I lust after one of these, I was actually jealous when you said that you were ordering it! Such a nice lathe. Great vid, now I want it more. Congrats and moving forward with your business. I'm still working on building my first cnc machine.
NYC CNC Mill, I'm going to be using Mitsubishi servo motors and drivers HC-KFS43K and MR-J2S40A with a brake version on the z axis, coupled to a home build chromoly chassis filled with epoxy granite for stiffness and dampening. 9x32 table, actually thinking about using a tormach bt30 spindle, no tool changer but it seems like the simplest option. KFOP board with mach3 interface, I'd like to use linux but I don't know if the kfop board with connect. That's the plan anyway, so far I have the servos and drive units, the rest is a bunch of napkin sketches that I am putting into solidworks! I'm slow... lol. Ron.
For aluminium get a Sumitomo carbide CCGT 80 degree diamond tip. Love the conversational append feature. I am using BobCAM for my CNC turning. If you remove the T0202 between the ops it shouldnt go to the home position. Just ensure you have clearance between ops
Also those last cuts it does at the end of the roughing in z- direction is to clean up the face. :) you can fix all that by editing the g code yourself and have it do a x+ cut at the end of the finish pass
Hey John, as a CNC machinist myself, on the lathe it's always check double check triple check. I cut air usually for prove out as well as hurcos verification graphics. Even then I have missed a few things and crashed. Never into the spindle thankfully though. But since you have trammed in the turret you know how to realign it if that occurs. On our smaller of two lathes it will get out of whack if you blow it a kiss it seems. Doesn't usually present a problem until you're drilling a long hole. Either way, to the potential crashes you have I hole they are miniscule. Jeez. That sounds negative and that's not how I want it to come off. Cheers.
NYC CNC oh if you crash they do need to be aligned. Our big guy (an 8 inch) hasn't needed it yet since we've got it but the only crashes it's had would be a temp operator not removing the nub from the bar puller when reloading it. Comes down to pull the bar and red lights. The 6 inch of ours has had a rough life before we got it and I attribute that to it getting out of whack at the slightest nudge.
Also when setting x axis offset take a shallow cut. Then jog back z without touching x jog. Measure your stock after then input that number. On my lathes I set tool 1 (roughing tool) as the mother for all my other tools. I establish a z zero with it. Then I set all tools needed for the job based on that as well as test cuts for x. Any job after that uses the same tooling I can just set a part offset. Much quicker. :)
Also, it's a good habit to have a G50 code in every program. Maximum RPM to go with your constant surface speed code. Don't know if the conversational does this, or allows for this, but if you have a larger/heavier part in there, you may not want it spinning at 3,000 RPM.
NYC CNC I tried to look it up in the tormach manual, but couldn't find anything about it. I was actually sure it's G92 but the manual says that's "Offset coordinates and set parameters".
NYC CNC Sorry, I just got home from work. In school, I was taught to ALWAYS include a G50 Max RPM whenever you use G96 Constant Surface Speed (as opposed to G97 Constant RPM). Reason being is that using CSS will theoretically turn the spindle balls out to its maximum RPM (whatever your machine will do) the closer it gets to rotational center. You want to limit this in most cases as a matter of safety. Sorry, I don't do any CNC Lathe work these days, so I'm open to additional input from others. But it's something ALL of our "hand written" programs were required to have whenever we used G96. Did some search for a reference to G50, and found something in Wikipedia and I did a screen capture of it - See Link www.fototime.com/E514CE6F44CA9B0/orig.jpg
Keith Downing Yes the Tormach control has this max RPM feature. I forget if it's called G50 (it probably is) but I know that I put it in one of my codes a few weeks ago and it works great.
