Possible to automate swapping a long tool in and out of lathe?

[tonymor]

4 meter machine.

But as Murphy's Law would have it, someone's gonna order even longer piston rods to exceed the capacity of the 4m machine.

Always. But on our existing, not so automated line we are running up to 5m now so I don't mind keeping the new line focused on the parts with the volume.

 

[tonymor]

You can run all 40' through a subspindle machine...


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Just need to drop a mill on a Bardons and Oliver machine...

 

[Ox]

As long as you understand that most lathes like that are not quite like that one.
That one appears to possibly have a hydraulic actuated sub-spindle. (linear)
That works fine for parts where you are only working the ends.

But a ball screw actuated sub, you can manipulate the bar anywhere, and stop and work on it here and there on the way.

Now maybe you can trust this barfeeder to locate the [tube] pretty accurately, but for good precission in Z, you would want to be able to pull with the sub.

That Bardons and Oliver does have milling capability. But it does NOT lend it'self well to being able to drill your hole at all. With a twin turret machine with upper and lower turrets, we put our long drills on the opposite turret.

We have ran much longer parts out the back door, but this shows an 8" long part going out the back door.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[tonymor]

I can see how a setup like yours could do the job alright. Orange had mentioned too about a secondary turret being the easiest way to handle the long drill. At least with the sub spindle you can do a good job of utilizing both turrets.

What brand is the longer drill in your picture? I have been using Arno drills up to this point, was thinking of taking a look at the allied machine drills.

 

[Ox]

That one is a 1.062 Allied Gen 3.

IDK if they are any better or worse than the Iscar's, but on the bigger sizes - the cost of entry is way better by going with Allied!
And it's Yank... (Ohio even)

I am getting ~~2000"~~ of chips in 1018/A36.
Could prolly doo a little better if I had more thrust.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[tonymor]

I'd be very happy with that sort of distance. That would be 100+ of my longest holes.
What sort of speeds and feeds? I think on my 580mm x 40mm Arno drill I was running something like 450rpm .36mm/rev. I would build up to that feed after getting the tip fully engaged.

 

[Ox]

Today I was running 1000rpm x .007.
But same job on another machine appears that we were running 1250 rpm.

I have HPC on the other, but haven't seen that it makes a whole lot of difference on this job.

Again, I think the rec feed range is well north of this, but that's all the ass my smaller machines have, now that everything is built for fast/light cuts.

If I had a full time job like this, I would swap in a finer ball screw.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[Strostkovy]

Today I was running 1000rpm x .007.
But same job on another machine appears that we were running 1250 rpm.

I have HPC on the other, but haven't seen that it makes a whole lot of difference on this job.

Again, I think the rec feed range is well north of this, but that's all the ass my smaller machines have, now that everything is built for fast/light cuts.

If I had a full time job like this, I would swap in a finer ball screw.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Do finer ballscrews have a higher load capacity? It was my understanding that they are weaker due to the smaller balls, unless you make up for it with a really long ballnut, which you usually can't for screw stretch/pitch reasons.

Might be worth looking at the load ratings of the two ballscrews, and seeing if you can put in an inline reducer or different belt ratio or a torqueier servo