Anyone have any experience plumbing air thru a 5 axis trunnion setup? I am looking for a way to supply air to a System 3R or Erowa chuck for automation purposes on our MX-520. Both chuck suppliers have a way externally to bring air to the chuck but they either add Z height to the chuck or take up table space and are causes for potential collision at A-90. Any ideas out there?

TK

Sign me up for interested in hearing as well.

Check for a () inside of another ().  Or a ( inside a () or ) inside a (). Think we had this happen today.

That's waaaaay more than I pay for them.

For a 20k Matsuura use the reccomended one from JM Performance products!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Their high torque version. It is ground to a tighter tolerance than normal versions of that stud and what Matsuura highly reccomends. Look in the pre installation paperwork for it. JM51023HT.

Mark,

Cool. With the addition of our 20k spindle I have noticed a substantial difference from an end mill holder to shrink particularly roughing at those higher RPM with small tools. (5/16 and below) I just finished a run of aluminum parts where I ran a 1/4" roughing tool in various different holders to see where the differences might be. The clear winner was shrink. Ran a Pioneers SX, Fahrion ER, Lyndex EM holder and Haimer shrink.

HPI set screws in their end mill holders suck. The holders themselves are nice. You'll want to replace the screws. 

Are you using all end mill holders at those higher RPM?

Interesting info.

Didn't get an actual shrink unit yet, just holders. Use a torch and a lathe. Looking at a lower end shrink unit from Techniks or Lyndex. Something simple. 

I wouldn't go the route of Haimer knowing what I know now. I asked for a few specs on their holders and pull studs and they won't tell me whether they meet the standards asked for by Matsuura. A simple yes or no whether your holder meets a print was all I was after and they still didn't give me an answer. So I said the hell with a company and won't work WITH you to make sure you're getting what you need. 

I'd look hard at Lyndex, Rego, Fahrion and Pioneer SX for super nice stuff. For simple collet chucks that don't need to be uber accurate I'd look at Maritool coupled with Lyndex ER collets. 

Machine is definitely more rigid than I thought it would be.

Negatives- nothing major once we swapped out our first chip conveyor. Machine has a couple quirks that are annoying. You have to turn a key to do anything manual with the door closed. That pretty much my only gripe.

Love it so far. Been installed and running for about 3 months. Get a nice chip conveyor!!! Lns mh250 or better. Laser is probably over kill but nice. Blum z nano would work fine for what we really needed. Breakage detection only for us. Lang is on a riser at the moment. Check out tkmsusa on instagram for pics. 20 k spindle is rock solid. Enough torque for face mills. Tons of rpm for tiny tools and aluminum. Not enough tool storage for the high mix low volume stuff we run sometimes. But gotta start some where. We use camplete. Pretty simple to get up and running with Sean ormson's help. Pretty user friendly but slower processing on large files than I'd like to see. I would also get a post for doing simple stuff. Don't have one yet but see it as beneficial.

Best place to start honestly is Youtube. Watch some videos from various tool manufacturers and mimic that. Helical Solutions, Data Flute, SGS, Swiftcarb are goods ones to search. 

Starting points for steels- Max depth up to 2.5xd, radial stepover 5-10% of tool dia, feedrate double or triple normal, sfm at least double normal.

Starting points for aluminum- Same DOC as above, stepover 20-30%, max rpm, feddrate double or triple normal

TK

Thread mill. On a part that expensive that's all I'd consider. Look at Harvey Tool. They have the exact length you need. It'll take a few passes but at least it's predictable. 

Marketing BS. Kaiser stuff is nice, no doubt, but they've stuck it to their customers on pricing for years and now have actual competition that they want to smear. I would use Lyndex without hesitation. Can't be that difficult to measure a taper angle to a flange face... 

Sweet. That's what we were looking to do in X8 with the visibility fixtures check box. It looks like that was only supporting the lathe side of the software for X8. Pretty neat stuff in X9.

Nice. Thanks.

So Boolean Add combines all the current solids into one? And then select that combined solid in your stock setup?

What are your steps to bring you fixtures into X8 verify to check against collisions during the verify process? 

I just purchased a Matsuura MX-520. I was struggling with the idea of the distributor in my area being relatively new with Matsuura. The install had a few hiccups but the support and training directly from Matsuura has been terrific. I was trained by Sean Ormson. He knows his stuff to say the least. James M has also been a great deal of help on a few issues. He's clear across the country from me and doesn't know me at all and is still willing to help. Pretty amazing and cool if you ask me... 

I visited Matsuura in St. Paul a few weeks ago. They're small enough to care but large enough to give good support. I've been pleased with my experience so far.

I also looked at a couple year old H40i before purchasing the Matsuura as well. The Yasda Fanuc integration with some of the things I wanted to do was lacking. Methods is using a software developed for them to control the tool info and pallet info. It has the same functionality as Matsuura as I understand it though the Matsuura MIMS is much better integrated in the operator control panel. Methods was using RFID for the tooling which is sweet, I know this can be added to many Matsuura machines as well. Yasda was persistent on using BT tooling which I understand though it wasn't the best fit for me at the time.

Both Matsuura and Yasda are great machine builders. Matsuura definitely has a broader installed base running lights out. Yasda and Methods are hungry to fill the market and replace what they lost when Methods and Matsuura split in the US a couple years ago. 

Look at Nachi for flat bottom drills. Aqua Drill EX Flat.

http://www.nachiamerica.com/c-1/Cutting-Tools/Drills/

From a few I've talked to that use them they are the bees knees in the flat bottom world.

You need to look at matsuura!

Anyone have any feedback they'd like to share on this machine? 

Seems to be a nice entry level 5 axis machine. Lacks a bit of power but seems like a cool concept to get your feet wet in the 5 axis realm at a reasonable price tag. 

Would you put it above or below a Haas UMC-750?

They can. I'm a job shop and looking for something as stocked standard when particular types of jobs roll around. They have a new variable pitch 7 flute too that we've used on Ti. Might give that a whirl to keep harmonics under control.

TK 

Talked with Helical Solutions today and they said to use their HEF 5 flute series. It's traditionally a finishing tool for steels but will work just fine for light finishing of aluminum especially some of the higher strength ones like 7075. Only thing to watch out for is galling on the walls if the aluminum starts to weld to the AlTin or TiAlN, whichever they use, coating. They said they've had good success with it. Pretty cool.

Awesome video. So use the higher flute count "steel" tools is what I take from this.

TK