Hey John, Awesome to see it up and running, great looking machine, and can't believe how easy it was to run that test part! Looking forward to some more CNC Lathe projects! Thanks for sharing! Ray
Wow I am super envious right now.. I actually operate a HAAS ST-35Y turning center at work, which is a pretty powerful (and large machine) Not to mention having a Y axis is awesome. But seeing how it is technically not my machine I don't have free reign to make my own parts on it... I wish I had a nice machine like yours at home (need to look into getting one). I couldn't afford the ST-35Y seeing how it costs something around 125k BTW, If I were you I would get a digital touch probe and use that... using paper to gauge work offset is risking a accident. And I am not familiar with Tormach's controls But I can see in the interface there is a "Set G30" option. just move the tool a safe distance and set the G30. I am sure you have already figured that out though seeing how you posted this video about a week ago. :-) Have fun with your lathe! -Morgan
I agree with Russ! Very nice machine! I have an old Emco 220 that this machines reminds me of a lot. I and new to CNC all together I have always been a manual machine guy. I will send you a message on Facebook that may be of some interest to you. Sorry I haven't been able to keep up with everyone's videos.. So many guys putting out machining videos and I just never get the chance to see them so my email is backed up (138) of videos to watch! :/ I'm just now learning cad and cam it's definitely a learning curve for sure.. Thanks John glad you made the jump to get this sweet machine! D
Sorry if I missed it in the video, but what size of stock can the new machine handle? It looks like it will be a nice addition to the shop. I can't wait to see how well that CNC lathe does threading. I assume it will be reactive enough to thread right up to a shoulder if the need arose.
Great Videos! A great coolant i use is OMETA 2 part. It is the best, nearly odorless, doesn't stain and is the easiest on your skin of all coolants i have tried. I have use it on my Lathes and mills for nearly 2 years now and love it.
How exciting! I've used Rain-X on my Lexan enclosure door and I would say it helped for a short while but the difference was fairly negligible. I don't mess with it anymore. What the camera really likes I've found is a straight unobstructed path to the action. My best footage has been when I open the top cover door slightly on my mill and mount the camera up high so it peers though the opening, then I just zoom all the way in to the tool, let it auto-focus, then switch it to manual focus so it never tries to refocus on the coolant spray.
John I'd be grateful for a full description of exactly what you have there in terms of options etc over and above the basic model lathe. I see the full enclosure, turret and collet closer, but there is possibly more than I haven't noticed. Sorry if you've already covered this somewhere.
NYC CNC Thanks John, I appreciate you looking in to that so quickly, it really helps to know exactly what we're watching. A request for a future video, if I can throw that in the hat? Once you have the lathe and tooling sorted is machining a precision taper, I guess you use R8 on the mill, but obviously something that's useful for you. I'd love to see how good the lathe is at machining a taper without grinding etc and whether a useful end result can be obtained. Sometimes a custom arbor etc is needed and machining it on a lathe to be finished in situ on the machine it's to be used on can often give good results in my experience. Accurate machine tapers are tricky to get a truly good result on a manual machine, but a no brainer to program on a CNC. However either way the tolerances are tricky and a what looks basic can be a real test in my opinion. Even a simple morse taper isn't easy to get really nice on a manual, at least not without it taking a long time. I use W20 tooling (look it up if you want a laugh), used by Schaublin and other top end machines for example, but Swiss engineering madness. A spectacular end result but stuff nightmares are made of (1.6667 mm pitch, non-standard buttress thread for example), I loathe making W20 tooling but for a CNC it's no more difficult than straight turning. Keep up the excellent videos John, stay warm, and take care!
NYC CNC Yep the real deal is definitely normally hardened and ground John, but sometimes we need custom tooling and without access to cylindrical grinders etc etc, things even reasonably well equipped shops probably won't have, it's the old turn and burn (turn them on a lathe and make new ones when the old ones get too beat up). I've made quite a number of precision tapers, Morse 2/3, ER collet chucks, and so on from mild or other unhardened steel, the trick is to do the final machining on the actual machine they're for. eg turn the taper on the lathe, fit it to the mill, chuck a tool in the vice and skim the arbor (just as an example. Likewise for boring if that's the tool you're making. You get the idea). It trues it up and if the taper is keyed it seems to repeat ok when removed. The end result is often remarkably accurate because that final skim has been done on that actual machine it will be used on. It won't take the abuse a hardened/ground version would, but it's a buck's worth of 1020 (or lash out on 4140) versus hundreds to buy one ... assuming you can buy it off the shelf. Sadly the latter is the reality of the W20 Bizarro World!!! At the moment the setup time rules out making more custom tooling, but I'm generally very pleased with the end results. Being able to make them quickly in something like this slant bed would open up a whole new world of inexpensive tooling solutions when they arise. I'll look forward to the video when you get a chance. In the meanwhile it's terrific to see you going from strength to strength while not losing sight of how you got there in the first place. Pete
