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Yancey Geared Spindles - replace? Can they be converted to quick change?

motion guru

Diamond
Joined
Dec 8, 2003
Location
Yacolt, WA
We have a new to us Butler Planer mill with Yancey 50 taper geared spindles. It is presently disassembled taking up a 50 x 100 foot spot on the floor of our shop as we prep the foundation plates for install.

The controls are Fanuc 230V based and spindle motors are as well. We plan to pitch the Fanuc controller and replace with a 480V based 840D Solution Line system. We have redesigned the table drive and the Cartesian axes drivetrains to use the latest Servo technology and will fit these axes with linear encoders for closing the position loop.

Now what to do with the spindles? We don’t plan on doing heavy metal removal all day long with this machine, rather it affords us the ability to put larger machines than our existing planer mill can handle onto it for cleaning up Turcite ways of machines we are rebuilding (mostly grinders) and also machining bearing surfaces for long linear rails and surfaces for linear motor secondaries (magnets) on our linear motor equipped machines. As such, the 50 taper tool holders are overkill. I don't see an easy way to convert the tooling / retention system to a quick change design - has anyone seen this done with a Yancey Head? Also, the gearing selections are slow, and really slow . . . much of the work we would be doing with this machine could use faster spindle speeds than these are capable of.

We presently have two CNC’s that use 40 taper tooling with pneumatic quick change capability and one option would be to figure out a way to put spindles on this machine that could share tooling with either of these machines.

The existing spindles on the Yancey heads have drawbar setups which require that you climb up on the machine, and drawbar access is cramped at best . . . I would prefer matched spindles for the side head and main spindles.

Any ideas on an economic way to get this done? I am fine with used spindles as long as they are in good condition or cheap enough that we can rebuild them for less than half the cost of new.

I am thinking 15-20 HP and max speed of 6000–7500 rpm

Existing spindles look like this . . . (picture from the web)
Yancey50Taper.jpg

And if anyone has interest in the Yancey Units - we have these two plus another smaller Yancey that we would be happy to make you a deal on.
 
How many tool changes per day/hour are anticipated, and are the present spindles OK except for the tool change constraints?
A cheap/easy option is to use a Weldon quick change adapter, that allows changing tools from the cutter end of the spindle with just an allen wrench. Not sub-10 sec. chip to chip but way more convenient than it sound now, and it takes no special effort with the allen wrench. They take 45 taper tools, and those are plentiful and cheap. To use 40 taper tools you could use or make another adapter to take the 40 tools. Here is a recent thread on making the 45 taper tools work.
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-and-history/cat45-taper-drive-slot-slop-360237/?highlight=Weldon


edit - I see your speed issue now.
 
As to the Yancey, I used one of the early ones on the "small" spiral milling machine I designed for Oncor Corp circa 1982

( the removable cover turns on the memory light bulb)

As I recall there was nothing in the way of the speeds in post #1 since we were turning a 10" face mill:D
 
While it adds some length, I have a toolholder just like you want. 50 taper male end for your existing spindle, and Cat 40 for the female side. The toolholder utilizes a QC40 type nut, which requires about a 1/4 turn from a hook spanner at the tool end. $450.
Cat 50 to 40 adaptor.jpg Cat 50 to 40 adaptor 2.jpg
 
While it adds some length, I have a toolholder just like you want. 50 taper male end for your existing spindle, and Cat 40 for the female side. The toolholder utilizes a QC40 type nut, which requires about a 1/4 turn from a hook spanner at the tool end. $450.
View attachment 271340 View attachment 271341

I'm pretty sure those just work with thin flange NMTB holders, not CAT40's. If they do work with CAT-style flanges please correct me.
 
If you just want manual quick change tooling, Universal Tool made 50 Taper Kwik Switch Adapters that use various size Kwik Switch tool holders. Kwik Switch 400 holders are plentiful and inexpensive as many early NC mills like the Cintimatics used this system. Check e-bay to see what I'm referring to. AFAIK, Collis tool still makes KS adapters if ya gotta have new. We use a 50NMTB adapter with 300 KwikSwitch holders on a K&T Horizontal and they work really well for that. They are very similar to what was posted above.
 
I'm pretty sure those just work with thin flange NMTB holders, not CAT40's. If they do work with CAT-style flanges please correct me.

This one is different than you are thinking. Yes, it is for Cat flanges. I have a Erickson (nmtb) 40 quick change on a series II spindle, and those holders get lost in this unit. If you are familiar, the aspect ratio of the depth of the nut to the diameter shows something is different.
 
The gear reduction unit can be removed from the block spindle and replaced with a direct drive motor. The Setco block spindle (?) shown has two pairs of angular contact bearings with a high preload set up for low speed milling. The bearing pairs woulds need to be replaced with a low preload set designed for high speed applications. It may also be possible to reduce the preload with spacers. Or one can buy a new/rebuilt surplus high speed Setco spindle from Ebay for less than the cost of a new set of bearings.

REBUILT XLO EXCELLO 25-24-81 5000 RPM SPINDLE SETCO | eBay

The majority of the surplus spindles have custom tooling flanges. The block spindles may not have sufficient stiffness for the machining of hardened surfaces using CBN inserts. They may not have the accuracy required for grinding ways and guide rail seats.

The newer designs have air purge seals at the tool end of the spindle to prevent coolant damage.

The tool exchange requirement can be dealt with using the D'Andrea MHD modular tooling or something similar if you decide to reuse the CAT 50 taper spindle.

D'ANDREA S.p.A. - MHD’ | High precision modular toolholders that allow boring, milling, drilling, and tapping operations to be carried out with extreme flexibility and rigidity.

The website does not explain how the MHD taper connection works. It appears to be engaged from the side of the master tool holder.
 








 
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