New CNC lathe day

So, I'm sure some of the regulars might have noticed I've been a bit quiet of late, and the lathe design/build thread I started has been deserted, but there's been a couple reasons for that.
Main one is I've spent far too much time making parts manually to keep my business venture ticking over, as I didn't want to have a gap in production/sales.

The other is that during my ordering of parts, an advert for lathes on Alibaba happened to pop-up on my Instagram feed for lathes around the size I was looking for. Further research and searching, lead me to the discovery that there are quite a few manufacturers of CNC lathes that ticked all the boxes I was looking for.

And as part of the preparation for delivery, I've had to carry out quite a few repairs to my neighbours telehandler, as the resident forklift wasn't quite rated high enough. Although after having to do some juggling earlier, it turns out the forklift rated at 2.3t can lift more than the telehandler rated at 2.5t... :whistle:

The result of that, is this collection got delivered this morning -
Attachment 28829

They should have been delivered yesterday, however there were other shipments within the same container that customs decided to target, so the whole container got held for over a day, before the shipping company were allowed to unload the non-targeted shipments.

The machine is now in the workshop. It's still not in it's final spot, as I need to workout how much room the bar feeder needs, which is going to depict the final placement, and the main bar feeder tube is still in it's crate.

However, I did put a plug on it, and it powers up.

Attachment 28830Attachment 28831Attachment 28832Attachment 28833Attachment 28834

Key specs are -
36mm spindle through hole.
5.5kw servo spindle with brake on spindle.
Taiwanese hydraulic chuck.
Live tooling fitted with Polygonal turning head, which also has an ER collet in the centre.
700mm X travel
230mm Y travel
Single bar feeder.


A few things that stand out, is the pre-sales support from the supplier was brilliant. Any questions I had were answered. I was going to opt for the GSK control, but the manual supplied for the company's own panel was pretty good. Some of the translation isn't great, but it's entirely understandable, with the exception of some of the more complex geometry feed options.
After production the machine was programmed to make my sample part, and a video sent of the machine in operation.

I'm out riding bicycles tomorrow, so it's probably going to be Sunday before I get it moved in to it's final spot, and get it making parts.

For now, I'm off to read the manual to try and figure out how you home the thing...

Xmas has come early for you. Looking forward to see it making chips. :yahoo:

Very nice. Looks a bit of a squeeze in there !

I got as far as emptying the old desk tonight, and swapping a couple phases so the hydraulic pump actually pumped, only to realise there's no hydraulic oil in the machine.
I did manage to home the machine, but the hydraulic pump was making it's lack of oil known :-/

I don't think I've got any hydraulic oil, so I'll need to see if any of the neighbours have any.

Anyway, here's the test video the factory sent before the machine got packaged up-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBkbSsdTmGs

Looking good Moray, I was only wondering the other day if it had turned up yet.

I've got my self a Tarex Burger Akebono 4Ac-35 Twin turret monster with Fanuc motors and controller which if I'm honest I'm a little frightened to power up because it looks very cramped in the cabinet so looks like could do some serious damage with a muppet like me who knows nothing about CNC lathes trying to drive it...Lol

Look forward to seeing you making parts and how you get on with it.

It's now into position, and off the skates. Not quite where I was planning on putting it, as I had to turn a bit to avoid the bar feeder running down the centre of the workshop.

I managed to find enough hydraulic oil to get the chuck working, so stuck a new length of bar in the chuck to help with the positioning to get a good visual guide to where the bar feeder needs to go.

After finally figuring out what button the manual refers to the [enter] button as, I've got the control backed up, then spent probably far more time that I should playing with the spindle positioning and the MPG :rolleyes:


Unfortunately I'm back to work tomorrow, but tomorrow nights job is to hopefully get the bar feeder bolted down and plumbed in, at which point I might have to load it up and try the test program before I start modifying things for the parts I need.

Who knew drilling 12 holes could take so long?

It's taken me 2 nights, to achieve this-
Attachment 28855Attachment 28856

Although that was prior to the final finessing adjustment.