NYC CNC John no need to send anything, I'm down in Australia so that gets expensive. My wife and I intend doing a road trip around the US in a few years, so by then I'll arrange to pick something up from your PA at your corporate head office ;) W20 is probably the most difficult taper I've struck, i.imgur.com/7tJPDLZ.png The difficulty with that one is the thread is a special buttress form 45/5 v 45/7 so no inserts are available (at least not that I've found). That means a special tool needs to be ground to cut them. I could send you up a ground tool and the rest of it should be very straight forward for a CNC lathe like yours, but you'd have no way to test the taper in any case. Instead I think it may be very interesting for your viewers to do a morse taper project, say an MT2 to fit your manual lathe's tailstock. I think self locking tapers are the most difficult test as they need to be absolutely spot on or they won't lock strongly. Tapers left soft actually lock better in my opinion, so a case right there for leaving things soft. Blue it and check it for fit to see how accurate the slant bed is cutting a taper. I'll chase up a very simple live centre design I made a couple of years back that allows pipe centres, tailstock chucks, regular centres, etc etc to be interchanged from the same MT2 spigot. I'll email it to you in the next few days and see what you think. If you don't have something like that already it may be very handy for you as things like pipe centres aren't used too often by most people, but are very handy to have around. It's a simple project and would be suitable for a 1 or maximum 2 part RUclips video that I think others would enjoy too. Pete PS I have to plug your Arduino videos while I have the floor. Despite electronics being my trade in a past life (before a career change), I'd never dealt with anything like that but am extremely impressed with what Arduinos/shields can do. Your videos are an excellent introduction to them. Nice job!
Hi John, How about a rotating disc like they use on boats to provide a self clearing viewing window for a camera. Why touch off to the diameter? The tool offset in X shouldn't change. You get some error due to workpiece and tool deflection, but you'd need to take a cut and measure to correct for that.
What a thing of beauty! Congrats! Hey btw. in terms of filming through glass and stuff like that I'd recommend you get a polarizer filter, which you turn and that will allow you to get rid of most of the reflections on glass, water etc. Keep it up!
Dude! Awesome video! The conversational probably makes it "Go to G30" every time, and you can set where G30 is by moving to a safe distance and hitting the "set G30" button. Easy peasy. But I like to keep mine far enough out that it won't screw me next time if I forget to set it for a longer workpiece. For aluminum inserts I get mine from KBC Tools, the shiny polished ones leave an epic surface finish and you can get them stupid sharp with 1/128" tip radius! When I come out for the open house maybe I'll code up a neat part that we can run all day. Brass shot glass or something.
hi john, great video i would check g code and edit it down smaller as run time of your parts will take to long i.e. your lathe is homing to many times, but please check tool clears work by an inch or so for tool changes !! you can check your program by zeroing z 4 inches back and run the g code without cutting anything. Daniel
This is a very good looking setup and a turret setup is the way to go. What I like about this programming style is that its block builder like Mazak's mazatrol. Simply put that if G and M code aren't strong suit this is perfect. I'm excited for you to see your progress. The inserts aren't that big of a deal until your straying away from aluminum. But key note on grades of inserts are that if its polished its non ferrous and if its dull check grade and check manufacturer recommendation.
Roughly 80% of my experience is with CNC lathes and live tools. My specialty was in Swiss style with Citizen Cincom A and L which are gang tool and another portion was with Mazak Quick Turn which are turret tools all of which with live tools. I really enjoy complex multi axis lathe work so part size matters for platform. Anytbing smaller than 1.25" is great on swiss machine bc of there high accuracy with detailed parts and gang tool tools can only reach a certain tool length. Anything bigger and turret are great due to the opposite of swiss machines. They have a bigger dia reach and more rigidly equipped with turret. Another added plus is Z travel X travel and when equiplex Y travel are all much greater due to turret clearance. So to answer youer question part determines a more favorable application.
John, what would you say is the largest diameter you can turn? I have a 7.5" OD x 3" long parts I would use a machine like this to cut. There are a couple of o-ring grooves at about 3" from the center (6" OD). Would you think this is doable?
Hello John! Great Video! I envy you for this great machine. As a hobbyist (who uses a small manual lathe) i can think of a thousand possibilities i could use this thing... Keep up your good work! I am looking forward for your next video, and everytime i did learn a lot. (please excuse my bad english) Greetings from Dortmund, Germany
Very cool idea. Time will be the largest factor since the 4th axis turns so much slower! If you keep with a .003/rev can you imagine how long that would take on the 4th axis? Then add multi pass. (That's a night run activity).
