Mazak Lathe barriers

Just wondering how many other shops out there don't run their Mazak lathes with chuck or tailstock barriers active. I definitely can see the upside to using them but have found that for me they get in the way more than they help.

I don't have a tailstock, but I always use the chuck/jaw barrier.
90% of my work is using hard jaws, so its always Jaw:4 Clamp diameter:XXXX
Soft jaws are number 5, and I just pretend that they go straight out to 12" diameter.

Its too simple not to use them most of the time.

kevin66 said:

Just wondering how many other shops out there don't run their Mazak lathes with chuck or tailstock barriers active. I definitely can see the upside to using them but have found that for me they get in the way more than they help.

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When are you having problems with them?
Are you setting your tool offsets, program offsets and chuck data properly?

You can use your barrier cancel Soft-key when you're boring jaws and other such ops.

Like ManualEd stated, once you have the barrier system figured out it's pretty straightforward.

cwtoyota said:

When are you having problems with them?
Are you setting your tool offsets, program offsets and chuck data properly?

You can use your barrier cancel Soft-key when you're boring jaws and other such ops.

Like ManualEd stated, once you have the barrier system figured out it's pretty straightforward.

Click to expand...

I know how to use the barriers but have just gotten used to verifying any tool collisions manually before I run a program. We also have a couple of Fanuc lathes that dont have the luxury of barriers so I guess its just habit to read the program and dial over to check clearance.

kevin66 said:

I know how to use the barriers but have just gotten used to verifying any tool collisions manually before I run a program. We also have a couple of Fanuc lathes that dont have the luxury of barriers so I guess its just habit to read the program and dial over to check clearance.

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I'm with you on verification. Checking that everything makes sense visually is well worth the extra five minutes it takes to spin the MPG around.
I do that every setup as a rule (even when I'm using barriers on the Mazak).

In my view, the barriers are like a security blanket... I like your word: "luxury".
My VMC doesn't have them (Fanuc) and I've never bumped into a fixture with anything.

I run barriers on mine even though I feel I would be comfortable without them. What I wish the machine did have a feature that would not allow tool change within a certain distance of the work piece looking at all the tool offsets and the work piece geometry. I don't see why that wouldn't be hard to accomplish.

Yes. I crashed a tool into the chuck twice during a unrealized turret change (changed to a different tool in program and missed updating tool in one line) in my program down in the cut instead of at a tool change position. Second time the tool won and caused a constant growl in the spindle. I now run programs like a smart person would far out in space where no interference could happen if I don't catch a tool change program error.

I beat myself up over this good because I am usually carful with everthing when running out program changes, but I think I'm a better person after this experience. This sound silly, but I'm afraid as heck the machine is going to crash at any moment. Even though it was a qtn100, it was the loudest ugliest crash I have heard smacking a 1" boring bar straight into a chuck going 3K rpm.

I know this is an old thread, but any help on Mazak barriers would be appreciated.
Mazak 250SY Fusion control. With tools on each side of the turret, there are issues with teaching the right tool (T1 vs T1A) that are causing crashes, some of them very bad.
Can I set barriers that will prevent this?