david n
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2007
- Location
- Pillager, MN
So I just love to hear from a salesman or even some folks here on PM...............spending others' money and telling you that you need a mill/turn, or 5 axis, or dual spindle/3 turret lathe, or........................this is not practical here......................So..............
Work load keeps creeping up and up and up....................over the past few years one customer's order numbers have gone from 250/yr-500/yr-1000/yr + and that's 20-30 different part numbers in various quantities. Some stuff lends itself to a dual spindle lathe................but will it make parts faster?
One example................
Currently making 3 parts. 2.250"Ø x .709"-1.181" long 6061. Very similar, just length varies. All told 5k+ parts a year. Right now they are turned and dropped off the lathe in under 30 seconds/part. One bar runs for 30 minutes(time for me do do other things). Next they go into the mill in two double vises................Qty 4 in vise one for side one and flip qty 4 in vise two. 4 finished parts/cycle start. Nine through holes 8 and 9mm......................three grooves with a 3/8 BNEM on each side and nine holes chamfered each side. Load/unload and machine is under 4 minutes. Hired hand runs these. Looking to add 2 more doubles...........or just finally bite the bullet and build a fixture with Mitee Bites to hold 20-30 parts.
So I have about just under 1.5 minutes into each part..............even with handling.
So how fast will dual spindle live tooled lathe run?
Turn side one. Drill. Mill. Chamfer.........................Grab/pull with Sub. Part. Drill. Mill. Chamfer side two. Drop it the bucket.
The thing that has me head scratchin' is it will turn the part just as fast as I am right now, but it's only milling one side at a time.................when it's milling, it ain't turning. And in the mill, one tool change covers multiple parts.......................and the mill is running all out.......pushin' feeds pretty hard and 10k RPMs on all tools...................I don't think 4-6k RPM live tools will keep up to what I'm doing now.
So cost would be a factor too................dual spindle live tool.....eh. Spendy, but "doable" for a good return on these parts. But no way in heck is a mill/turn or dual spindle/dual turret in the cards. I'm thinkin' I'm going to have a few brands run these parts for me and see what kinda numbers they come up with. Any input?
Work load keeps creeping up and up and up....................over the past few years one customer's order numbers have gone from 250/yr-500/yr-1000/yr + and that's 20-30 different part numbers in various quantities. Some stuff lends itself to a dual spindle lathe................but will it make parts faster?
One example................
Currently making 3 parts. 2.250"Ø x .709"-1.181" long 6061. Very similar, just length varies. All told 5k+ parts a year. Right now they are turned and dropped off the lathe in under 30 seconds/part. One bar runs for 30 minutes(time for me do do other things). Next they go into the mill in two double vises................Qty 4 in vise one for side one and flip qty 4 in vise two. 4 finished parts/cycle start. Nine through holes 8 and 9mm......................three grooves with a 3/8 BNEM on each side and nine holes chamfered each side. Load/unload and machine is under 4 minutes. Hired hand runs these. Looking to add 2 more doubles...........or just finally bite the bullet and build a fixture with Mitee Bites to hold 20-30 parts.
So I have about just under 1.5 minutes into each part..............even with handling.
So how fast will dual spindle live tooled lathe run?
Turn side one. Drill. Mill. Chamfer.........................Grab/pull with Sub. Part. Drill. Mill. Chamfer side two. Drop it the bucket.
The thing that has me head scratchin' is it will turn the part just as fast as I am right now, but it's only milling one side at a time.................when it's milling, it ain't turning. And in the mill, one tool change covers multiple parts.......................and the mill is running all out.......pushin' feeds pretty hard and 10k RPMs on all tools...................I don't think 4-6k RPM live tools will keep up to what I'm doing now.
So cost would be a factor too................dual spindle live tool.....eh. Spendy, but "doable" for a good return on these parts. But no way in heck is a mill/turn or dual spindle/dual turret in the cards. I'm thinkin' I'm going to have a few brands run these parts for me and see what kinda numbers they come up with. Any input?