SAFETY: Deburring on a Turning Center

[powerfulp]

At our shop, there is a practice of deburring some of the part on a turning center (from large VTL's to smaller horizontal turning centers) by applying emery cloth to an edge WHILE THE CHUCK IS SPINNING! So the operators arm is reaching over and onto the part while it is spinning in the chuck. This is undoubtedly a dangerous practice and a major accident waiting to happen.

 

I am looking for alternatives to deburring the part in the machine. I need to do as much work in the CNC as possible, as the operators are running multiple pieces of equipment. I don't want them to have to deburr outside the machine with a grinder, etc if at all possible (we are doing this now in-place of deburring by hand in the machine).

 

So, is there anything out there that is made specifically for this? I have seen brushes for milling machining centers, but I haven't seen anything for turning centers (although I haven't looked till now - I am new to the turning center department). Or any ideas on what I could "fabricate"?

 

Any help is much appreciated...

[powerfulp]

Oh, I left out some important information. The edges that need deburring are where a machined and cast surface meet. So I cannot simply program a radius at a transition point. The deburring tool would need to be able to deburr uneven, varying surfaces.

 

Thanks...

[SKIR68]

Im not sure what type of Lathes you have, I run an Okuma Multus, I have live tooling, i use a Nylox brush to deburr parts so i dont have to stick my hands in there. Just Google Nylox and check out thier website.

Hope this helps ya!

[jeff]

How big are the parts? Can you throw them into a vibrating tumbler?

[powerfulp]

Nylox brushes look good I think.

 

And most of the parts are too large to go into tumbler...

[Guest]

Did it for years, still have all my digits too

 

everything from 6" in chucks to 84" VTL's

 

However you're right, there are better ways

[powerfulp]

It seems like there should be something on the market that address this specific issue, considering how much CNC turning that goes on around the world....

[Hardmill]

Who the 4ell is in charge and allowing this to go on ??

No excuse and should be banned immediately no matter what.

 

Forget losing a limb, you could lose a life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PEACE

[BenK]

Who the 4ell is in charge and allowing this to go on ??

No excuse and should be banned immediately no matter what.

 

Forget losing a limb, you could lose a life.

 

 

+1

[Joe788]

Who the 4ell is in charge and allowing this to go on ??

No excuse and should be banned immediately no matter what.

 

Forget losing a limb, you could lose a life.

 

 

Yep. I actually know a guy who lost an arm in a large engine lathe.

 

If the nylox brushes don't work, you might be able to improvise a lazy-susan type setup offline, so make the deburring much quicker and easier.

[Newbeeee™]

For what it's worth, my college trainer back in the day (before 'elf and sayfteee) told us that to stop the emery getting caught and picking up on the dia, never use a length more than 1/3rd of the part diameter, as this never picks up.

He did tell us that in no circumstances are we to ever wrap a loop around the part and use the lathe like a belt sander

So I guess there was a little health and safety back then...

[powerfulp]

Yes, the practice has been stopped. So anyway, I'm looking for solutions for polishing in the machine (sometimes we just can't get the required finishes with "conventional" tooling) and for deburring where casting and machining meet (we program a small radius in the transition from machined surface to machined surface that would otherwise cause a burr). I am looking for this because the time (and potential quality problems) it takes to do outside the machine would be detrimental to our productivity as these operators are running multiple pieces of equipment...

 

Guys at the shop here are coming up with ideas. Maybe using a strip of flexible but stiff steel (affixed to a tool holder) with felt wrapped around it, then emery over that. The steel strip underneath would give a little and the felt would conform to the part shape, with the emery of course doing the deburring or polishing. Personally I think it would work best for the polishing, not necessarily deburring, maybe just light deburring. If deburring too much, I think you will have shedding of the emery.

 

I'm just still amazed that I would have to concoct something at the shop for these tasks because there is nothing available on the market to do this. I have talked to many people on this and they say they do what was being done here on a normal basis (reach in and deburr/polish part while it is spinning in the chuck), so something to replace this I think would be an easy sale. Hmmm...if I come up with something decent, I'm probably going to market it.

[Newbeeee™]

Have a look over on Practical Machinist/cnc machining. This was discussed not long ago and there are some good ideas there.

[Roger]

I worked at a shop where we had to polish portions of a part with a 10" grinder,(with a sanding disc followed by a scotch brite pad), the machine was a VTL with 14' table. The part was only about 8' in diameter, so we would lay on a platform held over the spinning part with the fork lift. It was the only way to do this. VERY DANGEROUS!!!

 

I'm glad I don't work with the large parts (up to 30 tons)anymore!

[Odin]

We use the Nylox wheels on our Doosan DBC130 to deburr o-ring grooves and all the edges on a Catepillar pump housing. We use a 3" and 6"Brush... they work great!!