XY-Zero product review for peck drilling on the turning center.

I recently tried out the XY-Zero - Made in the USA tool holder and thought I would report back after a previous thread.

I had the perfect application to try one out so I thought I would give it a try.

The part I was making was 303 stainless and had a .303 diameter hole using a carbide step drill drilling 1.4" deep that required pecks. One problem I had in the past was the step drill had sharp corners on the drill and any mis-alignment could chip the corners during pecking if I had any mis-alignment of the drill. It would cause small chips on the sharp corners of the drill.

The machine is an older Mazak SQT-15MS and is a little tired so drilling holders were often a little out of alignment. In most cases this doesn't matter but on these parts it can create a problem as I run 5000 at a time and the drills cost $140 each so tool life is important.

Initially I found the XY-Zero hard to align with so many degrees of freedom but I was fighting with my indicator setup and that didn't help. I couldn't find my favorite indicator after rearranging the shop. Once I finally found it I was able to get the tool holder aligned within .0003 in all axis.

I really like the tool now and the drill is definitely working better. Their machining quality is top notch and their communication was great.

For a critical drilling job I would have been hard pressed to get the alignment that good without shimming and knocking the tool holder around. I have done that in the past for this job and it sucked.

Even though it is a little pricey for a critical job I found it really useful.

I have another job where I have to drill a .040 hole 1" through a part centered within .002. I suspect it will be perfect for that.

So there you go, my opinion on a tool. Take it for what it's worth but I was happy enough to give it a review.

How do you think their tool holder compares to something like easyZERO Nut - Monaghan Tooling Group for your application assuming your turret is square?

Hazzert said:

How do you think their tool holder compares to something like easyZERO Nut - Monaghan Tooling Group for your application assuming your turret is square?

Click to expand...

I think the variability in my tool alignment is just from clearance in the holders when tightened down. I think the Mohaghan tool would be an improvement from nothing but I really needed alignment in all axis. I was really happy to get .0003 down the length of the tool as well as centering the point of the drill.

Dan

Hi Dan;

Thank you for the product review of our XY-Zero tool. It's greatly appreciated!

You mentioned your drills run you $140 ea; and your tool life is important. We hope the accuracy of our XY-Zero tool enabled you to pro-long your tool life for increased profitability, in addition to increasing the accuracy of your parts.

As a thank you to you and those here on Practical Machinist - Below you will find a Coupon Code for 50% off:

COUPON CODE: PRACMACH
VALUE: 50% OFF
EXPIRATION: 6/25/17
WEBSITE: - Made in the USA

For any special orders or unlisted tooling requirements please email me directly at [email protected] and I'll be happy to help anyone out!

-Kurt

BestMachine said:

Hi Dan;

Thank you for the product review of our XY-Zero tool. It's greatly appreciated!

You mentioned your drills run you $140 ea; and your tool life is important. We hope the accuracy of our XY-Zero tool enabled you to pro-long your tool life for increased profitability, in addition to increasing the accuracy of your parts.

As a thank you to you and those here on Practical Machinist - Below you will find a Coupon Code for 50% off:

COUPON CODE: PRACMACH
VALUE: 50% OFF
EXPIRATION: 6/25/17
WEBSITE: - Made in the USA

For any special orders or unlisted tooling requirements please email me directly at [email protected] and I'll be happy to help anyone out!

-Kurt

Click to expand...

I am just finishing the parts I ordered the ZY-Zero for and I thought I would give an update.

My $140 step drills lasted twice as long as they have for the years I have run these parts. I used to have a drill failure at about 1000 parts and I ran 2000 plus parts with each drill and replaced it while still good just because it had done so many parts. Without failure of a corner I can get them sharpened for $30.

In the past the sharp corners of the carbide drill would chip after pecking thousands of times do to minor mis-alignment, this time that didn't happen.

I realize that the problem was due to minor errors in mounting the drill exactly square as well as centered but trying to get it perfectly square and on center was always a problem. I was able to get it square and centered to .0003 over 2" with the XY-Zero. I would call that great.

I figured I would share my experience since I was somewhat critical in my first post about the price. It covered it's cost in one job due to doubling drill life.

For most jobs I don't "need it" but I will certainly use it and probably add a second one to the machine just to improve results.

So there you go, my opinion for what it's worth.

Their 50% off for PM members is quite the deal.

Dan

Hi Dan,

Thank you for the update on your parts; We're thrilled that you were able to achieve such positive results with our XY-Zero tool, but more-so excited that we were able to help you retain some profits with drill savings on this and future orders. Your project is a great case study into why we created the tooling to begin with and how it can help others.

It's been a pleasure working with you and if there's anything else we can do to help you out, now or in the future, please don't hesitate to give us a call.

As a note - I've extended the Online Coupon Code for 50% off until 7/31/17 . For anyone interested, please visit our website and enter the coupon code PRACMACH at checkout. For custom orders please call or email us at:

- XY-Zero Website
(603) 895-4018
[email protected]