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Roller feed in a milling operation

DieselPower

Cast Iron
Joined
Mar 28, 2009
Location
Centerville, TN USA
I service a large custom roofing and trim industry, and am constantly making custom nose pieces for brakes as large as 18ft. I am currently clamping the piece to the table, cutting 2ft, moving it, cleaning chips, re-clamping, setting cutter depths, adjusting, cutting, finding out there is still a chip under it somewhere and pulling my hair out and doing it all over again. It sux... A lot of the work is done with a 2.5" face mill. Do you think it would be possible to set up a roller feed and do the whole cut in one operation? Has it been done before? Sounds scary but I could see it working if it was done right.

Rubber feed rolls
Cast iron rear fence
Chip scrapers and steel front "fence" rolls and down-pressure rolls.
Deeep face cuts (like 80% cutter width) forcing material against rear fence.
Lots-o-lube on sliding surfaces.

And then it will still probably chatter...

What do ya think?
 
In a shop I worked about forty years ago we used a shaper to cut stair rails and banister rails. I would think that or a modified or similar system would work. IIRC it was a simple machine mostly made from wood, about twenty feet long with a large shaper (wood type) in the middle.
re
 
Hmmm -- interesting question ---- you don't say whether you're starting with a precision machined section, but I presume you must be. Is it rectangular? and dead straight?

I certainly think chips would be a difficulty with what you propose, although a combination of air and vacuum would help, but I think the killer is rubber rollers - (urethane elastomer, preferably, eg Lurethane as used for solid forklift tyres or punch strippers)
I can't see they are going to provide enough feed force (and it would be essential they never saw a chip). And loss of feed control is obviously problematic if you're climbing, as presumably you will wish to do.

i'd be inclined to go for clamping an actuator of some sort to the workpiece, and 'hitch-feeding' it.

Assuming it is a rectagular section, what's wrong with a row of vices of identical height (or packed up to the same height)?

If there are a number of them to share the load they don't need to be classy bought ones, shop built should be OK, and would be a lot less work than what you're proposing. If you put in the same effort on chip evacuation as for roll feed, this would seem to me to be the best solution, but I don't know enough about your setup or needs for this opinion to be worth anything.
 
I agree with hitch feeding. Elastomer rollers are by definition elastic. Grainger sells reasonably priced hydraulic cylinders and a pair could be arranged with jaws that allowed you to grab with the upcoming one before releasing the one feeding. By overpowering the hydraulics, using larger than needed cylinders and controlling feed rate with flow control valves on the exhaust sides of the cylinders, you can get smooth feed. You probably can use a roller bed with air jets cleaning off the chips.

Bill
 
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