cnc lathe

[Mike Heidrick]

Anyone use a cnc lathe? Standalone not 4th axis. Wood or metal.

[stan kern]

yes I do ,I have a Rockwell lathe that I added to my cnc built the 4th axis and used my own lathe.
Works good ,takesabout 20 min to go from indexer to milling machine 3 axis


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKzGCAM_QyM started to experiment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wra5FjQmG8I belt driven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbnsWgiJX7E leg turning
have more info search utube

[Bob Dodd]

Yes I have a Rikon lathe with extension bed , can be used as a lathe or stand alone indexer . IMG_1429.jpgIMG_1430.jpgIMG_1431.jpg

[Dan Hintz]

Nicely done, Bob, nicely done... did you design/assemble that yourself?

[Bob Dodd]

The stepper and mount for B axis , I got idea from Shopbot forum , the rails , carriage / gantry I designed and assembled

[Bruce Boone]

I have a Mazak Quick Turn 6T. I use it for metal, mostly titanium, and some wood. It uses an integral spindle and motor so there's no belts or gears. It can hold a ten thousandth of an inch all day long. It's a great machine.

[Mike Heidrick]

I have a Mazak Quick Turn 6T. I use it for metal, mostly titanium, and some wood. It uses an integral spindle and motor so there's no belts or gears. It can hold a ten thousandth of an inch all day long. It's a great machine.

Droool. What are you making with it?

[Bruce Boone]

I make titanium rings for a living. We work in titanium, stainless, cobalt chrome, and black zirconium. Custom rings made to order and sold on a website.

[Dan Hintz]

Droool. What are you making with it?

I make titanium rings for a living. We work in titanium, stainless, cobalt chrome, and black zirconium. Custom rings made to order and sold on a website.

Yeppers... my wedding band was made by Bruce. Tension setting of black zirconium holding a yellow diamond.

[Bruce Boone]

Mazak makes the real deal. I drool on their machines whenever I go to a show. If I could power it, I would have gotten a 4th axis with the sub spindle and Y axis. It doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Does it have a Kitagawa Chuck Bruce? when I had the machine shop pretty much everything was Mazak, two H500-50's, two H400-60's, a QT28N and sundry small bar fed QT's. Still love Mazak machines although not a fan of their lasers

cheers

Dave

[Dan Hintz]

I'm going to ask, neh, demand you guys stop talking about such machines out of respect for my health... I'm going to get all twitterpated and have a coronary.

[Dave Sheldrake]

When your over Dan you are of course welcome to come round and have a play

cheers

Dave

[Bruce Boone]

The chuck I have is a small 6" one with 3 jaws and only about 1/8" of travel. I believe it is Kitagawa and is hydraulic. I need to adjust the jaws in or out a couple serrations to turn different sized bars. Most of our rings comes from 1" bar but we get some bigger stuff, like up to 1 3/8" for tension sets. My lathe is small and pretty tight inside. It has a 12 tool turret so I don't have to change out tools for my normal stuff.

Interesting that you're not a fan of their lasers. I had the sheet metal enclosure for my fiber laser made at a place that used a Mazak laser. The cut box has ribs inside that aren't painted, so I can see the raw cut. It is probably the best laser cut I've seen. I mean it looks machined and polished! I can only wish I got cuts that nice with no slag whatsoever. Whoever dialed that one in really knew what they were doing.

[Dave Sheldrake]

The chuck I have is a small 6" one

B206 by any chance? the B series are short stroke but they do a BT206 long stroke with 13mm of diameter movement (They should run from the same cylinder) A lot of the reason Kit chucks were so good was the assembly guy (Lawrence Asaopardi) who looked at every chuck he built like most people see their children

(I was the lead engineer at Kitagawa for some time) it really was a fantastic place to work with a great bunch of guys. (we had a few giggles when people tried U-drilling chuck billets with 58mm Sandvick U-drills with no tips in them,it's surprising how well a friction welded drill body will stick to a 80kg steel billet)

From memory if you submitted the materials spec sheet to Yamazaki they would send over a config file for you for the Lasers. I love the machines (and have had quite a few) but the Mitsu's were easier to deal with when things went tilt so I ended up going with two of those

cheers

Dave

edit: Have a look at the CR42 chuck Bruce, the tir is astounding even for a collet chuck.