Boring on a lathe with a U Drill

[within a thou]

Does anyone here use U Drills to bore holes?

 

Can it be done?

[Eric@HorsepowerInc.]

Absolutely, as long as you put it in the machine correctly orientated.

[Mr. M]

I use inserted drills to bore all the time. Helps free up space on turret lathes and can allow your actual bore bars to be slightly larger in some cases

[Newbeeee™]

You may have to change a parameter to allow for the amount of off-centre you want to go.

Use to do this in the old warner swasey - spoilt on the new machines with 12 YES 12 tool positions

[Goldorak]

you can also drill offset to get a bigger hole on the first pass, most U-drill supplier will provide a maximum and a minimum drilling diameter for each seize of drill

[mx247]

We do it quite a bit here to allow using a bigger sized boring bar for finishing

[within a thou]

Thank you I already knew the answer to this i needed these responses to help prove a point.

[within a thou]

Thank you I already knew the answer to this i needed these responses to help prove a point.

[within a thou]

Thank you I already knew the answer to this i needed these responses to help prove a point.

[Sticky]

We use mostly Sandvik 880 u drills here, and I find I can't ever get decent tool life boring with them, the outside corner always wears too fast compared to the inside insert. I much prefer just using a bar to bore instead of the drill. I usually end up using double the amount of outside inserts compared to the inside ones.

[Allan]

What toolpath does everyone (anyone) use?

 

Does anyone run 2 offsets on the u-drill?

Like one for center and one for bbar edge?

[Sticky]

I use two different tool offsets.

[Mr. M]

Using two offsets makes it easier for sure

[within a thou]

I just use a normal feed move with rapid retract step over and rerun at my finish X value. I try to keep my operators from touching offsets as much as possible. Program it in once prove it and it is there for ever.

[Allan]

I've wondered if a custom drill toolpath would be something people would use.

 

Pick yer drill..set step over and desired diameter, post would work out the motion, and one offset.

[crazy^millman]

Allan I made that post edit years ago and found it was more productive and easy to verify in Mastercam if I just treated it was 2 different tools.

[Allan]

While the backplot and verify would not show actual motion, the 2 offset scenario and the potential for bad things to happen scares me.

 

The U-Drill could be defined to be the actual diameter of the hole you wanted; then verify and stock recognition would be happy.

 

Just a thought.

 

Allan

[crazy^millman]

While the backplot and verify would not show actual motion, the 2 offset scenario and the potential for bad things to happen scares me.

 

The U-Drill could be defined to be the actual diameter of the hole you wanted; then verify and stock recognition would be happy.

 

Just a thought.

 

Allan

 

Allan you could, but then you are back to doing dummy operation you have to ghost. You have the ability to define the same tool twice and use it, though you will get the NCI warning that you have to say okay to. No real logic was given to take a tool and using it 4 times in 4 to 10 different ways for Lathe. MT is coming along with that logic, but I cannot say any more than that.

 

What are the ways? Well seen a tool where 2 inserts allowed for turning and 2 inserts allowed for milling. You could OD/ID rough with one side of the tool and OD/ID finish and then use it as milling tool. So right there 5 different uses for one tool. Try defining that in regular lathe. Now mill out the bore using a milling toolpath and then go to rough and finish that bore with the same tool. See what kind of ghosting operations you need to accomplish that task. Some complain I just do what I need to get my job done.

[Mick]

Well seen a tool where 2 inserts allowed for turning and 2 inserts allowed for milling. You could OD/ID rough with one side of the tool and OD/ID finish and then use it as milling tool. So right there 5 different uses for one tool. Try defining that in regular lathe. Now mill out the bore using a milling toolpath and then go to rough and finish that bore with the same tool. See what kind of ghosting operations you need to accomplish that task. Some complain I just do what I need to get my job done.

 

Sandvik Coroplex MT tool...

 

Had one on a Multus at the last place I was at. Nice tools, and good when trying to minimise tool pot usage, but yes, tricky to implement. Also, if one of the tool sections gets damage it can possibly lead to damage on the other cutting tips, so you can lose the use of three tools vs. one. These tools do have their merits though. Especially if the MT logic is coming on (for those blessed to have it )

[Newbeeee™]

Sandvik Coroplex MT tool...

So I googled this as I knew nowt about it. Found this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nturyactDHs

The first thing I saw was 2x sets of tips facing eachother, and thought 'ha, I imagine someone picking this up and putting it in a mill mistaking it for a facemill and blowing the thing to pieces'.

Then I watched the full video.....

Very clever.

[Sticky]

Whoa that is a sweet tool, haven't seen one before, but I don't have a proper mill turn yet either

[crazy^millman]

Yes I was lent one for a field trip going over some MT stuff for a few weeks. Very impressive tool and when you can simulate that tool and program all functions of that tool with a CAM system then you have reached MT greatness IMHO.

[Chris Rizzo]

The tool is pretty great, but tell me what to program/simulate with. That's just as impressive. IMHO

[Watcher]

Yes I was lent one for a field trip going over some MT stuff for a few weeks. Very impressive tool and when you can simulate that tool and program all functions of that tool with a CAM system then you have reached MT greatness IMHO.

 

We can do it here with TopSolid.