Lance Gifford Yep, I'm guessing time and surface finish are the biggest reasons to use a lathe. But if one can get the same dimensional accuracy out of a four-axis mill and isn't planning on doing any production runs, it may make more sense to save the money and use only one machine.
Very nice lathe. Did the part diameter come out .003 over? Wouldn't putting the paper between the tool put the tip out where the diameter is .003x2 bigger?
You're already are a "real machinist" IMHO. I on the other hand sit in the cheap seats on RUclips and just dream. Looking forward to more with the lathe and mill. If they could do that conversational stuff on the mill that would be way cool.
Looking back at my original comment I think it may have sounded like I was saying you did something wrong when really I was just trying to understand how it worked. I don't have a machine or even know how to run one if I did. I stumbled onto you looking for Taig information long ago. Even the Taig is still out of my means at the moment. I watch these videos by you and a few others to learn and your good teacher. Thanks for the videos.
Nice video, John! Best of luck with the new lathe. It is a beauty! I'm curious about the steps necessary to do threading properly. That should be a good test for how easy Tormach's software is to use. Thanks, -mike
Hi, if you look in the gcode generation tool the last (the yellow) the arrow goes from two sides ... dont know anything more than this but incase you didnt notice it shows the two way cut there ... maybe better in some strange way? =)
Awesome man!!! Congrats!!! Cant wait to see this thing when we come up next wed.! Maybe I can sweet talk my senior manager to budget this next year!! hahahaha Also the camera quality through the plexi was awesome I was surprised, def. looking forward to watching when you get the lights installed.
This is one of the best video's on this lathe, it's 6 years old, and there's still no video on tramming the turret anywhere on RUclips? Anyone have a walk-through on that?
I know what "tramming the head" of a manual mill is, but what is tramming the turret on a lathe? I have been a machinist for a long time. Teach me something. :)
@@EarthSurferUSA getting the turret level to X, perpendicular to the spindle, and height in Y adjusted to the spindle center-line. They gloss over it in the installation instructions, as a newbie it was totally confusing. After a few weeks I finally got the right guy (Ethan) at Tormach on the phone and he walked me through the best way to go about it. (the method in the instructions is an exercise in futility) I had to shim my turret up about .005" front and back, and I'm within about .0005" of being dead zero to the spindle on ONE tool pocket. So now when I set tools in my turret, I'll probably be within' .001" or so worst case and won't have to bother shimming each tool holder up or down +/- .005". Learn anything?
Would be nice if there was some LED bright lighting inside. But what is the precision of this CNC? What kind of accuracy can I get from boring an aluminum cylinder block? Like 0.005mm? Can you change the unites from imperial to metric? I would like to use "mm" notation instead of the "thou".
Ok. Just watched Tormach's video making a plumb bob. Is that last little operation it does after turning a diameter a facing cut? It does the same thing in their video too.???
Arduino window wiper!! Lol. The going home thing would drive me nuts too. Also can you have it come back for the finishing cuts after all of the different diameters are cut? Doing a finishing cut on a section of the part that is being cut down more is kinda a pointless. I'm not busting your chops on this I get your just getting to know the new machine, just curious. Very nice machine and video as always. Thx.
I'll bet it homes at the beginning of each of the appended sections from your conversational control. As in, when you add another op, the software isn't smart enough to know what was there before, and then optionally put in the re-home - instead, it homes every time. I wonder if a little post-processing is in order - or at least, comment out the line of code that rehomes at the beginning of each stanza. Good stuff as always. Keep it up!
If you want to get it to stop going to G30 after every cut and your going to use the same tool and tool offset, just delete the blocks that say something like: G0 G30 U0; G0 G30 W0; also delete the following tool change. Make sure your position is good for the next cut. If it's not just insert a line where you deleted the G30, insert a rapid G0 X Z where you need to start. When you get to the blocks that you edited for your first test run, just single block it with dry run enabled, rapid set to slow, no spindle running, and check where it's going to go. *Don't do this if your switching tools, or you could stuff the turret into the work piece.* Conversational is ok but your better off with CAM CAD, those cuts could have easily been done with a single G71 and one shot down the face. If your interested in all the G and M codes and tech stuff, there's a great book "CNC Programming Handbook, Third Edition"
Yeah, this was awesome. ^-^ I want one soooo bad! T__T Can't wait to see jobs coming off of it! If you do an adventure series on the lathe I have a part I love to see you make..
