Kitamura MyCenter 1 - Right Tool For The Job?
Ok, maybe I should have phrased it "acceptable tool for the job" since budget dictates the decision I will ultimately not have the best solution within my reach at this time.
I've been running manual mills for a while and not nearly as long doing CNC with a PC controlled small bed mill for prototyping small parts in AL. The problem is most of my parts need to be done in mild steel for a final prototype and doing short runs and my little CNC is just too slow and small for steel work even for one off prototypes. It is too costly for me to farm this work out and takes too long to turn around. I need to bring the prototype and short run process (~ 10 - 30 parts every couple weeks) in house, period. The profitability of these new parts have not been proven yet, so investing in a tried and true money making machine is not viable just yet. Plus, if we need those large runs we'd just farm them out anyways most likely. The machine will either be a bridge to the next step up down the road or be resold within 6 months if things don't work out.
These parts are fairly small. The "larger" parts are on average about 2" x 7" in 1/2" thick stock, removing about 30% of the material. Endmills almost always under 3/8", often using a 1/4" endmill after some minor roughing to get the smaller features.
I've been looking at a number of used, but working VMCs that I can afford to bring in right now and the one that is standing out is a mid 90's Mycenter 1. It comes with a lot of BT35 toolholders, 13k spindle, Fanuc 0M control and generally seems in decent shape for the age.
Here's the rub... the machine was only being used for plastic and Al at its current home (who knows before that). When I inquired about its capability with steel since I will be doing at least 50%, maybe 75% steel, I was told it is pretty slow and they run steel on the Fadal. So we did a test cut facing off about .020 with a 1/2" mill with about a 1/4" cut width per pass but it was only at 3.5IPM. I thought that pretty little low for any decent Box Way VMC but I'm told that is kind of what the limit is.
Before I had decided on a VMC, which I did mainly for the ATC and enclosure above cycle speed and precision, I was looking at those IH CNC Bedmills. Those guys sent me a demo video of their machine removing a ton of steel for a small bedmill at very quick feed rates using no coolant in the demo. I don't need high speed cycles, but I expected pretty much any decent boxway VMC to exceed or at least match that performance. I've seen much faster removal from a Tormach even.
So now I'm trying to figure out if should remove the MyCenter 1 from the list of possible machines because it just isn't up to the task of steel work, or if there is a particular issue with just this particular MyCenter and that is why they are running it so gingerly?
I've seen other posters talk about cutting steel with their Kits, so I don't think it is just the MyCenter can't run steel faster than a few IPM, but who knows. To help me get to the bottom of it this machine is capable of performing where it should can some other owners give me an idea of a couple different cuts that their Kit can handle at various feed rates and removals? I'm not talking about running on the very max limit, just the solid comfortable limits one would use in typical runs. Just something so I can get an idea of the capabilities and perhaps go back there and see if I can replicate those on that machine.
Thanks for the insight in advance.
Ok, maybe I should have phrased it "acceptable tool for the job" since budget dictates the decision I will ultimately not have the best solution within my reach at this time.
I've been running manual mills for a while and not nearly as long doing CNC with a PC controlled small bed mill for prototyping small parts in AL. The problem is most of my parts need to be done in mild steel for a final prototype and doing short runs and my little CNC is just too slow and small for steel work even for one off prototypes. It is too costly for me to farm this work out and takes too long to turn around. I need to bring the prototype and short run process (~ 10 - 30 parts every couple weeks) in house, period. The profitability of these new parts have not been proven yet, so investing in a tried and true money making machine is not viable just yet. Plus, if we need those large runs we'd just farm them out anyways most likely. The machine will either be a bridge to the next step up down the road or be resold within 6 months if things don't work out.
These parts are fairly small. The "larger" parts are on average about 2" x 7" in 1/2" thick stock, removing about 30% of the material. Endmills almost always under 3/8", often using a 1/4" endmill after some minor roughing to get the smaller features.
I've been looking at a number of used, but working VMCs that I can afford to bring in right now and the one that is standing out is a mid 90's Mycenter 1. It comes with a lot of BT35 toolholders, 13k spindle, Fanuc 0M control and generally seems in decent shape for the age.
Here's the rub... the machine was only being used for plastic and Al at its current home (who knows before that). When I inquired about its capability with steel since I will be doing at least 50%, maybe 75% steel, I was told it is pretty slow and they run steel on the Fadal. So we did a test cut facing off about .020 with a 1/2" mill with about a 1/4" cut width per pass but it was only at 3.5IPM. I thought that pretty little low for any decent Box Way VMC but I'm told that is kind of what the limit is.
Before I had decided on a VMC, which I did mainly for the ATC and enclosure above cycle speed and precision, I was looking at those IH CNC Bedmills. Those guys sent me a demo video of their machine removing a ton of steel for a small bedmill at very quick feed rates using no coolant in the demo. I don't need high speed cycles, but I expected pretty much any decent boxway VMC to exceed or at least match that performance. I've seen much faster removal from a Tormach even.
So now I'm trying to figure out if should remove the MyCenter 1 from the list of possible machines because it just isn't up to the task of steel work, or if there is a particular issue with just this particular MyCenter and that is why they are running it so gingerly?
I've seen other posters talk about cutting steel with their Kits, so I don't think it is just the MyCenter can't run steel faster than a few IPM, but who knows. To help me get to the bottom of it this machine is capable of performing where it should can some other owners give me an idea of a couple different cuts that their Kit can handle at various feed rates and removals? I'm not talking about running on the very max limit, just the solid comfortable limits one would use in typical runs. Just something so I can get an idea of the capabilities and perhaps go back there and see if I can replicate those on that machine.
Thanks for the insight in advance.
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