New Machine Day - Brother Speedio S500X1

Yeah, Speedio arrived to riggers and we got snowed in. Great!



But Checkmate guys would not be deterred so before next wave of snow hit we sneaked machine into the garage:


My garage door is 83" tall so Andy from Yamazen arranged to have my machine prepped to 80" and it went in without any issues. This was one of my main limitations on machine choice, I just did not have clearance to get machine in. Space wise I wish I had space for S700, but...

About week, week and half later due to all the snow Oscar showed up to perform install.


Renishaw probe got setup:


For this machine to work well for me I had to use the table well and have high density setup with lot of large-ish parts done at the same time. So first order of business was sub-plate. 7.1" distance from spindle nose to table is a lot so some long tooling was required:


That is a 1.25" cut, 6" long, 1" shank Shear Hog. I use that for roughing all the time. No, no, don't get wrong idea, it was used just to face cut the subplate while bolted on the table. I got it flat to 2 microns over 400mm distance so I called it a day.

So pattern to mount vises was simple, two M12 bolts 150mm spacing with KIPP alignment pins (I wanted this pattern so I can mount my Chick vises on same plate as well):



On my Haas Mini Mill I use two 5th Axis Deuce DV510 vises and also Chick 1030s. They go onto the Lang 96mm plate. I really like the Lang plates for how easy it is to just change between setups, but for Speedio I wanted both sturdier vise and something that has less jaw lift than Deuce (jaw lifts 0.36mm on almost full clamp pressure).

I prefer simple sturdy design and have been looking and studying to what to put on table for months. Decided on 3 Mlock_125 400 dual station vises. I liked design a lot, simple, not much to go wrong and when it does its easily replaced. Alex who makes these worked with me to get everything right. I can highly recommend him and his vises.

Here are vise bases mounted:





Damn these are heavy. Bases are German Bohler M200 surface hardened steel. Jaws are D2 hardened. I am getting really high density on table with these, the jaws also have gripper teeth and they clamp on 3mm of material ~1/8".





First time I saw BT30 holders I was bit concerned on how rigid they will be given the size difference between them in CAT40, but rigid workholding with these vises and Speedio build really surprised me. I am removing more material faster on Speedio than on Mini Mill and cuts sound much better. And that is without really pushing Speedio. Surface finish is also better.

I am using same tools, 1/2" rougher from Destiny or Helical and Schunk Hydraulic holders. BTW, love the Schunk holders, to me they just sound the best when cutting and that's now both on CAT40 and BT30. Cyclet time is almost half of what I was running on Mini Mill.



While doing my research on this machine lot of people here running them in garages or small shops brought up the constant air usage and it was a concern for me so I asked Andy from Yamazen for a solution and they came through. Solenoid was installed so now machine is only using air when its cutting. This works great!

Thank you for the opportunity.

That is a great machine set-up! 21 tool, CTS prep, larger coolant tank with wash down, auto-grease, probing... Bam! Nice work holding too! Congrats

2outof3 said:

Thank you for the opportunity.

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Thank you Andy, you guys did wonderful job in getting everything right.

Nice machine! One question, how do you protect your table from the aluminum? Every time I have removed an aluminum plate from a table after a few weeks of being bolted down I have found a lot of corrosion. I have tried a lot of things but never anything that worked at eliminating the corrosion.

DavidScott said:

Nice machine! One question, how do you protect your table from the aluminum? Every time I have removed an aluminum plate from a table after a few weeks of being bolted down I have found a lot of corrosion. I have tried a lot of things but never anything that worked at eliminating the corrosion.

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This time on recommendation from one of the online friends, Brad, I have cleaned table and plate with Breakclean then sprayed with Dry Molly. We will see how well that holds up.

coffeetek said:

This time on recommendation from one of the online friends, Brad, I have cleaned table and plate with Breakclean then sprayed with Dry Molly. We will see how well that holds up.

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No worries. Never in almost 25 years have I seen a Brother table that needed replacing, and I have been around a lot of them, quite a few that were questionably maintained. I think it is safe to say that the table will likely outlast the rest of the machine.

Please keep us posted on how it works. While it is easy to keep the damage to your table low enough that it doesn't affect accuracy it can still be something you really want to avoid if possible. I have tried a lot of things but never found anything that worked 100%. But thinking on it now maybe silicon grease might be worth a try, think 0-ring grease. It needs to be something that won't wash away.

Anyway I don't want to take away any of the excitement of a new machine like that, I hope to be there one day. Do keep an eye on that aluminum to cast iron table interface, the two don't like each other.

Pardon my ignorance, how does the tool probe/setter work? It looks like a large(ish) disc, which I can understand, but on the right side it looks like a stem that sticks up above the disc, how does that work, or what it is for?

thanks, Mike

Mike1974 said:

Pardon my ignorance, how does the tool probe/setter work? It looks like a large(ish) disc, which I can understand, but on the right side it looks like a stem that sticks up above the disc, how does that work, or what it is for?

thanks, Mike

Click to expand...

It is a touch style setter. Tool rapids down above the part and then slowly feeds to a point where the sensor moves until it makes a contact. Z is set. The little tube above is an air blow to make sure the surface is some what clean to minimize a chip getting between the end of tool and the sensor top.