I am looking for a replacment fore my 1988 machine but the rapid travel is so slow!!! My 1988 machine is about 4 times faster. Sorry this is not for me!
I think the rapid is 100ipm. When that machine goes back to z-zero, (looks like a tool change move), I am sure he is in feed mode. Looks like about 30ipm
It is propably obsolete right now. But propably when u are doing this conversational part after each action it's not defined that there is another action following. and at the end of a program it is programmed that it has to go home. so when u are stacking the actions and appending these to the file u are just stacking the "go home", or better say the machine is stacking this action. another question: is it possible to have a mill tool on the tormach lathe to cut a groove for an adjusting spring for example? cheers
so do they have a powered collet option or is it only manual?I know the trend has been away from bar feeders(tend to be messy and take up a lot of floor space) but a bar puller on the turret is definitely worth it if you can open and close the collet from the program of course could still be done with your setup would just need to add a pause,pull pause
sweet..I will have to look into a bit more then prob start saving my pennies lol...I never really got interested in the hobby sized cnc lathes for the simple fact that the trade off of cost wasnt worth it vs manual.With options like bar puller that changes a bit!By the way excellent work on your videos...its nice to see someone with a small shop thats not afraid to try out new equipment....Now i just wish our "big boy toys" were not so damn expensive lol...makes it hard to decide between want and need
After a conversational program with several ops has been created and run can it be edited in the conversational program utility or do you have to edit the G-code?
Your Z 0 set is the front of your part? Do you have to set your X on every tool or is there a probe? I work on a couple of CNC Okuma big bore lathes and love it. If your interested i can get you some insert numbers that work wonderful on alum.
Just some tips:You need to change your facing cycle so you face down to Z0.0 and everything is measured from Z0.0 You're are cutting pretty slow for aluminum.
Very nice lathe John, I'm sure it will be great to use. Just a guess with the home operation between each feature. Seems to me that the conversational/interactive mode pieces together a complete CNC listing from each new feature that is added and has home in between each. Maybe there is (or should be) an "optimize" function that removes these or possibly just left up to the operator/programmer to remove manually?
Might be default setup for tool change; and in this code the pieces may be stitched together with a leading Tx. If you remove the Tx it may just stay with the part.
Great video as a basic demo/tutorial. This machine looks like it will be a great addition to your shop. How will you determine what projects will be done on this lathe vs your manual lathe? Also, the video quality was spectacular, I hope you keep these settings and use them on future videos.
My guess is it returns home between operations via the conversational control. Does this spit out G-code or are you stuck looking at the conversational? If you can output the program it should be very easy to edit the code to stay close to the part. Or just start hand-coding the simple stuff. 2-axis lathe work is quite easy provided it has all the normal canned cycles.
Nice to see that you got a CNC lathe, now your videos are more valuable to watch and learn. Is there any way you could do some CAM stuff with Mastercam? PS! GrabCAD started from Estonia before Stratasys bought it and I am from Estonia so you can google and imagine how far away you have viewers! Good luck!
NYC CNC I know what you mean about the Tears, I'm a FFL dealer, but fortunately, I live in Texas. I think we are about to pass open carry in Texas. I use Rustlick for my coolant, I use is both as a mister on the mill and flood on the lathe. Works good for me.
Wow... Nice! I was at Tormach doing the mill training the day the lathe went "hot" for ordering. I loved it the moment I saw it! So John, I have a couple of questions. I heard the new controller software is Unix based. Is that true? Also - and this is very important to me on so many different levels - the highest being safety - the Feedhold - how long does it take to activate when it's hit? On the mill it's far from instantaneous (Windows). When I bought my 1100 I asked if they would be moving over to a Unix based controller. (I worked for Microsoft for 8 years - in my opinion CNC and Windows isn't a great match - Case and Point - Feedhold).
