Barfeeding on a VMC----- FWIW

ChipSplitter · Jun 11, 2020

I just thought I would share a setup we did recently that has been a real timesaver. The part is made from 3/8 square stock and is 1" long with a 1/4-20 tapped through hole. In the pics you can see a 5C collet chuck positioned horizontally with a square collet. The program uses an M code to clamp and unclamp the chuck between indexes.

Here is the order of operations:

1) Drills tap hole.
2) EZBurr tool deburrs top and bottom of hole.
3) Taps hole.
4) 3/16" EM rapids down with the spindle off, dwells while the clamp releases, and pulls the part out 1.1875".
It then clamps the part, rapids out of the hole, starts the spindle, and cuts the part off in three depth passes.

Overall tolerance is +/- .005. The bar is 12' long and makes 120+ parts basically unattended.
There is a small tit on the end of the part but that is easily removed with a disk sander.

I just thought I would share this with you guys for whatever it's worth. Please excuse the pic quality. :eek:

ETA: Cycle time is approx. 70 seconds per index (Haas umbrella toolchanger).

Vancbiker · Jun 11, 2020

ChipSplitter said:
I just thought I would share a setup we did recently......

Looks like recently was ~1.5 years ago :eek:

. Or you need to fix the date stamp on your camera.

2outof3 · Jun 11, 2020

Keep thinking that way! Being creative will give you advantages over time. I remember the first barfed HMC I saw making hard drive actuators. I was lucky enough to go to the Willimen factory in Switzerland once and was able to see the first Chiron barfed machines at the factory in Germany. Bar feeding mills is an interesting concept. Here is a photo of one we did last year.

ChipSplitter · Jun 11, 2020

Vancbiker said:
Looks like recently was ~1.5 years ago . Or you need to fix the date stamp on your camera.

LOL. The pics were taken about 1.5 years ago.
But we run the same job every 2-3 months. I just didn't take pics of the most recent run (on Tuesday).

Sorry about that.

G00 Proto · Jun 11, 2020

I'm not real smart, but if you had a pneumatic vise with a soft jaw instead of a 5C you wouldn't get the tit on the part.... also don't let the monkeys in the shop do a power up restart with a 12 foot bar sticking out the window. Fucking Carl, I hated that guy.

ChipSplitter · Jun 11, 2020

G00 Proto said:
I'm not real smart, but if you had a pneumatic vise with a soft jaw instead of a 5C you wouldn't get the tit on the part....

The tit isn't a big deal because it has to be deburred anyway. And since those pics were taken I tweaked the program and set the second to last pass .020" above the bottom of the stock. That way the tit is a lot smaller and really easy to remove.

And yes, no &%$#ing Carls are allowed to run this job.

pcasanova · Jun 11, 2020

did something similar but opposite? basically turned the lathe into a mill with a 4th. normal vendor was closed from the virus and front office in a bit of panic.

YouTube

YouTube

Vancbiker · Jun 11, 2020

ChipSplitter said:
.....Sorry about that.

Nothing to be sorry about. I'm a old guy that thinks things that happened in the 90s as recent and 90s machines are new.

Being creative in part making is fun. Back when I first started on a CNC lathe we had a repeating job making shaft supports. A piece of 1.375 OD by .875 ID tube 6" long bored to 1" ID on each end by 1" deep. Bushings were pressed in with an arbor press and then back to the lathe to be bored to size. With a bit of thinking I made a "plug" that mounted in a boring bar holder the bushing could slip onto. Then the operator loaded the stock and slid a bushing on the plug and started the program. After the tube was bored, the machine pressed the bushing in and then bored it to size. M0 stop flip the tube in the chuck, slip another bushing on the plug and start again. Finished part in two handlings instead of five. Boss was happy.

ChipSplitter · Jun 11, 2020

Now if we had a Brother instead of the Haas on that job....... :willy_nilly:

I can see it right now, just a blur of parts falling off.

2outof3 · Jun 11, 2020

ChipSplitter said:
Now if we had a Brother instead of the Haas on that job.......

I can see it right now, just a blur of parts falling off.

