Urgent! Anybody want to turn a groove on some moulded parts for me?

Assuming you have a lathe can't you just hand grind a tool to the correct form for this groove and DIY it? I guess not or you wouldn't be asking but it sounds a simple enough, albeit tediously boring, job. It's going to add a load of cost to the job compared to moulding the thing with the groove already in of course. I think anyone with a lathe a soft jaws could do it for you. Just not sure I fancy standing there for 2000 parts.

Thinking about it I reckon you could do 4 per minute if it cuts cleanly and doesn't need deburring so that means 8 or 9 hours plus set up and tooling costs. Probably £350 would be a fair target to aim for. More if each groove needs a tickle with emery to clean up after the cut.

Dave, the problem is that my workshop is in storage at the moment - all cleared for repair work to floor after the flood. Will be back up and running in a few weeks, but the job will be needed sooner. The other problem is I can't run the business and do this myself, hence the question on here. Making a new mould tool for the job will cost around =A35000+ and take about 5 weeks+, and although this is on the cards the need will be a bit more urgent than that timescale.

A small lathe with collet and backstop would do this easily, but it will probably take as much time loading/unloading as it would to do the job. To be honest would probably need one with a clutch too, to avoid stopping and starting all the time. The groove form is dead simple and is purely there for some adhesive to key into. An even better bet would be a bowl feeder and track with a circular blade intruding into the track, and just feed them down there, but then it starts getting a bit complicated:)

Any takers?

Peter

Dave, the problem is that my workshop is in storage at the moment - all cleared for repair work to floor after the flood. Will be back up and running in a few weeks, but the job will be needed sooner. The other problem is I can't run the business and do this myself, hence the question on here. Making a new mould tool for the job will cost around £5000+ and take about 5 weeks+, and although this is on the cards the need will be a bit more urgent than that timescale.

A small lathe with collet and backstop would do this easily, but it will probably take as much time loading/unloading as it would to do the job. To be honest would probably need one with a clutch too, to avoid stopping and starting all the time. The groove form is dead simple and is purely there for some adhesive to key into. An even better bet would be a bowl feeder and track with a circular blade intruding into the track, and just feed them down there, but then it starts getting a bit complicated:)

Any takers?

Peter

What's the job worth to you? Put a price on it and I'll see if any of my contacts want to do it or even do it myself.

PS - you'd better describe the groove first and it would help to know how best to hold the pieces.

Peter. What time scale you talking here? I have an empty capstan at the moment. but running other machines til middle of next week.

Wayne...

PDF sketch of the part here:

Peter

Nice job for a little cam auto.Spring loaded backstop,pin to fit bore mounted in the turret.Cycle time?As fast as someone can stick them on the pin.Wouldn`t even stop the spindle. Mark

Jeez! Really? That's bloody cheap.

Chris

Each

Mark Rand RTFM

Oi!! Less of that please...

Peter