does play a role in the length of the bar end.

Travisr: the remnants I sell are stainless and titanium, so you won't be competing with me. I imagine there are plenty of hobby shop chucker/collet lathe guys that want short bars for cheap, especially Ti.

If you had excess tool positions, you could face the bar, drill and tap it in your cutoff program. That would be pretty slick. But some day you would have to run all your bar ends on your modified pusher, and that would suck.

I was planning to use some larger diameter bar ends, drilled and tapped and cut to length to make a collet rack for my sub, main collets and GB's. Haven't got to that one yet.

[SirDenisNayland]

SirDennis: my 8" average remnant, probably 8-9", is on an A20. Is the distance from the back of the machine to the front of the bar loader what the manual calls for? And I think my end of bar distance is like 3900mm on the C-320. That and the part length setting in the bar loader does play a role in the length of the bar end.

Travisr: the remnants I sell are stainless and titanium, so you won't be competing with me. I imagine there are plenty of hobby shop chucker/collet lathe guys that want short bars for cheap, especially Ti.

If you had excess tool positions, you could face the bar, drill and tap it in your cutoff program. That would be pretty slick. But some day you would have to run all your bar ends on your modified pusher, and that would suck.

I was planning to use some larger diameter bar ends, drilled and tapped and cut to length to make a collet rack for my sub, main collets and GB's. Haven't got to that one yet.

Running the same config, same bar feed number actually, lol. I don't recall the exact remnant numbers, the main thing is that the L20s remnants are consistently shorter.

Threading the ends in the machine would be slick, but one thing, you'd have to leave even MORE room to be able to achieve this. At the bar end there is only enough room to push the bar forward between your set end point in mdata and overtravel, I run with .1".. seems you do too, just enough to add a chamfer.. you'd certainly need a thread longer than that.

Now I guess its all subjective based on the part length, bar length etc.. if you're running the ends anyway that extra length left could indeed lead to more parts being salvaged, or even lesser.

Someone else can do the probability math on that one :lol:

[Travisr145]

Does anyone know how I can shorten my bar end length? I'm using an LNS 320 bar feeder on a Star 20r machine. I can adjust the bar end length on the bar feeder just by putting the bar length in the bar feeder, but it does not retract when I do that.

[Travisr145]

My bar length setting is also around 3900mm, but I still get 11in. bar ends.

[hacdlux]

we used to run our remnants in our mori but the cycle was so long its not really feasable.

typically if i'm on my small channel i get 8-9 inch remnants
on my 34 mm channel we get 12-14 depending on part length
any thing over 16 tends to jam the bar feeder

nowadays, we donate or bar ends to the local trade schools and take the tax write off.

[LeeWay]

How many remnants do you have?
I use 9/16" brass rod for some of my parts. I just use a manual through chuck. My parts are about 5/8" long. My remnants are rarely 2" long, so I could get a lot of use out of that size rod. I have to cut my rods down to about 20" to 24" anyway. I'd be interested if the price was right. Just send me a PM if interested.
Thanks.

[elsanch]

drill and pin the bar stock to brass or aluminum 8 inch rods,....use all your good stock up

[gizmo_454]

You guys must have the nice machines. Our E32 Citizen with it's FMB Mini Turbo S bar feeder, makes 16-18" bar ends. We follow the instructions to the letter, but that is just how ends up. The bar protrudes about 0.730 from the guide bushing at cutoff position, (left hand cutoff for short parts). The guide bushing cartridge is about 4" thick. There is about 1/2" gap between it and the nose of the spindle. The collet sleeve is about 11" long. The pusher collet holds on to another inch or so.

In fact, the parts we are running right now, I have to cut 10" off the end of the bar so that the remnant is short enough to unload itself when loading a new bar. Of course, the parts are almost 20" long themselves.

Mike