Machines for a specific part

[Rstewart]

First of all I'm just a mill programmer, and been tasked with this. I Have some experience in programming lathes at school.

 

We have a chance to quote some good paying parts, yet we're gonna need a Lathe... Would be a good chance to expand or capabilities. I program two 4th axis mills (mori and haas) and do good work I think.

 

I modeled up a similar part that we'd need to do (with a lathe along with some mill work). This part is about 9" long and made of 4140. Anyone wanna give a stab at a lathe suited for this part? I know this is not enough info for specifics, just maybe a shove in the right direction...

[crazy^millman]

Look like something we use to make for the railroad years ago. Biggest thing is going to be do the parts need Y axis ability? Are you looking to do them in one shot on the machine? My recommendation is to call in your Machine Vendors and have them earn your business. Just about every one of them I deal with will make a project like this a turn key to earn your business. They will do the time study and tell you what tooling package to put together and what the cost will be. Then from there you can decide which builder you want to go with. Just about anyone has a machine to make this part the real question is where does your company really want to go with this? Not where they think they want to go, but where do they really want to go with this project?

 

My wife has a saying I have come to use. Don't count the chickens before the eggs have hatched. Seen many of these so called projects over the years once you get down to brass tax they seem to dry up. It is a viable project then put the effort into it. If it someone's pipe dream then throw out a safe money making number and then go from there. When things like this came across my desk I would shoot from the hip high. We got it we made money we didn't then we were not meant to have it. Really comes down to how certain is it and then you can make the tough decision from there.

[specv]

If you are purchasing a machine for the part then I think you should look at a turnkey solution. This way you have a piece price to work with and the machine is ready to rock when it comes in. Then if that work goes away you have a program to emulate for future jobs.

I would look at a machine that can do it complete if the volume is high enough to support 1 machine. its hard to recommend a machine unless you lay-out the process first.

[Rstewart]

Yeah, all good points above. Quantity would be higher than normal for us, somewhere around a thousand. Not sure on the timeframe yet which doesn't help much I know. I think I'mjust gonna tell the boss we either need a machine vendor to come in or just sub the work out.

 

I know too little about Lathes to make set up a turn-key kinda thing myself. That part would require a Y axis if completed in the Lathe, although some of those features would work better on a mill I believe.

[Joe788]

That's a dream part for any B axis multitasking center. (Integrex, NT, Multus, etc). Turn the smooth end on the main spindle, hand it off of the sub spindle, do all the milling - part is done. You're looking at a price range of $400k to infinity for a new B axis machine though.

[civiceg]

There have been a few "pipe dream" jobs that have came and gone at my work. The idea of buying a specialized machine has always came up. I have seen time studies on sub spindle lathes with 3 turrets, blah blah. But, if that job leaves and your other work doesn't require that pricey lathe, its been reduced to just one expensive spindle. Not to mention down time if that one machine breaks. I get that some parts are such a high volume that they are needed, but I have never seen that kind of production. Id vote another mill and lathe with bar feeder if that part has a small enough diameter.

[Guest]

There have been a few "pipe dream" jobs that have came and gone at my work. The idea of buying a specialized machine has always came up. I have seen time studies on sub spindle lathes with 3 turrets, blah blah. But, if that job leaves and your other work doesn't require that pricey lathe, its been reduced to just one expensive spindle....

You put those jobs that you "don't think fit" on that 3 turret machine to practice up for when those jobs that REALLY need it come in the door, your guys are ready to go on it. We've got one customer that got a 3 turret machine for one specific job that come around about twice a year. The rest of the time, they just use two turrets. Multi-turret lathes kick serious @$$. Just looking a the parts they make for at least a good 2 spindle 2 turret lathe, if not a B-Axis with a lower turret.

 

JM2CFWIW

[Greg Williams]

You would get by with a 2 spindle Y axis turret lathe, if there are not too many different tapped hole sizes, remember the turret lathe has only 12 stations, Better still would be a 2 spindle B axis lathe and top shelf is a 2 spindle 2 turrut B axis lathe.

[Mick]

We're currently looking at twin turret machine. Possibly B axis. Possibly twin spindle.

 

I'm sold on twin turrets, that's for sure.

[chris m]

I would recommend that, if your budget allows, you buy a Y; I have [2] Y-axis machines and [2] non-Y-axis machines, and the Y machines are SO much better to use for milling.

 

I would also recommend that you buy a machine that allows you a minimum of [2] tools in the cut at all times; my single-turret subspindle machine has horrendous cycle times and you run out of room for tooling pretty quickly.

 

C