I have a customer I do work for getting his manufacturing systems set up. The parts are primarily milled out of 39" long pieces of square aluminum tube. The current machine is a milling spindle attached to his ShopSabre plasma table. It works, but it's a pain. I'd like to convince him to upgrade to a better machine for the milling operations.
The guy operating this isn't a machinist. He has a list of instructions and follows them: Press home button, wait, press tool length button, wait, put parts in fixture, open the g-code file, hit the green button, wait.
Requirements:
40" of X
toolholders (e.g. CAT) instead of collets
mist coolant, although that's easy to add
home switches or absolute encoders
2.5D CNC
Would be nice:
ATC
20"+ of Y
high speed spindle
small footprint
My list so far:
Prototrak: doesn't have home switches on the toolroom mills, so they're out. Their VMC has home switches, but for the money I could get a far better machine.
Haas TM-2P or TM-3P: Probably the least expensive option. Good support
Fryer MB or MC series: Siemens 828 w/ absolute encoders.
Are there any other machines that should be on my list?
In the ideal world, he'd have a mill that took in 24' tubes at one end and spat out finished parts cut to length at the other end, but that's an expensive proposition.
The guy operating this isn't a machinist. He has a list of instructions and follows them: Press home button, wait, press tool length button, wait, put parts in fixture, open the g-code file, hit the green button, wait.
Requirements:
40" of X
toolholders (e.g. CAT) instead of collets
mist coolant, although that's easy to add
home switches or absolute encoders
2.5D CNC
Would be nice:
ATC
20"+ of Y
high speed spindle
small footprint
My list so far:
Prototrak: doesn't have home switches on the toolroom mills, so they're out. Their VMC has home switches, but for the money I could get a far better machine.
Haas TM-2P or TM-3P: Probably the least expensive option. Good support
Fryer MB or MC series: Siemens 828 w/ absolute encoders.
Are there any other machines that should be on my list?
In the ideal world, he'd have a mill that took in 24' tubes at one end and spat out finished parts cut to length at the other end, but that's an expensive proposition.