I managed to get two rawl bolts stuck half in, after using a 12mm drill bit after eyeballing the required drill size. Then managed to drill and fit another two with a 13mm drill bit, but then the drill died, so gave up last night.
Tonight started off reasonably well despite only having a cordless drill, but the tip gave up on the only 13mm drill bit I could find. After much shed searching, followed by screwfix searching it became apparent 13mm masonry bits are not common, so I actually measured a rawl bolt, and realised they were 12mm. Only good 12mm drills to be found were SDS bits, and the only SDS drill was my brothers 110V. So after lugging the 30+ KG site transformer 100 metres from another shed, the final holes were drilled and rawl bolts fitted in under an hour.

So at last the bar feeder is bolted down, adjusted, wired in, and pushes bits of bar out.

I also got the live tooling spinning, and retested the spindle positioning.
Sometimes it's the simple things that are the most satisfying :D

So it should all be good for a trial run tomorrow night...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

Looking good Moray, I was only wondering the other day if it had turned up yet.

I've got my self a Tarex Burger Akebono 4Ac-35 Twin turret monster with Fanuc motors and controller which if I'm honest I'm a little frightened to power up because it looks very cramped in the cabinet so looks like could do some serious damage with a muppet like me who knows nothing about CNC lathes trying to drive it...Lol

Look forward to seeing you making parts and how you get on with it.

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Just realised I never commented about this.

If you're used to having spinning tools and static material, having the material spin and the tools static is quite daunting.

At least with spinning tools, the most likely damage is a snapped cutter (unless it's a very big machine, or you do something really really wrong!).
With spinning material, you're lucky if you just snap a tool, as crashes can get expensive very quickly, as I discovered with what triggered this purchase :-/

I know personally, it takes me quite a while to setup mills.
My mind seems to default to lathe mode, so thinking about mills involves lots more thought, that's despite the fact the mill gets setup more often on more varied jobs, whereas the lathe is mostly switching between a few setups. Despite the Cyclone being out of action for about 3 months, I still have it memorised as to how to switch setups. The mill on the other hand, I'm doing well if I can remember how to set up a new tool!

It's alive!
:yahoo:
Attachment 28862

Quote:

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Originally Posted by m_c

It's alive!
:yahoo:
Attachment 28862

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Not without Video evidence, it isn't..:victorious:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

Not without Video evidence, it isn't..:victorious:

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Video evidence isn't likely until next week.
I still need to get the lathe setup for all the parts I need to make, and get the workshop back to some form of organised chaos, so playing with video cameras is pretty low down the agenda :-/

I also need to get the video made showing my shiny new digital phase converter creation, which is powering the new lathe perfectly so far.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by m_c

Video evidence isn't likely until next week.
I still need to get the lathe setup for all the parts I need to make, and get the workshop back to some form of organised chaos, so playing with video cameras is pretty low down the agenda :-/

I also need to get the video made showing my shiny new digital phase converter creation, which is powering the new lathe perfectly so far.

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Well until we see it happen then it never happened...:whistle:. . . looking forward to seeing it.

This morning I had to do an online proof of identity using my phone. This involved posting a video of me reading out a number they sent me. You get 60 seconds to make the video and upload it before the number times out and you get another one.

Maybe we should implement a similar checking mechanism for all videos uploaded here? I'm sure Jazz would love to be the administrator for it :joker:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kitwn

Maybe we should implement a similar checking mechanism for all videos uploaded here? I'm sure Jazz would love to be the administrator for it :joker:

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Nah I don't do Admin roles very well, I've been offered them many times on various forums. It means being Diplomatic and politicly correct which just isn't me.!! I like to say what I think and bugger anybody who doesn't like or agree.! .:bull_head:

I'm slowly learning how to do work this.

I can now manage wonky holes :D

Attachment 29436

I may even think about doing a video at some point soon, once I remove the clutter that has somehow appeared on the flat surface on top of the lathe :barbershop_quartet_