[net.ricardo]

Good afternoon everybody !


My company decided to change it's conventional lathes to CNC lathes, so this is "new" technology to us.

One of our options is an IT600 Index-Traub lathe. We need a machine with an y-axis and this is where our doubts begin.


This machine has an "interpolated" y-axis, which means that the y-axis will come as a result of the movement of the main spindle and the movement of the toolholder equiped with a driven tool. I need to drill holes and make screws with it (as small as M2 screws).


Is this system reliable? Is it harder to program it ? Are there any limitations that i should consider ?

[net.ricardo]

anyone?

[alan_3301]

I think that is called a C axis? I believe it has most of the capabilities of a real Y axis, but there are some situations where you could only use a Y.
I guess it depends on the part you are trying to make.

[underthetire]

It does depend on the parts. Even cutting a slot on the face will leave small whiteness marks where the c axis reverses. May or may not be a problem with your parts.

Sent from my G-Tab Quantum using Tapatalk

[The Blight]

I have milled out a 50mm deep, 42mm wide hexagon spline (both male and female part) on a lathe with a "virtual" y axis to a h6/H6 (16µ) tolerance. The variation from the center of the surface to the edges were so small that I had trouble measuring any difference. This is a job I have done multiple times now and I can hold that tolerance without much trouble, so I would say that it does a good enough job of it.

This was done on a Doosan puma 280LM, but I have used a Index machine before and I was impressed by the quality of those machines. One of the Index machines actually had a real Y axis while the other used the C axis.

There are a few things you can't do, like cutting a slot on a workpiece perpendicular to the C axis or cutting a off-center slot from the C axis. I have wished I had a real Y axis too many times to count, so if you have a choice, get one with a real Y axis!

[net.ricardo]

I think that is called a C axis? I believe it has most of the capabilities of a real Y axis, but there are some situations where you could only use a Y.
I guess it depends on the part you are trying to make.

Exactly! it is called a C axis !

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It does depend on the parts. Even cutting a slot on the face will leave small whiteness marks where the c axis reverses. May or may not be a problem with your parts.

Sent from my G-Tab Quantum using Tapatalk

Thank you for your reply !

[net.ricardo]

There are a few things you can't do, like cutting a slot on a workpiece perpendicular to the C axis or cutting a off-center slot from the C axis. I have wished I had a real Y axis too many times to count, so if you have a choice, get one with a real Y axis!

Yes! This is EXACTLY what bothered me about this C axis. I suspected that there might be some things that i wouldn't be able to do without a real y axis !Here in Brazil those machines are EXPENSIVE and it would be terrible for us not be able to turn a part in the future because of this (the difference in price between the lathe i mentioned and others with the real y axis is not expressive). Your reply helped me A LOT my friend ! Thank you !!!!!