Is it wrong to be drooling? The reason it does that quick nick on the back side after your finish cut is to remove any burrs from the cut. Just a simple way to ease cleanup and prevent snags or cuts. I know, I don't have the tool yet... But that is how I do my passes on my lathe at home most of the time, so I would imagine it is similar logic. Such a beautiful finish. Did you use gwizard to determine the feeds and speeds for it? As for changing home on the machine, look at section 6.10 and 6.12 in your manual. If I read correctly, you are able to change the home position, OR (and this is my recommendation since she uses limit switches) use the offsets command. 5161-5169 - G28 Home for (X Y Z A B C U V W) 5181-5189 - G30 Home for (X Y Z A B C U V W) 5210 - 1 if G92 offsets are active, 0 if not 5211-5219 - G92 offset (X Y Z A B C U V W) ALSO, MOST IMPORTANT PART! Page 48: a G30 is inserted before each tool change command, and unless a turret and tool is selected and set up, it may very well be inserting it... Don't know why though. Turret: If the turret option is selected, T commands T01 through T08 causes the turret to index (regardless of current machine position) and the offsets for the requested tool are applied. With the turret setup, tool numbers higher than eight are still available, and a T command of, for example, T09 does not cause turret rotation but does apply the offsets for tool 9. Therefore, it is possible to mount a parting tool or gang of drills to the lower portion of the carriage and assign tool numbers higher than eight to these tools. The machine does not automatically retract to G28 or G30 position before a tool change. It is the operator’s responsibility to program the machine to a safe position before executing a T command. If you have generated code using the conversational features of the control, a G30 is inserted before each tool change command. Keep up the good work! It is so exciting (for me) even if you can now sleep after getting a new tool, haha.
NYC CNC Homework? haha... I view it as learning. Like I have said before, I want to know as much about as much as possible! :-D Now to get back to fixing my TV... :-P
NYC CNC I have always loved fixing things, especially when I can get something cool on a great deal... 72 inch, FHD Samsung DLP tv... for $200 in parts. :-D The original owner got rid of it since it didn't work. After pulling it apart, only a few pieces needed replacing; bulb, ballast, and scratched lens. College student here, so I have little budget! :-D I am a "junker". Typically, I try to make everything better... now if only I could figure out how to make our government better.
NYC CNC oh dear... assuming a 3 to 1 ratio for fix from break... at least 3*6y11d8h 18 years and a month. That is for just the latest problems. minimum. Nope. I had 12 hours last week. .. can't fix that one
It would be way faster to just do a quick chip down the work piece instead of using the paper method. Btw, is there a reason why you put the work piece that far out of the chuck ? And one last thing I noticed is, that the coolant comes from the wrong side. Is that intended ?
NYC CNC Always put it in as far as possible, my rule of thumb was always to have 2mm clearance between the tool and the chuck, but you can do less of course ;)
***** far from 10 inches. And for someone learning his new cnc lathe a bit of stick out and voiding a spindle crash is smart. But I'm sure you had .030" clearance tool to jaws on your first part. Don't be a jerk. 2mm is huge BTW.
akromix Did you even read my comment ? I said he can do less of course. 2mm was my rule of thumb, nothing wrong with that and nothing wrong with going for less if possible. And calling someone a jerk who is trying to give constructive criticism is not the nice way.
NYC CNC Actually I think this guy has even less humour since he took that 10 inch thing serious ...^^ Btw, when can we expect to see your new tool changer in action ?
That is a sweet setup! Your enthusiasm and excitement really comes through. I am curious from more of a business point of view, when you make a capital investment in a machine like this, how long are your payment terms? What is the depreciation rate and payback rate you would see from this? Of course if you don't want to share this I would understand, just more curious than anything.
NYC CNC Honestly, that is the best way to do it unless the market is dying for such work. Financing is great when starting a full business but has so much risk. I started my general construction bus the same way. No cash, no way. I have no debt so no concerns, and minimal bills. KEEP IT UP! Keep rocking these tools, and its awesome to see that you have your finances set well. I have had family try this work type, but because of where they live, they rarely had work... one of them made some expensive investments and he had to take a 50% hit when his shop shut down... :-( Live and learn from others!
NYC CNC John, that's awesome! Really great that your business generates enough revenue to pay your staff, pay yourself, and generates enough profit to cash-flow your capital investments. I guess having a facility cost that is highly subsidized is helpful. So when you build your new facility, will you be saving and building that with cash also? I am also debt free, and have a small side business that also has no debt. Your an impressive young man! So keep saving up so we can see some more new toys down the line!
