cnc ?

[pugs]

The lathe should only really need 2d contours. I ran one of those back in tech school, can't remember much about it other than it was fairly simple. Alot of the radiuses and angles and that can be programmed right at the machine in fill in the blank type formats IIRC, and you typically can leave one or 2 of the "blanks" blank and the comp will compute it from the other entries.

I'll check some of my old stuff, and see if maybe I don't have some lit on that lathe for ya, can't promise anything, but just maybe I got something yet.

[ihbuilder]

yea you may be right Matt but the machine the noggin is attached to can't keep up got an outsource figure and It came up almost double what the market is . so the family tradition is , keep everything in house

thank you , Jeff , I was going to look at 1 in MD over the summer ( good price ) but the uncertain future held me back Anyway the guy told me the same , the machine shop that I goto occasionally has 1 and told me it is easy 1 to learn on from doing everything manually . I just want to make sure while figuring my budget , I do not come up short .

IHSteve

[tc1cat]

Hi Steve,
The lathe I run at my primary job has 3d capable graphics as it has live tooling in the turret- mill heads in some of the tool pockets. The older lathes just have 2d graphics. You really only do things on a lathe in 2d. X and Z points are all that are needed.
Hope this helps you decide what to get!

Lynn

ps- You could make your wheels in 2 setups on the lathe I run now!! Your hubs would only be 1 setup. Unless my figuring is wrong you could make your wheels out of aluminum in about 5 minutes per wheel or maybe a little faster. This will let you know what your out source provider is trying to make per hour!

[ihbuilder]

Lynn , yea I pretty much figured that he got to keep his guys working You just answered another ? live tool on the turret which is the intention , do the whole process on the lathe . I still would be getting a mill later to make other products . I figured a lot of you cnc guys would be a great help in me overcoming this cnc phobia I have

IHSteve

[tc1cat]

Don't know what your bank account is like but the machines I run are well into the 5 figure catagory. Then you have to buy the tooling! Some of the angled milling tool holder are over $3000 each! It is very easy to spend more on tooling than what you did for the machine.

Lynn

[ihbuilder]

Lynn , I'm thinking (I know ) it'll take me awhile to get to that point I'm at least hopping to speed up the process I have now . making the actual wheel is a walk in the park but when it comes to the hubs , is what slows me down to get the accuracy for the bearing and hex seats and keeping consistent

IHSteve

[ihbuilder]

dumb ? maybe My mill takes NST # 40 tool holders . Now , is it possible to use a cat 40 if I lengthen the draw bar ? I'm looking around at various places and it's hard to find the NST #40 . now I didn't go where I usually find stuff yet , they got a bunch of used tool holders . I do not see an issue with finding them for the larger end mills but for the mini end mill with 1/8" and 3/16" shank . Hmmm , thinking as I type maybe I'll just make an adapter to go in the larger end mill holder . BTW Pugs , thanks for that link you sent me good deals on end mills .

Steve