While I would agree that a CNC mill is perhaps more useful as a general shop tool than a CNC lathe, I have found the Mori Seiki 2-axis CNC lathe in my lab to be very useful. I can whip out special pins and clamps far faster with the CNC lathe than I can with my manual lathe, and with far greater accuracy. I can make a part, try it out, tweak the code, and bang out another version much faster than making them individually on the manual. I have some basic "templates" of CNC code for the lathe, and keep a common set of tools in the turret. I just copy the template, edit the profiles coordinates to match the new job, and go. For simple parts that only involve OD turning and drilling, I don't even bother dry running the code. If I am doing boring I check the code very carefully and do a dry run off the part to avoid breaking tools. I would like it even better with LinuxCNC instead of Fanuc 0-TC.
I might note that I keep a collet chuck on the lathe all the time, so don't have to worry much about collisions. I would be much more nervous about one-off parts on the CNC lathe if I had the three-jaw chuck with the 8 pounds of hardened jaws whirling around waiting to catch a miss-programmed tool. -- Ralph ________________________________________ From: Igor Chudov [[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2013 8:47 PM To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) Subject: [Emc-users] Troll like message, value of CNC lathe vs. CNC mill I had a disagreement with my employee today. I said that a retrofitted CNC milling machine, like my Bridgeport Interact, is supremely useful as a shop tool, but a CNC lathe has very little usefulness. I felt that there is not really much that one can do with a CNC lathe. He disagreed, but could not offer specifics. I want to see what you think, is a CNC lathe all that useful for someone who is nota job shop or a manufacturing operation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and "remains a good choice" in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