I love the threading and rigid tapping features on this lathe. I believe it's capable of multiple start threads as well, and I've been looking for an excuse to try it. Now if I could just get rigid tapping on my 1100 I'd be a happy camper!
I have a Tormach 1100 PCNC from 2007 that I bought for $12,000, and have been living off of it ever since, (modify small gas engine cylinders with it for RC cars mostly. Light duty work). I have over 1.25 million dollars worth of work through it and it has only been broken down for about 1 week total. I think I need to tighten up the gibbs a bit. Tormach: It is a pleasure doing business with you. Doug in Michigan. Earthsurferperformance.com
no jonh. you are 2x paper thickness on X if we want be acurate, but you are using inch so not matter. mills are allmost 3times more acurate lol 0.0001inch vs 0.001mm. 0.0001inch is 0.00254mm right? using G20 moving 0.0001inch moves 0.00254mm when using G21 moving 0.001mm its 0.00003937inch. so why use inch G20? how you make tool offset correction 0.00005? ok you never can cut that acurate but thought :) i use 0.01mm shim thats allmost more better than using G20 ha
Very misleading and very disappointing video. First, this is no "Pro" machine and will NEVER be a "Pro" machine. Pricing "starts" at $16,400 ...but the machine is not usable at that price. For a machine of 2015 era, using "steppers" and the very ridiculous "single direction, back up tool changer" ...this machine is NOT for any shop of any kind. It is a "LEARNING MACHINE" ...nothing more. Yes, YOU are obviously "excited" with this machine in your basement ....but don't try to suggest this is a great machine. By the way ....that is a very poor surface finish on the aluminum part.
You comments depend on the work you are doing. You can make a living with Tormach machines. For example : I have a Tormach 1100 PCNC from 2007 that I bought for $12,000, and have been living off of it ever since, (modify small gas engine cylinders with it for RC cars mostly. Light duty work). I have over 1.25 million dollars worth of work through it and it has only been broken down for about 1 week total. I think I need to tighten up the gibbs a bit. :) There should be no problem getting a good surface finish with the right inserts and correct programming with that lathe. "Machine is not usable at that price." What does that mean? I can put enough work though it to pay it off in just over a year. It depends on the work you are doing. Doug in Michigan Machinist for 2 decades as an employee at over 20 different non-union, (where the skill is), shops. An associates in machine tool 2 Bachelors, manufacturing and quality engineering. Self employed since 2007. (credentials just so you know I am no nubee)
hi john, i remembered you staying that filming with flood coolant could be hard work on your new cnc lathe, please watch this video as it could give you an idea of something to get or make to solve the problem ruclips.net/video/YPVBnBK09OM/видео.html let me know wot you think. Daniel
![SahBabii - Viking [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/D37cL92JX0I/mqdefault.jpg)
I lust after one of these, I was actually jealous when you said that you were ordering it! Such a nice lathe. Great vid, now I want it more. Congrats and moving forward with your business. I'm still working on building my first cnc machine.
NYC CNC Mill, I'm going to be using Mitsubishi servo motors and drivers HC-KFS43K and MR-J2S40A with a brake version on the z axis, coupled to a home build chromoly chassis filled with epoxy granite for stiffness and dampening. 9x32 table, actually thinking about using a tormach bt30 spindle, no tool changer but it seems like the simplest option. KFOP board with mach3 interface, I'd like to use linux but I don't know if the kfop board with connect. That's the plan anyway, so far I have the servos and drive units, the rest is a bunch of napkin sketches that I am putting into solidworks! I'm slow... lol. Ron.
NYC CNC Haha yes, but I need to start building it!
For aluminium get a Sumitomo carbide CCGT 80 degree diamond tip. Love the conversational append feature. I am using BobCAM for my CNC turning. If you remove the T0202 between the ops it shouldnt go to the home position. Just ensure you have clearance between ops
Fun times at NYCCNC! Congratulations John.
