[smellyfeet]

Hi all,

On night time running, my lathes are reliably churning out parts but that is where it all goes wrong. The parts are falling into a container with either de-watering fluid or water with wood floating on the top to break their fall then sinking to the bottom and denting other parts.

Does anyone here have a foolproof method of catching parts without the denting? I have tried different depths of container but so far have had no luck.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Smelly....

[keebler303]

you need something that will let the parts sink slowly. Something more viscous than water, like maybe 90 wt. gear oil or something. Corn syrup might work too but night get a bit sticky. Maybe something like jello would work if you got the consistency right. There are food thickeners whick thicken water up quite nicely.

Matt

[mxtras]

How about using diced up sponges?

Scott

[Mike Stevenson]

The fool proof method is to remove each part after it has been parted off.

[keebler303]

Sponges might work for a few, but what about 100? He needs something to catch them and then stack them gently. You could use some type of conveyor that would feed them onto a table or something where they were not piled on top of each other.

The fool proof method is to remove each part after it has been parted off.

tough to do when you're running lights out.


Matt

[mxtras]

Conveyor to a roller table.

Scott

[HuFlungDung]

How about some sort of a paddle wheel thingy on top of the bucket. The part falls into the top compartment, which renders the wheel out of balance, so then it rolls over and drops the part into the bucket (filled with water). Supposedly, if you kill off the initial energy the part acquires in free fall, then there won't be enough energy regained as it descends from almost zero speed at the top of the bucket.

[fpworks]

I have a similar problem with our automatic bandsaw. Fortunately, they are not finished parts, but nonetheless, they do get nice dings that need to be hit with a file before going to a fixture in a machining center. It is quite a pain with production runs of over 1000 parts.

The solution that I have planned is to use a ramp in which the angle can be adjusted based on the mass of the part, and the height of the bottom of the ramp can be adjusted based on the current number of parts in the basket. Like Hu said, the idea is to absorb the energy between the machine and the box. In this plan, friction from the part sliding down the ramp would accomplish this.

Of course, this is just in planning, so I don't know the pitfalls yet. Hope to accomplish it soon. I look forward to hearing other suggestions here.

[Geof]

Something like Hu's suggestion with the blades on the paddlewheel made out of brushes; or the brush skirt like is used on the dust collector around router heads.

The ramp idea works; we have a lathe set up like that with a piece of rubber floor mat on a slope leading down to a plastic curtain and behind that is the coolant tank which the parts drop into.

[smellyfeet]

Thanks for all your suggestions, I am going to try a modified version of the paddle wheel that will look more like one of those 1970s drinking flamingos.

We are also going to try cork chips.

I will let you know how I get on, but any more suggestions would be very welcome.

Smelly.

[ImanCarrot]

Bath Tub full of porridge- cheap and bio degradeable and if you get hungry...

Or, what about loads of plastic spheres (like what my kid rolls about in at the Whacky Wharehouse)- depending on the size of the part you'd get away with that or table tennis balls if they're small parts (and not hot!). Big tub of dried peas if they're real small?

Use a big magnet to retreive the parts (assuming they're ferrous)?

Sorry if this is off the wall... been a long day

[Edit] Angle the container and make sure it touches the machine so that the vibration will "shake" all the components to one end of the tub[/Edit]

[cncswiss1]

I've used heavy gear oil in the past and it works great, messy, but effective.

[HuFlungDung]

How about porridge mixed with molasses, honey and a tub of cool whip

BTW, you can add 50% heavy gear oil to porridge and it won't change the flavour: it tastes just like pure gear oil. Kudos to Benny Hill