Re: Input for lathe turning center for newbie.
Originally Posted by
Bill_B
You have pretty much confirmed what my colleague has told me. ALL of this is just such a BEAR! Setting up a 3 phase machine in a garage just seems like so much to deal with. Let alone learning a 25 year old machine and technology from back in the day with modern CAD & CAM. It might just be better to go with Tormach to get started and do all this over once If I get funded, then buy real machines.
I think first you have to decide on the sizes of the parts will be building, and then what production rate do you need. That will dictate the size, power, and speed of the machine you need. For instance, our parts are maximum 1.5 inch diameter, and 4 inches long. So we needed a minimum 1 9/16 spindle bore, 1 5/8 is a common size so that was not hard to find. Most lathes with that spindle size have a max machining diameter of around 6 inches or so, and a maximum length of around 12 inches. Then below you mention live tooling and C axis. We do have live tooling but no C axis, yet. That is currently in process. I'll address how we handle that below. The Tormach is not going to be as fast as a larger machine, and has limited spindle HP, 3 HP I think. On the other hand, it's an 1800 lb machine vs. a 7K to 10K lb machine. Machine weight makes a lot of difference in machine rigidity, that and spindle HP dictates just how much material you can peel off of a part in a single pass, and thus dictates your maximum production rate. Just to put this in perspective, my machine has about the same work envelope as the Tormach, but weighs 10,200 lbs.
Do you know of any smaller 220 single-phase lathes under 15K I've been looking?
There are a lot of used 3 phase machines in that price range on EBay. You are not going to find any new machines in that range. I don't really know of any single phase machines except EMCO-Meier and Tormach
Does the phase converter work for you guys and how much did that cost?
The phase converter works very well, we built it ourselves and I think we have about $1200 into it. It has a few features that you would not find on a commercial unit. To buy a commercially available one might be in the up to $2500 range depending on the required size.
Big question IS, What is your input IF you are not planning on a full controller retrofit and had to run an older machine on the old Fanuc OT controller and that would be all you have to work with? Just how painful would it be? and biggest question yet would it be worth it in the end? OR all in am I better off just starting with a Tormach SL-15?
I find old controllers to be a PITA. If I didn't have the skills to do a controls retrofit on a machine, I probably would have bought a late model Haas lathe. We knew going in that a controls upgrade might be in our future so we were looking for a machine that met our mechanical criteria and was in good mechanical shape. Working controls was just a bonus. As it is, we have about $20K into our lathe, including purchase price, shipping, rotary phase converter, and upgrades.
I could probably a lot of what I need to do in the conversational at and it looks really easy to use and a great intro to CNC turning. BUT what I HATE is the idea that a lot of the investment in tooling and time will not roll over when you go big and get into an industrial machine? Then you're learning everything a second time and spending more money all over again.
It could be that the tooling between a Tormach and a larger machine might be interchangeable, not sure what size insert holders the Tormach uses. We use 3/4 shank tools in out lathe. We just buy Accusize insert holders from Amazon, and buy most of our inserts from Shars Tools.
As far as Fusion to Fanuc control, do you have any idea IF Fusion is capable of control for ALL axis? with live tooling and C axis? I don't see that inside fusion CAM for setting up and such so wondering how that all works? AND if running a lathe with C axis and live tooling would that mean I would need to have another CAM package to handle all that?
I believe that Fusion is capable of generating mill/turn G-code. But I have never used that. For our simple milling routines it is just as easy to hand write the G-code and add it to the part G code file. Hand writing the C axis routines won't be any more difficult.
I hope this helps. I'll be happy to try to answer any other questions you may have.
Jim Dawson
Sandy, Oregon, USA