Jump to content

Welcome to eMastercam

Register now to participate in the forums, access the download area, buy Mastercam training materials, post processors and more. This message will be removed once you have signed in.

Use your display name or email address to sign in:

Interesting Tool Holder (video)

taperlength
 Share

Recommended Posts

Colin Gilchrist Proficient

Colin Gilchrist

Posted
Posted

http://www.lalmek.se/flexodrill/flexodrill.htm

 

These guys are for real. I think its actually an awesome product. I bet you could hold pretty good precision on placing connecting holes for hydraulic passages. I doubt you'll hit better than .01 true position, but that's actually not bad for the right application. What about angled oil passage holes in small crankshafts? I could see a ton of uses for this tool, since all you really have to control "precisely" is knowing the pivot length of the tool.

 

As you can see on the website for Lalmek, there is a special process for programming the drilling sequence.

  1. Drill a pilot hole with a regular (stub length) pilot drill, 1xD.
  2. Position Flexodrill with spindle off, where the tip of the drill is engaged in the hole. That hole acts as a pivot.
  3. Step "3" is the "tricky" one. You've got to program a "polar" move. This is "distance and angle", because the drill uses the tip inside the pilot as the radial pivot. You can think of this as a "spherical" move. It could be done in the ZX or YZ planes, by programming an Arc Segment. Otherwise you've got to program a Polar move, or break that spherical arc into small line segments executed at a slower feed rate.
  4. Once the drill is positioned at the correct angle of engagement, the spindle is started. (Probably with a short Dwell to get the hole started), then the hole is "peck drilled" using Linear output to feed and retract the drill, using 3X motion, along the tool axis of the drill.
  5. Pecking commences until the hole is drilled to depth. Spindle off is commanded with the tip at the bottom of the hole. Drill is retracted along the tool axis until just the tip is engaged in the pivot location.
  6. Spindle moves Spherically back to the vertical tool axis position. (exact reverse of step 3)
  7. Tool is changed, or it could be moved to the "next" hole, which could be at a completely different intersecting angle from the last hole, and the process repeats.

I know it looks "weird" but this is pretty genius if you ask me. I love seeing creative solutions to manufacturing challenges.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
RaiderX Rookie

RaiderX

Posted
Posted

I can see that tool in our shop for some of our manifolds. How do you run that through Vericut? :question:

I am with you in a big way. you want to send this request in or should I? sorry am pissen my pants laughing right now thinking about it. thanks for the laugh and no I aint gonna put the awesome support team thru this unless I have to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Tim Johnson Enthusiast

Tim Johnson

Posted
Posted

I am with you in a big way. you want to send this request in or should I? sorry am pissen my pants laughing right now thinking about it. thanks for the laugh and no I aint gonna put the awesome support team thru this unless I have to.

 

We do have a Vericut Users' Exchange coming up in June. That would make for a good laugh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mike@Lustre Newbie

Mike@Lustre

Posted
Posted

when I was doing tons of hydraulic manifolds and port blocks that would have come in handy at times , sure beats trying to position the part for a one-off procedure , I have seen a lathe drill a angle hole using 2 axis movements back in the day , the part was something Honeywell was producing and was being demoed at a local trade show .

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sticky Newbie

Sticky

Posted
Posted

when I was doing tons of hydraulic manifolds and port blocks that would have come in handy at times , sure beats trying to position the part for a one-off procedure , I have seen a lathe drill a angle hole using 2 axis movements back in the day , the part was something Honeywell was producing and was being demoed at a local trade show .

 

Do you mean a tapered bore? I'm not seeing how you could drill a hole on an angle with only 2 axis unless there was a live holder with adjustable angle involved. Even to do a tapered bore you would need to have your static holder on an angle.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Watcher Newbie

Watcher

Posted
Posted

I'm sure it's possible. Vericut can support crazy "attachments" that perform all sorts of neat tricks. How about Bottle Boring? They do it. U-Axis tool clamped in the spindle? No problem. I can't see this being any different. Treat the tool like a Gantry using TCPC.

 

I´m still banging my head to figure out how a XYZ move would drive the rotaries on a mini head-head tool holder in VERICUT....

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mike@Lustre Newbie

Mike@Lustre

Posted
Posted

Do you mean a tapered bore? I'm not seeing how you could drill a hole on an angle with only 2 axis unless there was a live holder with adjustable angle involved. Even to do a tapered bore you would need to have your static holder on an angle.

No it was a straight hole on a 15deg angle or so , it may of used a live tool , this was close to 15yrs ago or so . there was a video of the part on youtube I came across it one day years back .

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Colin Gilchrist Proficient

Colin Gilchrist

Posted
Posted

I´m still banging my head to figure out how a XYZ move would drive the rotaries on a mini head-head tool holder in VERICUT....

I think you would need to create a comment record just before, and just after the motion, in order to activate the components and kinematics being driven. You'd essentially be "cheating" the system, by calling a subroutine and using that to activate the axes and TCP/RTCP macros. Just my thoughts on how to potentially simulate that attachment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sticky Newbie

Sticky

Posted
Posted

No it was a straight hole on a 15deg angle or so , it may of used a live tool , this was close to 15yrs ago or so . there was a video of the part on youtube I came across it one day years back .

 

It was likely an angled live holder. It's actually a common place procedure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Join us!

eMastercam - your online source for all things Mastercam.

Together, we are the strongest Mastercam community on the web with over 56,000 members, and our online store offers a wide selection of training materials for all applications and skill levels.

Useful Links

Contact Info

Subscribe to eMastercam News

 

Legal

Privacy Policy

Store Terms & Conditions

Forum Guidelines

Follow us

×
×
  • Create New...