Who the hell would want to do that crap for a living?
It's hard work. The cycle times average 1-3 minutes, just enough time to be
busy as hell.
Too damn crammed in, things happen way too fast.
As hard as I try by the third piece I'm at 100% rapid, it's like an
addiction.
Screw this, it's damn near manual labor. Bought myself a 2" digi mitatoya
mic, 50 millionths version, and it didn't chear me up. That's proof this cnc
lathe crap sux.
I wanna run a lazer! I wanna think outside the box the lazer machine came
in!! Screw this barberic lathe crap!!
Well...It does make shit shiny, and afterall, that's what it's all about in
the end...
Seriously, who can say the cnc lathe is their favorite process?
No, not manual lathe, that's a different process altogether. The cnc lathe?
Nobody I bet.
That is actually my favorite type of lathe part, load bar, check 1st
part, come back in 2 hours,
check last part on bar, load new bar, repeat process.
Go make cool part on mill!
Oh yeah, program all of it in Mastercam, without manual edits of
seamless hybrid code.
Couldn't resist
"D"
hybrid code.
Fanuc 3T...I'll replace the blown driver in the rs232 port one of these days
but much less financial risk is involved if I make sure and have a working
mobo in spares first because those pcb's are several layers deep...
Meanwhile, not a big deal to simply write programs the old fashioned way and
then key in while standing at the control...use bob to generate the odd
snippet where there's blended radii or taper.
my 2nd cnc job out of a cnc course was on a cnc lathe- within the 1st
hour I was really regreting taking the job- I forced myself to wait
beyond the probationary 3 months before looking elsewhere just to
prove to myself and anyone else that I can do a job no mater how much
I hate it but beware, that mind numbing repetitious task can have long
term consequences; you'll forget too much stuff you'll need to relearn
afterwards- stay away if you want to use you brain
I started my CNC career on CNC lathes. You have to make a 3 D object with 2
axii. The per side thing drills holes in most peoples brains. You have taper
to deal with, threads, chatter, finishes, blind hole boring, I.D. oil
grooves, partial radii, and parabolas. Do that without FillintheblankCam 10
hours a day plus 8 hours on Saturday for 10 or so years and you can figure
out any other machine that is made. Good lathe guys transition easier to
mills than good mill guys transition to lathes. Thats not a judgement, just
an observation. Lathes take a while to understand, but once you do it will
make you a better mill guy. Keep at it and learn something new every day and
you own some experience you didn't have before. Enjoy the opportunity. Maybe
someday you can really make your head explode and program a swiss or a multi
axis lathe. Not much software to make it easy. There is the opportunity.
Very astute observation!
Most of the guys I've met and myself included, who started out on the
mills, are, were, have been
at the very least uncomfortable going from mill to lathe, something
about the missing axis :), and the lathe
can "eat" itself a lot faster than any mill, with or without a cad/cam
assist, thus making it that much more "scary",
and it can throw a part a looooong way, break a tool in the mill and
most of the time, you can get to the machine to hit the panic button,
break a lathe tool, and it might throw the part at you!
For the most part, I enjoy the lathe, it takes more effort to set up
sometimes, as in changing tools, small work window etc,
I have a HAAS SL-30, so my shoulders fit in ok, at another shop I ran
a Hyundai live tool machine, setups were a bitch,
I couldn't get both hands inside the machine at the same time, (my
shoulders are about 30" wide and the door opening was about 24").
Programming was cool, but proving the program was just a tad bit on
the sketchy side.
All that said, the lathe can out produce the mill by a longshot for
productivity, and when I get THAT
job with the small groove at the bottom of that small bore in 304 or
4XXX material
it can be a real challenge, er, learning experience.
And Vinny, iffn yer new to a CNC lathe DO NOT RUN ANYTHING OUT OF THE
BACK OF THE SPINDLE FARTHER THAN A FEW INCHES!!!!
without support, it WILL turn 90 degrees to the spindle and become the
deadliest whip than a machine can make,
I have personally witnessed 3 guys, one is dead, 2 are damaged for
life that ran something out the back a fair distance,
and when they turned the spindle on (thinking it was set to "slow")
the bar turned 90 and the dead guy leaned over to see what the
vibration was,
(y'all can do the math there), he lost his head in an instant, the
other two got the shit beat outta their arms when they tried to
"stabilize" the smaller diameter bar with their hand!
Lathes are not for the meek or stupid, cnc or manual.
