HEY Facing and Centering machine question

I need to take a 1.5" steel rounds and turn chamfers on each end. One end needs to have the OD cleaned up by about 4" long

Would the HEY machines be able to do this?

I can do this on a CNC lathe but am looking for a faster solution.

I see that they can face and center drill......just not sure if there is someway to turn the OD to clean up all while keeping the end chamfers running true.

You can look at adjustable hollow mills, they should be able to, but the 4"
deep might cause vibration problems
Genesee Manufacturing

You could make up your own "double knee tool" like used in a turret (make it double to balance it )

BTW are you O.K. with retract lines on the O.D. ?

How long are the pieces ?

No center drilling ?

Maybe have someone like Ox set up a acme multi to bang these out from barstock.

Hey and Giddings & Lewis Fraser both made these. One used facemill-type cutters to set length and the other used big mills that just plunged to depth. I think the Hey was plunge-to-depth, but don't rely on that. Pretty sure I have seen examples of chamfering the ends of parts in the same operation as center-drilling but 4" is kind of long.

If you are doing enough pieces it's definitely worthwhile but both machines are expensive. They are also pretty big, so if you are doing small parts, not so great. I guess most job shops just blunder through using conventional tools but the good part of a double-end facing and centering machine is that you know the centers are in line. Not so easy if you do it end-for-end.

btw, this would be a perfect job for an old H40 Cincy, which so many people claim are worthless junk that should be scrapped. Last I looked a small (and they are not really small) Hey was ten grand, while an H40 that can do all kinds of dumb jobs like this might bring $500.

The pieces are 25" long. No center drilling needed. Retract lines on the OD are ok too. Its just a gripping surface for another operation.

Those are interesting........

G-Auto said:

The pieces are 25" long. No center drilling needed. Retract lines on the OD are ok too. Its just a gripping surface for another operation.

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I bet you could do that lickety-split in an OAB Warner Swasey, and for cheap cheap. Very automated, a $2 guy could do it. The 4" length is no problem either.

All you have to do is find one now

EmanuelGoldstein said:

I guess most job shops just blunder through using conventional tools but the good part of a double-end facing and centering machine is that you know the centers are in line. Not so easy if you do it end-for-end.

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We had those centering machines but hardly ever used them. With larger shafts just stuck them in v-blocks on a turntable on an HBM and faced and centered both ends. With smaller ones just used a center head to roughly mark center, then either hand drilled with a small center drill, or alternatively a small pilot hole and banged a big center punch in, then stuffed a center in the end and cut spots for a roller rest and faced and centered both ends. If the spots weren't round a quick zip with a center reamer and re-cutting them took care of that.

Easy to get them inline that way - not that it really matters much. By the time you rough out a big shaft the centers won't be perfectly inline anymore anyway due to movement in the material. Got to re-cut them before finishing.

EmanuelGoldstein said:

I bet you could do that lickety-split in an OAB Warner Swasey, and for cheap cheap. Very automated, a $2 guy could do it. The 4" length is no problem either.

All you have to do is find one now

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Yabutt the 25" length is.

I'm not standing in front of mine stuffing parts into it.

My point was to bar feed them, un-attended.

Now that the 25" overall length has come out (in post #5 ...), the dynamics have changed.

FWIW my friend modified a swiss to feed out to maybe 16", removed the secondary tooling, replaced with a "catcher tube", and does similar work on 1/4" dia. steel stock.

So maybe a brownie could be picked up cheap and hacked up.

What was that job Ox posted a video, loading cylinder rods into/out of an acme 2 years ago ?

EmanuelGoldstein said:

Hey and Giddings & Lewis Fraser both made these. One used facemill-type cutters to set length and the other used big mills that just plunged to depth. I think the Hey was plunge-to-depth, but don't rely on that. Pretty sure I have seen examples of chamfering the ends of parts in the same operation as center-drilling but 4" is kind of long.

Click to expand...

The G&L ones run a facemill across the end of the bar for sure. I've been looking for a bigger one for a few years now but they rarely come up and seem to demand a hefty price when the do.

I haven't seen a Hey type.

digger doug said:

Yabutt the 25" length is.

I'm not standing in front of mine stuffing parts into it.

My point was to bar feed them, un-attended.

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Well, yeah, but if he using an nc lathe to do this he'd have to stand there was well. And it wouldn't be as reliable ...

You could probably make a simple parts feeder or maybe precut then stack them inline thru the bar feeder with a liner ? but it'd make an ungodly clunk when they fell in the chip pan

eKretz said:

We had those centering machines but hardly ever used them.

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Definitely production machines, you wouldn't go to all the hassle of setting them up for just a few parts. Plus they cost big bucks

I had a little hand-driven single-ender for a while, forget who made it, but by then nc machines came along and it was easier to face the end, put a center in then run the tailstock up than it was to pre-machine the blanks. So I never used it as much as I thought, either.