I was going to point you to harvey byt Sticky beat me to it. Can you put it on an HMC or 5X?  If so, give it a tilt and hit it with a flowline.

Mike

http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/spacemouse/spacenavigator.html

Mike

 

When I bought my first SpaceBall years ago. I tried it out and couldn't get the feel of it.

It sat on my desk unused for about six months.

One day I thought.." I spent $450 on this thing, I'm going to learn to use it"

Pretty much the exact scenario I went through. It takes a little discipline to start using it because at first it doesn't seem that easy. But at this point, I feel like I'm working with one hand tied behind my back without one.  One trick I used to force myself to start using it was disabling the scroll wheel/ zoom on my right mouse.

Mike

 

 

If Makino's matrix magazine works the same way

It does. It has all its own servo drives  and  control unit. It conects to the machine vie Ethernet cable. Tool data and recovery can be done via the machine control, or the small control unit in the back. Something I like about the Makino Matrix magazines that you don't see a lot is that they keep the tools in pots. Almost eliminates the chance of coolant drip buildup/ and chips causing issues on tools that have been sitting unused at the bottom of the magazine for a while. We've had issues with this in the past with other tool magazines.

Mike

 

 

2.5 hours is impressive. Still a chip or burr under the part and vac will drop in no time, no matter how elaborate the fixture. Waiting 10 or so minutes after loading to make sure you don't have a leak wouldn't hurt. I work at a shop where the majority of our fixtures are vac, we have had multiple instances where parts were not loaded correctly. The parts did not come off, but the 7 gallon catch tanks were 90% filled with coolant due to leaks. This usually happens when sucking down sheet metal blanks that are not properly deburred. I have seen machined parts hold 27 inches of mercury over the weekend, with the pump off. It can be done, I don't doubt it, but I wouldn't trust an operator with it unless the part was also mechanically secured. So even if the vac failed its not ending up in the isle. 

I have seen wireless pressure confirmation switches for hydro decouplers that are wired into the alarm circuit of the machine. I would definitely look into something like that before trying to do un attended vacuum machining on an HMC. 

Mike

 

 

What I would be looking for is a system along the lines of what Newbee posted.

Then look at these guys. Iv'e seen them at IMTS and it looks legit. Also, I beleive James said one that he has experience with them.

http://www.mam-maschinen.com/

http://www.mam-maschinen.com/

Take a look at these guys.

Also, will this be enough storage for you?

In all seriousness though I would just get another A51/61 w/ the 313 and keep your 2 a51's as stand alones when the time comes. A robotic solution would be at least 200k since a fanuc robot of that size is around 80K and then you would need to have it integrated and have racking built. Not to mention the prep times would be painfully slow for a production HMC and having your operators recover something like that might be unrealistic.

Mike

Only when doing something with the toolpath editor. But like others have said, that locks it automatically.

Mike

Can't speak for that specific machine (although I saw it IMTS and it looked cool cutting air!) but we do have Makino's. Pro 3 and Pro 5. Awesome machines.

Saw this a while back. Pretty cool.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=9&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEQQtwIwCA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Ds9rsB0VP-Pk&ei=K4rJVNqSKM6yyAS-goHQCg&usg=AFQjCNHznXK6l_WaeiIBxSziKO6TcY2HZg&sig2=7cVCtVbhNHBgm-Ja5uSZAw&bvm=bv.84607526,d.aWw

Mike

 

 

If you are going to buy a real machine I'd buy real software for it.

Zing!!!!!!

Mike

 

 

 Is this just a line of crap. 

Sounds like it. I know a bunch of forum members program their Roders w/ MC. 

Mike

 

 

There is no presetter presently that will automatically update a machine tool's offsets. NOBODY wants the liability.

A Parlec Presetter sales guy told me that they have done it before but strongly advise against it. Bunch of wimps IMO. There are a million things you could do through the TC macro to check if a value has been changed and then do a quick check on a tool probe to make sure the gage length is in a certain range off the offset loaded.

Mike

If you want something to tinker with and sink a ton of money into. Buy it. If you actually have parts to make and you want a reliable machine, get something new or at least 2000's. 

Mike

 

 

CNMG on the 100 deg side is pretty strong.

+1 and these are free edges as well. 

Mike

 

 

 I feel there's a German/Swiss engineer somewhere rolling his eyes at every tool change..."Ugh, you vant to change tuls, again? Shizer, let me stop the spindle and fold out this rube goldberg ಠ_ಠ  "

Hhahaha I always thought the exact same thing. Like this mechanism will need to cycle about million times in the next 10 years, lets see how complicated we can make it.

Mike

How much that thing set you back Bob? Looks pricey...

Mike

We have a little deckel cutter grinder. With a little practice, you can do a lot. Not good for actually sharpening the flutes of an em though. We got ours used for about 2k. The original ones are pretty pricy new.

Mike

Yeah that's not bad looking. Should be able to make some good chips. 

Mike

 

 

$350x3 for 3 adapters, $500 for the CAT40 shank.

Seems a littl steep on the capto stuff. Want to give my the p/n's and I can cross ref with our dist.? Sticky's pricing seems a little closer to what we are paying.

Mike

Yeah I would go capto. At least you will be able to use it on other projects in the future. Takes money to make money    Luckily we have a ton of it from our turning centers so all we needed to get was 40taper to C4. I know it's a tough pill to swallow when you'll only use it once in a blue moon on the milling side. 

Mike

Pretty neat. 

Mike

If I had a dollar for every time someone suggested that I wouldn't need to be programming.

Mike

+1 . the standard removal tool should work great for that.

I always model stuff as close as possible to the real thing. Never know when a situation will arise where you need to fit in somewhere. Especially in multi axis machining. 

Mike

Bob,

   Can you position the part at an angle so the screw isn't just going back and fourth in the same spot? Also, maybe high feed with 12mm indexable. 

Mike