New to Horizontal Milling

[Sticky]

I have some Lang stuff, it's nice for some things, but I would not use it for what you are talking about, the FCS is superior in clamping and positioning accuracy. Furthermore, if you do need backup support for the part, FCS has some really nice adjustable arm supports.

[g huns]

I am intrigued by the Jergens zero point system. For the $$$, and the claimed holding power, it seems pretty nifty.

[g huns]

I got 2 of these from Stevens and 8 of their modular vises on the way...

 

 

But, it's a 6 week delivery.

 

One of our tooling reps brought a guy from Gerardi in a couple weeks ago. I have been waiting on their quote ever since. The Gerardi guy showed up yesterday with the quote. I was like, sorry dude, couldn't keep waiting. Had to get the clock started on that 6 week delivery. He says he can have the 4 sided vise he quoted in our shop in 1 week, 2 weeks max. So I bought it too.

 

 

It will be nice to have a little variety. The Stevens will be very versatile and will hold all but our biggest blocks. We build some tools with long, narrow cavities sometimes and being able to mount the modular vises in either a vertical or horizontal orientation will be great. The Gerardi will have a 17.5" opening and 7" wide jaws. It will be nice to have for smaller pieces that we make multiples of.

[MIL-TFP-41]

It will be nice to have a little variety. The Stevens will be very versatile and will hold all but our biggest blocks. We build some tools with long, narrow cavities sometimes and being able to mount the modular vises in either a vertical or horizontal orientation will be great. The Gerardi will have a 17.5" opening and 7" wide jaws. It will be nice to have for smaller pieces that we make multiples of.

 Was was the ballpark price on the Gerardi?

[Mr. M]

We have 1550 Vise towers from Chick on all our HMC's. I am looking at adding a few more pallets to have more modular work holding on. I'm thinking a Schunk Vero base would be the ticket.

[mkd]

I have a Gerardi 5 axis style vise. Good holding power without a lot of wrenching.

 serrations like a lathe chuck to mount hard/soft jaws

[g huns]

 Was was the ballpark price on the Gerardi?

 

$11K

[Sticky]

We have 1550 Vise towers from Chick on all our HMC's. I am looking at adding a few more pallets to have more modular work holding on. I'm thinking a Schunk Vero base would be the ticket.

 

I think that is the best application for the Schunk vero system. It's too big for most fixtures, but it would make a great pallet base. The system comes at a premium though, and I'd rather put that money into a new dedicated pallet, but I hate swapping fixtures 

[Mr. M]

What I want to use it for is to then have the Schunk pallets setup with various things like a 5th Axis vise, 3 jaw chuck, and an angle plate. I "think" it would be a good investment. We already use the Vero system on our 5 axis mills and like it.

[mkd]

What I want to use it for is to then have the Schunk pallets setup with various things like a 5th Axis vise, 3 jaw chuck, and an angle plate. I "think" it would be a good investment. We already use the Vero system on our 5 axis mills and like it.

Using one pallet for all those possibilities sounds like a more economical purchase than dedicated pallets.. not to mention not having to forklift dedicated pallets in/out.

[jlw™]

A jib crane where you can pull them and put them on a pallet is well worth the investment. It's hard as a herding turtles to place a pallet with a forklift.

[Mr. M]

Yeah, that is my thought too. And then I'll look at having a T style tombstone with the same setup. That should add a ton of flexibility to our HMC's.

[crazy^millman]

A jib crane where you can pull them and put them on a pallet is well worth the investment. It's hard as a herding turtles to place a pallet with a forklift.

I like to use the old school come along and a electric or hydraulic crane. The mix of the two give you speed to do course lifting and placement and then the old school come along allows the fine adjustment needed to place it right where you want. Taught some people this last year when the crane system was put in with no power. We could drag the electric crane where we needed it, but couldn't use it. Got some old school come alongs and was in businesses while the union workers took 4 more weeks to wire them, then everyone hated the electric because it was not fine enough. Threw the come alongs back on them and guys on the floor was happy. The engineer was puzzled until he stopped by one day and tried to prove them wrong. Guess what they are still using together?

[g huns]

Have my holders for smaller drilling narrowed down to two, Command GL series or Lyndex-Nikken HiTorq. 

 

The Command is one size, ER25, from 4-16mm. Nikken uses an ER16 for anything under 6mm and ER25 for the rest. We use holder collision checking in everything, so it's kinda nice to have just one holder. But the Nikken collet nuts have bearings.

 

And Command is about $2400 cheaper for 34 chucks/collets.

[Tim Johnson]

The Nikken bearing nuts leak if you're running thru coolant.

[g huns]

The Nikken bearing nuts leak if you're running thru coolant.

 

Well then that makes it a really easy decision.

[Mr. M]

Nikken has sealed collets though for TSC. I'm not a big fan of command.

[g huns]

Nikken has sealed collets though for TSC. I'm not a big fan of command.

 

Both are steel sealed collets, not the ones with little chunks of o-ring jammed in the slots for sealing, supposed to be good for 1000PSI. But I can see where the bearing nut design could allow some leakage.

 

We have a POS Parlec with the little chunks of o-ring, it leaks with only 200PSI of coolant pressure.

[specv]

I like to use the old school come along and a electric or hydraulic crane. The mix of the two give you speed to do course lifting and placement and then the old school come along allows the fine adjustment needed to place it right where you want. Taught some people this last year when the crane system was put in with no power. We could drag the electric crane where we needed it, but couldn't use it. Got some old school come alongs and was in businesses while the union workers took 4 more weeks to wire then, then everyone hated the electric because it was not fine enough. Threw the come alongs back on them and guys on the floor was happy. The engineer was puzzled until he stopped by one day and tried to prove them wrong. Guess what they are still using together?

This is why we use air hoists for large/heavy parts, they have much finer movement due to letting just a little air squeak by the valves. 

[g huns]

Anybuddy gots a header and footer example for a program from an OSP-p100?

 

My software provider(not MC ) is struggling mightily with making me a post for this animal.

[crazy^millman]

We have them for a 300 if that will work.

[g huns]

We have them for a 300 if that will work.

 

Thanks Ron, I'll give it a shot.

 

This is my first experience with an Okuma control. The dude who's writing my post was asking me all kinds of question I don't know the answers to. I finally told him, the fact that you are asking me all this is a little scary to me. He got all pi$$y. Told me he couldn't be expected to know everything about every machine. I agree, but I find it impossible to believe that as a company, they have never created a post for this machine.

[crazy^millman]

Shoot me an email and I will send you a DB link to get some sample code.

[Mr. M]

What software are you using?

[g huns]

Cimatron