"D"
Yeah, this was part of my learning curve. Whole thing was over in about
2 seconds. No sooner did I hear and feel the vibration, when I was
suddenly standing in a cloud of white dust that microseconds before had
been part of the sheetrock wall behind the lathe. It was an engine lathe
with a foot brake, and my reflexive instincts were to stomp that thing
as hard as I could!
I've always loved intricate work on an engine lathe. But I really love
knocking out parts on my Omniturn. One job I run every few months or so
are simple flat and stepped delrin washers. Have a TV in the shop, and I
stand there watching the History channel and knocking down $150/hr, and
I don't even have a bar feed. Gotta love that! Wish that job came around
more often...
Jon
Very astute observation!
Most of the guys I've met and myself included, who started out on the
mills, are, were, have been
at the very least uncomfortable going from mill to lathe, something
about the missing axis :),
********
Actually the first machine I ran was a mori seki lathe.
But we are talking 25 years ago approx, and that thing was huge. This one
im on now is friggen tiny, all the same stuff crammed in a shoe box.
*********
and the lathe
can "eat" itself a lot faster than any mill, with or without a cad/cam
assist, thus making it that much more "scary",
*********
Now your hitting the nail on the head.
*********
and it can throw a part a looooong way, break a tool in the mill and
most of the time, you can get to the machine to hit the panic button,
break a lathe tool, and it might throw the part at you!
For the most part, I enjoy the lathe, it takes more effort to set up
sometimes, as in changing tools, small work window etc,
I have a HAAS SL-30, so my shoulders fit in ok, at another shop I ran
a Hyundai live tool machine, setups were a bitch,
I couldn't get both hands inside the machine at the same time, (my
shoulders are about 30" wide and the door opening was about 24").
Programming was cool, but proving the program was just a tad bit on
the sketchy side.
All that said, the lathe can out produce the mill by a longshot for
productivity, and when I get THAT
job with the small groove at the bottom of that small bore in 304 or
4XXX material
it can be a real challenge, er, learning experience.
And Vinny, iffn yer new to a CNC lathe DO NOT RUN ANYTHING OUT OF THE
BACK OF THE SPINDLE FARTHER THAN A FEW INCHES!!!!
without support, it WILL turn 90 degrees to the spindle and become the
deadliest whip than a machine can make,
I have personally witnessed 3 guys, one is dead, 2 are damaged for
life that ran something out the back a fair distance,
and when they turned the spindle on (thinking it was set to "slow")
the bar turned 90 and the dead guy leaned over to see what the
vibration was,
(y'all can do the math there), he lost his head in an instant, the
other two got the shit beat outta their arms when they tried to
"stabilize" the smaller diameter bar with their hand!
*****
nice. Thanks for the "heads up". (sorry, that was cold)
*****
Lathes are not for the meek or stupid, cnc or manual.
"D"
******
What I don't like is the run times. Super fast no matter what your doing.
I'm not lazy, but id rather run 3 slow machines than one fast machine.
(guess thats left over from years of wire and edm)
What I had to do this time is set the lathe up from scratch, get all the
tooling, get the cam up and running with a good post and toolist, etc...oh,
and yah, make parts. It was a little overwhelming considering ive only ran
cnc lathes and not setup or programmed for one.
Luckily I found advice from places like this newsgroup or I would still
be lathing those parts lol
transition
equation.
With sfm being dependent on table traverse speed, table accelleration and
subsequent reversal becomes too difficult to execute using electronics due
to the sheer mass involved with the large gantry type machines.
So while a few remain in their original form today as planers and way
grinders, most of them were converted in the 50's and 60's into planer
mills and profile milling machines using hydraulic tracers and then later
into nc milling machines using vickers proportioning valves and vacuum tube
servo amps only to be retrofitted yet again into full cnc by adding
ballscrews and servo motors.
Did you see cnc vertical shaper video ?
To quote that stupid TV commericial with the two yaloos barbequing, "Thats
just all kinds of wrong!"
What progess! Now we have two operators to do what should be unattended
broaching. And we can run the stroke twice what it should be! At least we
don't have to crank the table and spin the chuck by hand.
Starting to like mine, Hyundai HIT-18S, Beats standing in font of the
Lansing making one at a time for hours. Just starting to get used to
the control. a Siemens 840C, VS the Fanuc 0MC on my VMC.
My biggest problem is having only 8 tool postions to work with. and
only 3 ID holders at the moment.
Now a lathe with live tooling, that would be fun. I still have to
take parts from the lathe to the mill for cross holes and slots.
Thank You,
Randy
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