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Need machinery suggestion for 12' long part

It's been done but usually ends up with slight steps in the part every two feet which is highly unwanted. also would take a very long time when we need to make 48' of them
Use cam followers for a two point fence- never let your material off the rolls until done. You can just feed the material thru and have head stay fixed.
 
You can make that lollipop cutter with a Royal Oak TC grinder.

If you would order a dozen at a time you might a better price at Special Drill & Reamer Corp in Michigan
(248) 588-5333
Tell them Buck recommended them (good chance nobody there to remember me, I used to buy a ton of cutters from them.)
 
Use cam followers for a two point fence- never let your material off the rolls until done. You can just feed the material thru and have head stay fixed.

not a bad idea, can mount cam followers and rollers to a knee mill vise/table to keep bar in place when readjusting. the only issue I see is the risk of damaging a lollipop endmill since once it's in the cut, it cant be removed from the workpiece unless you're finished with the cut
 
Do you have to straighten the material after cutting because of the skin removal?

A fixture could be used on a mill to allow the material to be pulled through a set of cam rollers. You would just need room for a 13' leadscrew on one end, and a 12' piece of material on the other end. Horizontal or vertical would work, but horizontal would allow for better chip and coolant control.
 
Do you even need the headstock on a long bed lathe conversion? Brackets coming from where the rack used to be could hold your square bar with the milling head on the cross slide as others suggested. No need for the tailstock for that matter. Eliminating both the headstock and tailstock would make a smaller footprint as well as a cleaner machine.
 
I would say no need for the Head or Tail stock. I would under mount a DC motor to the lead screw to pull the saddle along with it holding the part. Dc motor, so easy to control feed rate.

The machine would no longer be a lathe, it would be a special bed mill.

Very good chance here in the Detroit / Toledo area I could get the bed for next to nothing/scrap value, a whole mill or mill head for $2k, enough steel at Alro for a few hundred. A good vice for ? ,$.and a couple of weeks on the side task.

Oh, I would need to hire the hauling the lathe, too big and heavy for my trailer.
 
I would make them in 5 or 6 ft sections that way something line a VF8 could do it in one pass. at 63" table length. in X.
other then that its a VF9 haas that has 84" length which you could overhang a few inches on each end to make it 8 ft. just $200K USD

they do make a VF12 with 150" of travels and 150" bed. for $300,000USD
 
Do you even need the headstock on a long bed lathe conversion? Brackets coming from where the rack used to be could hold your square bar with the milling head on the cross slide as others suggested. No need for the tailstock for that matter. Eliminating both the headstock and tailstock would make a smaller footprint as well as a cleaner machine.

Zero need for the head or tail stock. would just like to retain the feedbox. Ideally using a vfd/ motor combo to run the lead screw and bridgeport head. would just need to figure out pulley size to turn just the feedbox. I feel like mounting a table under the cross slide would be better than up in the air and behind the lathe bed
 
Your explanation of the function does not convince me that the channel needs to be round.

If it does not, then a very cheap design where two hardened 3/8" thick strips,shimmed for clearance, lie on top of a heavy bar, a hair over 3/8" apart. On top of them lie two slightly wider hardened strips with a little over 5/16" between them. All strips are punched, top strips are csunk, for securement to underlying heavy bar every 6" or so with flat-head screws.

Cheaper to make, longer wear-life, cheap overhaul when worn.
 
Weld thick walled tubing into a round bottom groove in square stock, mill it down to the profile you need. Making the round bottom channel you’ll still have some steps where you had to shift the part, but the resulting part will be smooth.
 
I get the feeling this does not need to be that accurate. A little wiggle here and there should be oaky as long as there are no steps to snag what is being pulled through?
Bill D
 
You only need to support the part where the milling is happening. Take a regular bridge port and mount four linear bearing blocks to the bed. Make a sled from plate with linear rails on the bottom. Attach the part in the sled, and use some acme rod to feed the sled. Downside is you need 26' or so of room overall for this machine.

If you want absolute minimum cost a second hand plasma cutter or router table can take very light cuts as a shaper. Would probably take overnight.
 
Your explanation of the function does not convince me that the channel needs to be round.

If it does not, then a very cheap design where two hardened 3/8" thick strips,shimmed for clearance, lie on top of a heavy bar, a hair over 3/8" apart. On top of them lie two slightly wider hardened strips with a little over 5/16" between them. All strips are punched, top strips are csunk, for securement to underlying heavy bar every 6" or so with flat-head screws.

Cheaper to make, longer wear-life, cheap overhaul when worn.

It 100% does in fact need to be round.

The wire runs into this guidebar and pushes against a rod slightly smaller than the channels diameter (.380" channel/ .375" rod). this is so the rod that itself wont fall out but the smaller diameter wire being cut will fall. That rod then trips a microswitch which triggers the machine to cut the wire. The wire that was just cut is now sitting inside the guidebar with a false floor piece of steel underneath it, that floor then moves out of the way dropping the cut piece of wire into a parts tray. These machines have been around for many many years and this design has stayed the same and I can't revolutionize this wheel and throw off every customer that comes looking for this exact design replacement part. If this was a one off machine for just me, sure.
 
You only need to support the part where the milling is happening. Take a regular bridge port and mount four linear bearing blocks to the bed. Make a sled from plate with linear rails on the bottom. Attach the part in the sled, and use some acme rod to feed the sled. Downside is you need 26' or so of room overall for this machine.

If you want absolute minimum cost a second hand plasma cutter or router table can take very light cuts as a shaper. Would probably take overnight.

This sounds plausible as well and I do have the room surrounding my mill for this. My only concern is lack of rigidity when cutting with smaller sized lollipops. the neck of them can get as small as .080"
 
If you start with an old lathe bed, you could easily mount a Bridgeport head on the cross slide.
As others have stated, use the exiting leadscrew with a VFD drive or whatever.
Then with the BP head mill the top of the webs in the bed to create a reference plane, that you could bolt a fixture in place to hold your parts, between the bedrails. Maybe much easier than trying to attache brackets to the back of the lathe.
You probably don't need full 12' length as you could index the part along your fixture quite easily, I would think.
Maybe a photo of the part would help folks better understand what you're trying to do.
Bob
 
This sounds plausible as well and I do have the room surrounding my mill for this. My only concern is lack of rigidity when cutting with smaller sized lollipops. the neck of them can get as small as .080"

Two 25mm profile rails will be plenty solid. With the arrangement I described the milling occurs directly over the area supported by the linear bearings regardless of where the sled is. This will keep it very rigid.

Since you can machine the sled to straightness you can build something real strong out of regular structural sections as well. Just use a piece of flat plate on the bottom for ease of rail alignment.
 
Used RR track is pretty accurate at about $20 a foot.

Bought in one 32" section and cut to length would insure the same size.

Hold, to sides, and under the part rollers before and after the part traveling through a fixture and across a mill table might do OK. Simply a mill with a special fixture.

QT:[the neck of them can get as small as .080"] neer have goo control of feed rate, and a fixture that allows little/no vibration

You might even use that same material your parts are made of for your rails and use the lollypop slot as the hold-down. Might even make your own rollers with a hole through round stock with bronze bushing on a stripper bolt.

https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/...ood)&adlclid=bcd1840e2be91df3095be6329eb89a5e
 








 
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