The set up I showed is fun. Bar stock comes in and a gripper picks them up the finished parts out of the Schunk vise. Finished parts are placed in a chute going out to the outside table. Almost all my tricks in one bag.

dandrummerman21 · Jun 11, 2020

2outof3 said:
The set up I showed is fun. Bar stock comes in and a gripper picks them up the finished parts out of the Schunk vise. Finished parts are placed in a chute going out to the outside table. Almost all my tricks in one bag.

I'd love a pic of the inside. Although I understand if you can't share it.

I have a similar job to the OP that I need to do 2400pcs of, but consists of square stock that needs holes on both faces, so I need to put em on an indexer.

I had seen a video of a barfeed indexer Haas minimill years ago that someone had posted, and a few years ago I started a thread asking for that youtube link. Here it is:

YouTube

I'm basically planning on doing this, but plan on pulling the parts into a pneumatic vise with soft jaws for cutoff. I'd like the cutoff end to be fully deburred and will chamfer it before pulling into a vise to remove the remaining material, with no tit.

2outof3 · Jun 11, 2020

dandrummerman21 said:
I'd love a pic of the inside. Although I understand if you can't share it.

I have a similar job to the OP that I need to do 2400pcs of, but consists of square stock that needs holes on both faces, so I need to put em on an indexer.

I had seen a video of a barfeed indexer Haas minimill years ago that someone had posted, and a few years ago I started a thread asking for that youtube link. Here it is:

YouTube

I'm basically planning on doing this, but plan on pulling the parts into a pneumatic vise with soft jaws for cutoff. I'd like the cutoff end to be fully deburred and will chamfer it before pulling into a vise to remove the remaining material, with no tit.

The advantage of the Brother R450 is that it is a travelling column machine. We are not indexing the part but that is doable with a large hole 4th axis.

Rick Finsta · Jun 11, 2020

Yeah... No way I'd run that as-is on a traveling table Brother. You'd have parts EVERYWHERE and likely destroy your way covers. Every time a Brother table moves, it's like watching Wile E. Coyote run off the cliff and then not fall until he looks down...

ChipSplitter · Jun 11, 2020

Rick Finsta said:
Yeah... No way I'd run that as-is on a traveling table Brother. You'd have parts EVERYWHERE and likely destroy your way covers. Every time a Brother table moves, it's like watching Wile E. Coyote run off the cliff and then not fall until he looks down...

Most of the travel is in the Z axis. The X and Y move an inch at a time max.

Delw · Jun 11, 2020

The old tube 6 foot air barfeeds worked great for a mill barfeed. we mickey moused one to an old arcoloc back in the mid 90s and ran it for weeks on a little brass job. omni turn sold the barfees with there machines back then it was basically a 1-1/4" steel tube with a cup washer pusher. still use them today on the omni and I got these in early 90's

wheelieking71 · Jun 11, 2020

I never miss an opportunity to link to my all time favorite set-up (not mine):

YouTube

Jashley73 · Jun 12, 2020

wheelieking71 said:
I never miss an opportunity to link to my all time favorite set-up (not mine):

YouTube

Dang. Now that's pretty clever.

-----------------------------------------------

I was actually thinking of a bar-fed Brother R-style machine (travelling column) during bryanmachine's latest post on making the PCR tube part. Pretty cool to see that others have done the same.

2outof3 · Jun 12, 2020

wheelieking71 said:
I never miss an opportunity to link to my all time favorite set-up (not mine):

YouTube

Love it. We are using a right angle head to cut our bars off.

ChipSplitter · Jun 14, 2020

More details:
One 3/16" EM does about 2 bars or 250 parts. We used to use 1018 and got just over one bar per tool. Switched to 12L14 and presto, 75% increase!

I know, cheaters, but still.........

This part could be done on a live-tool lathe but I don't know if you would save much time.

What doo you guys say?

sirAIG · Jun 15, 2020

ChipSplitter said:
More details:
One 3/16" EM does about 2 bars or 250 parts. We used to use 1018 and got just over one bar per tool. Switched to 12L14 and presto, 75% increase!

I know, cheaters, but still.........

This part could be done on a live-tool lathe but I don't know if you would save much time.

What doo you guys say?

Live tool lathe would make the most sense to me. 100% bur free part that wouldn't have a tit or burs to tend to.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Barfeeding on a VMC----- FWIW

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