Retrofitting Traub cam machines to CNC?

Got to a customer..is seriously searching for a CNC retro for his Traub cam machines.

Anyone got a source? There are (50) machines in the pool..and it would be a feather in my cap and a nice chunk of change (think a newer truck) if I can turn this into hardware on the floor for them.

Gunner

Political Correctness

A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

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Gunner
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I don't know what a Traub cam machine is. I assume an automatic lathe? Is there a turret to rotate or a tool changer or do they just need XYZ interpolation and coolant?

How nice does it need to be? What is their budget per? Anybody real computer literate?

Why not post this on AMC?

Reply to
Polymer Man

Contact a Siemens-certified retrofitter. If anybody knows about retrofitting a Traub, they would be the most likely ones.

I still have a fancy German Christmas cookie tin that Traub gave me a couple of decades ago. Fortunately, I no longer have the cookies.

-- Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

It sure aint an easy process. And since these are 50 year old machines, its not such a huge market that you are going to find cheap, off the shelf kits for it.

There is a company near you, Pride Machinery in Anaheim, that has been CNC retrofitting screw machines for a good 15 years now- I would sniff around and see what they do, what they charge, and so on- at the least, you will be able to see what it really costs to do this- personally, I think if you Cnc retrofit 50 traubs, and all you get is a new truck, you been took- I would imagine to do it right, you would be talking 20 grand a pop, absolute minimum. Its hard to cnc retrofit any machine that is expected to run unattended for less than that, which is why in industry, its seldom done except on things like huge VBM's, Blanchard Grinders, and other machines where a new one would cost over 200k.

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Traub is now sold in the USA by Index, and I think the two companies are owned by the same people- I would also call up Index, and pick their brains. Start out general, telling them YOU are considering retrofitting YOUR Traubs, and if they know of it being done, who does it, and what it costs. Then you can work your way down the chain, talking to the few people in the USA who actually have any idea what is involved in this- and, most likely who are not reading this website.

Reply to
Ries

Hey Gunner,

Haven't heard you say much about OmniTurn of late, but I wonder if they would like to get into a market like this. Add-ons to lathes must be running kinda thin by now.

Take care.

Brian Laws>Got to a customer..is seriously searching for a CNC retro for his Traub >cam machines.

Reply to
Brian Lawson

I haven't a clue in the world for that, but if you find out, let me know...I used to be the toolmaker for a shop that has 78 Tornos cam machines(at my last count, anyway) and they might be interested.

And I'd be getting a damn sight more than a newER truck for it, I might add!

Mike

Reply to
The Davenport's

Thanks. Ive already called Pride, and is in process. The client has a buget..not a huge one..but a budget none the less that perhaps we can get a piece of.

Good info.

Gunner

Political Correctness

A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

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Gunner

Frankly..I dont have good feelings about OmniTurns management, or one of its distributors..so they really are the last people Id be contacting for something like this.

Though the product itself is a very good one. Just not suitable for doing a cam machine.

Gunner

Political Correctness

A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Reply to
Gunner

Have you contacted Traub? I worked for them as an applications engineer briefly in their US plant just before they were bought by Index in '97.

David

Reply to
David R. Birch

Gunner -

Searching Google - there some turned up - but is this a Screw machine or a Turning Center with 5 axis..... Traub made stuff.

50 machines - I would guess screw machines. Martin Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member
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Gunner wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

Yup..old cam machines. Screw Machines. A cam for every cut.

Rows and rows of them.

Gunner

Reply to
Gunner

====================== I can understand the desire to retrofit. More than likely they have a good stock of spares, possibly some "hangar queens," and understand their machines.

I can see a much quicker setup with a CNC controller, and the elimination of the need to make new cams.

However as this is an established shop, apparently with a long history, they most likely have a huge pile of "pick-up" cams, for most any possible operation.

How much of an effect do you expect CNC retrofit to have on the long(er) running jobs, and how big a run is "long?"

Is this a response to some CEO that just got a "wild hair" about JIT or are they looking ahead to losing their set-up people?

Unka' George (George McDuffee) .............................. Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be "too clever by half." The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.

John Major (b. 1943), British Conservative politician, prime minister. Quoted in: Observer (London, 7 July 1991).

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F. George McDuffee

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