LOL curiosity got the better of me , not much shows until you click images !!!! I can see the boss now wonder WTF are those guys looking at online LOL .

those running vacuum plates , how big of part are you holding and how many per fixture load ?? we tried a vacuum set-up for one of our jobs on our Robodrill , the end results where not very positive , after several weeks of testing and such . In the end we bought 3 CHIC double vices and have not looked back . Feel bad for the boss he spent a decent amount of $$$ buying the vacuum set-up and several fixture plates only to have it end up gathering dust on the shelf .

http://www.tradeindia.com/fp2288878/Drill-Jig.html something like this ?

that,s what I call cozy , nice little shop your in newbeeee , what part of the UK are you in my parents are traveling there right now visiting family and checking out the sights , and my partner at work is originally from Bolton

Yeah where I am we are around that for sq footage in the machine shop , we have 2 vertical mills , and 4 lathes and a manual lathe and Bridgeport type mill . We desperately need more room as well , as we really could use a couple more lathes to keep stock in the bins .

A standard taper shank at 1 5/8" dia. will only have 10" of flute so you will have to order a longer series drill . One of the hardest parts with drilling that deep vertically is clearing the chips and getting coolant to the bottom of the hole without it vaporizing around the tip while cutting .

I would go full depth of cut .

Judging by the forklift in the background that is a pretty big part , worked on similar items that size in my manual days working in jobber shops . A ball nose end mill in a die grinder may be your best route , I have done similar procedures using die grinders as tool post grinders for certain jobs over the years not the best method but it got the job done and the customer was happy . As for speeds and slowing down the air grinder it may lose torque and could potentially stall the grinder but you won't know till you try it out , regardless a razor sharp tool and plenty of coolant should produce a nice clean groove . Also is the part getting repolying the roller ?? or just recutting the existing grooves , if recutting the poly will more then likely work hardened so to speak and will be easier to work with . Good luck let us know how it goes for you .

can you run live tooling on the machine you are running the parts on ? if so you might be able to use a ball nose cutter and machine the profile that way . another thing be sensitive of your feed rate when using really sharp tooling , too much feed rate will effectively act like a threading cycle when cutting with little to no nose radius .

very sharp tooling and flood the coolant from my experience , and is it just a straight plunge type groove ? snap-ring/O-ring style or a spiral barber pole type ? I used to work with it a fair amount at my last shop and we had 90% of the sizing and shape done when the item was cast .

from my experience the HAAS is not going to like incomplete codes like M5 , G0 , G1 and T0100 , it will error out , they should be M05, G00 , G01 and T101 .

@MTB Very valid point, I'm sure if someone knows the parameter access codes they could easily alter the actual machine hours , rolling the odometer on old cars was a common trick for used cars salesman , no doubt it could be used for selling machines and the likes . As for the machines ours all state time as hours and minutes for machine on time and the cutting time etc. is hours , minutes , seconds .

On the 18TB and the 31i one can edit the cutting hours and run time hours but you cannot edit the power on hours . Does the machine show how many hours it's been powered up for ??

what about using a top notch style boring bar with a insert with the right radius ?? years back I did a course and for thread milling project we just used a shorter top-notch style boring bar . http://www.kennametal.com/en/products/20478624/62318451/56148232/56148278/56161190/56161195/100002926.html

Looks like the regular 2100 has more options available , it can be set-up as a twin spindle , has a " Y" axis option , a parts catcher on the "B" spindle . The GT2100 has a tail stock and is designed more for doing " A" spindle only procedures , where the 2100 can turn and mill parts with both spindles .

what if one is starting from scratch , what cad program should one look into , both my son and myself are looking to learn , I have no CAD experience just old school drafting from 30yrs back in HS and trade school .

try the ISCAR CNMG 432 M3M IC6025 and for lighter cuts the F3M version in the IC6025 , we turn 304 daily and get really good tool life .

are you sure your encoder is capable of reading that thread pitch at that feed rate ?? years back I worked on a Haas TL3 and the encoder was limited to reading 100 inches per minute , so one had to watch the feed rate and rpm to not exceed the capabilities of the encoder .

Myself if the budget allows it get the Doosan , in the end you will be a much happier customer . Haas are a great machine for certain markets but are not a true workhorse when compared to the Doosan . Our oldest Puma 240 is a Daewoo and it still runs for 96hrs or so a week on average and is trouble free and has over 18,000hrs of cycle time and has produced over 600,000 parts .

I turn a fair amount of 6061-t6 , it is only a 1" dia item but I was dealing with bird nesting around the tooling and such . one of the fixes I did from the obvious increase the feed rate and adjust the rpm was to use high speed peck drilling . I also played with the coolant nozzles on the tool blocks as well . we run 99% of our parts on the "B" spindle so on certain items I kept the thru coolant on the "B" on till the turret has returned to it's g28/g30 position , I also kept the coolant on the turret till it reaches it's g28/g30 position . These changes have allowed us to run around the clock with little to no bird nesting around the spindles or the tooling blocks in the turret . We also run Aluminum grade inserts on all the tooling , this has helped stop build-up on the tool edge and also helped break the chips up , ISCAR from my experience makes some really good grades that work very well with Aluminum and the likes .

YES!!! as soon as the hydraulics are powered OFF be it manually , power failure or the machine being bumped enough to trip the overload settings the "Y" axis will drop on the slides . in regards to machine weight , tag on back of the machine states 5900KG,s for the 2100SY

We currently have a Doosan 2100sy on the floor along with 2 other Doosan (Puma 240s) . At my last shop we brought in a Haas ST20 a few months before I left , was a decent machine but not on the same level as the Doosan,s . Haas does have control features i have more experience with and what i prefer , but in the end i would invest with Doosan or the likes . As pointed out the Doosan is capable of having a live tool in all 12 of the turret positions , it is also capable of a mid turret position . Our machine also has a "Y" axis which has been very useful in the production of the products we produce . A ??? in regards to the Haas are you going to be using the machine as a twin spindle and transfering parts for "A" to "B" or using it as a tailstock , our machines are all equipped with collets on both spindles and we have chucks we can swap to if needed . As for barfeeders we currently have 2 LNS,s and a older SMW . The LNS can be finicky , and the SMW is a true work horse that as been rock solid in operation day in day out , which is very helpful as we run lights out up to 4 shifts a week . One thing to watch out for on the 2100SY is when powering down the machine there is several inches of turret drop on the "Y" axis so be careful on where it is when shutting the machine down .