Congratulations man! I've got an S500 in my garage too, installed by Oscar maybe 5 weeks ago. I couldn't refrain from laughing when my BT30 holders came in! That was my 'I bought the wrong machine...' moment. I have been happily impressed with the machine so far and the rigidity is better than I anticipated.

I dig your vise layout. I've got two Orange units that I've been happy with. When I started out I had planned on all my parts being in fixtures (it's all for my own products so it stays consistent). I bought the Orange pallets and jaws. The more stuff I make the more I just keep getting away from that setup. Talon grips on one vise and soft jaws on the other make it soooo much easier and more accurate to make just about anything I've done so far.

Enjoy your new machine!!

DethloffMfg said:

Talon grips on one vise and soft jaws on the other make it soooo much easier and more accurate to make just about anything I've done so far.

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Ha! I've come to the same conclusion!

My original plan was an elaborate fixture setup on the 4th with a big cube and MiteeBites. Op1 + Op2 for multiple parts from a single piece of stock.

Now? A Lang vise on a tombstone fixture does Op1 for everything, one part at a time, soft jaws in the Orange finish it off. Way faster to set up, easier to program, flows beautifully.

It will be interesting to see how Allan's spindle air purge auto valve works out. If it does, Yamazen should make it an option because it would definitely help out in the shop a whole lot!

Mike1974 said:

Pardon my ignorance, how does the tool probe/setter work? It looks like a large(ish) disc, which I can understand, but on the right side it looks like a stem that sticks up above the disc, how does that work, or what it is for?

thanks, Mike

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Here is a video link to a similar one in action:

YouTube

No air blow on this one. The air blow equipped ones get a small blast right before checking the tool.

Congrats on the 500. Had mine about a month, and I typically cut aluminium, but Ill be damned if the first jobs that came in weren't 303 and 304SS. I was a bit apprehensive due to my previous mill (hobbyish) would destroy carbide cutters in stainless cause it was so floppy. The 500 ran great using HSM paths. I know I'm easily ammused based on my previous machine, but watching the 500 push a 1/2" drill through 304 silently was awesome.

When i first got the machine i ran a "test "simple spot,drill,tap a 1/4 20 hole. I've never had rigid tapping, always had to thread mill (slowww). Anyway, my son was there (28) been out of engineering school a few years. I was still figuring out the control etc. I hit cycle start not realizing i had the rapids at 100%. Before I could think, it slammed though the process so fast i couldn't have hit the e stop if I wanted to..Lol. turret spinning, coolant blasting everywhere. my son said WTF !. Did it do anything?. He was dumbfounded when he saw the perfect threads.

It’s a scary feeling to know that if your eyeballs are looking at the cycle start button and you push it, that the machine will be all the way down and cutting before you can turn your eyes to the spindle

Congratulations for your S500. My prior machine was also a Haas MiniMill.

The Brother made a huge impact in my business: quality and consistency of the parts, programming techniques, and even the way I design.

Interested to hear how those vises work you. I was looking at them once but I was concerned about chips getting clogged in the rails.

Air consumption never was an issue for me, but glad to see that they're putting a solenoid. Yamazen makes a great job listening to their Customers and keeping them happy.

2outof3 said:

It is a touch style setter. Tool rapids down above the part and then slowly feeds to a point where the sensor moves until it makes a contact. Z is set. The little tube above is an air blow to make sure the surface is some what clean to minimize a chip getting between the end of tool and the sensor top.

Click to expand...

I know how a touch setter works, just wasn't clear what the tube did. Thanks for sharing.

coffeetek said:

constant air usage and it was a concern for me so I asked Andy from Yamazen for a solution and they came through. Solenoid was installed so now machine is only using air when its cutting. This works great!

Click to expand...

I take it you don't have to reset low air pressure error with this? I'd be curious how that was implemented and if it can be done to other machines. I have my machine air on a solenoid and a button to turn it on and off, but I have to reset the error message every time. It would be nice if I could get around that.

DavidScott said:

Nice machine! One question, how do you protect your table from the aluminum? Every time I have removed an aluminum plate from a table after a few weeks of being bolted down I have found a lot of corrosion. I have tried a lot of things but never anything that worked at eliminating the corrosion.

Click to expand...

The vise I had in the MiniMill was Gerardi. I moved it to the Brother but I had to make an aluminum riser. A couple of months later I switched to Chick vises and when I removed the riser, I didn't find any corrosion or stains. Maybe is something related to the porosity of each table?

riabma77 said:

Congratulations for your S500. My prior machine was also a Haas MiniMill.

The Brother made a huge impact in my business: quality and consistency of the parts, programming techniques, and even the way I design.

Interested to hear how those vises work you. I was looking at them once but I was concerned about chips getting clogged in the rails.

Air consumption never was an issue for me, but glad to see that they're putting a solenoid. Yamazen makes a great job listening to their Customers and keeping them happy.

Click to expand...

Thanks man. Mini Mill is tag teaming with Speedio.

Vises are working great so far, incredible clamping force. At 60ft/lbs torque on the wedge its giving over 13,000ft/lbs clamping force. I've been running production last few days and have not had any issues with chips, wash and blow out pretty much takes care of everything. That's with Destiny Diamond back end mills with chip-breaker so chips are small and get everywhere.