Also those last cuts it does at the end of the roughing in z- direction is to clean up the face. :) you can fix all that by editing the g code yourself and have it do a x+ cut at the end of the finish pass
Hey John, as a CNC machinist myself, on the lathe it's always check double check triple check. I cut air usually for prove out as well as hurcos verification graphics. Even then I have missed a few things and crashed. Never into the spindle thankfully though. But since you have trammed in the turret you know how to realign it if that occurs. On our smaller of two lathes it will get out of whack if you blow it a kiss it seems. Doesn't usually present a problem until you're drilling a long hole. Either way, to the potential crashes you have I hole they are miniscule. Jeez. That sounds negative and that's not how I want it to come off. Cheers.
Meant to say "I hope" not "I hole."
NYC CNC oh if you crash they do need to be aligned. Our big guy (an 8 inch) hasn't needed it yet since we've got it but the only crashes it's had would be a temp operator not removing the nub from the bar puller when reloading it. Comes down to pull the bar and red lights. The 6 inch of ours has had a rough life before we got it and I attribute that to it getting out of whack at the slightest nudge.
NYC CNC hurco. Tm6 and tm8.
NYC CNC I don't follow. I must be tired.
The video looks great through the door! Excited to see more of this machine.
Beautiful Machine John. Have Fun!!
Also when setting x axis offset take a shallow cut. Then jog back z without touching x jog. Measure your stock after then input that number. On my lathes I set tool 1 (roughing tool) as the mother for all my other tools. I establish a z zero with it. Then I set all tools needed for the job based on that as well as test cuts for x. Any job after that uses the same tooling I can just set a part offset. Much quicker. :)
Also, it's a good habit to have a G50 code in every program. Maximum RPM to go with your constant surface speed code. Don't know if the conversational does this, or allows for this, but if you have a larger/heavier part in there, you may not want it spinning at 3,000 RPM.
NYC CNC
I tried to look it up in the tormach manual, but couldn't find anything about it. I was actually sure it's G92 but the manual says that's "Offset coordinates and set parameters".
NYC CNC
Sorry, I just got home from work. In school, I was taught to ALWAYS include a G50 Max RPM whenever you use G96 Constant Surface Speed (as opposed to G97 Constant RPM). Reason being is that using CSS will theoretically turn the spindle balls out to its maximum RPM (whatever your machine will do) the closer it gets to rotational center. You want to limit this in most cases as a matter of safety. Sorry, I don't do any CNC Lathe work these days, so I'm open to additional input from others. But it's something ALL of our "hand written" programs were required to have whenever we used G96. Did some search for a reference to G50, and found something in Wikipedia and I did a screen capture of it - See Link
www.fototime.com/E514CE6F44CA9B0/orig.jpg
That's absolutely correct
Keith Downing Yes the Tormach control has this max RPM feature. I forget if it's called G50 (it probably is) but I know that I put it in one of my codes a few weeks ago and it works great.
Great looking machine. Best of luck with it.
Hey John,
Awesome to see it up and running, great looking machine, and can't believe how easy it was to run that test part!
Looking forward to some more CNC Lathe projects!
Thanks for sharing!
Ray
Today I duct taped my dremmel to a plank of wood to make a workbench. I'm on my way NYCCNC, after watching for years I'm on my way...
Wow I am super envious right now.. I actually operate a HAAS ST-35Y turning center at work, which is a pretty powerful (and large machine) Not to mention having a Y axis is awesome. But seeing how it is technically not my machine I don't have free reign to make my own parts on it... I wish I had a nice machine like yours at home (need to look into getting one). I couldn't afford the ST-35Y seeing how it costs something around 125k
BTW, If I were you I would get a digital touch probe and use that... using paper to gauge work offset is risking a accident.
And I am not familiar with Tormach's controls But I can see in the interface there is a "Set G30" option. just move the tool a safe distance and set the G30. I am sure you have already figured that out though seeing how you posted this video about a week ago. :-) Have fun with your lathe!
-Morgan
Right on! I'm stoked to see more.
I agree with Russ! Very nice machine! I have an old Emco 220 that this machines reminds me of a lot. I and new to CNC all together I have always been a manual machine guy. I will send you a message on Facebook that may be of some interest to you.
Sorry I haven't been able to keep up with everyone's videos.. So many guys putting out machining videos and I just never get the chance to see them so my email is backed up (138) of videos to watch! :/ I'm just now learning cad and cam it's definitely a learning curve for sure..
Thanks John glad you made the jump to get this sweet machine!
D
Sorry if I missed it in the video, but what size of stock can the new machine handle? It looks like it will be a nice addition to the shop. I can't wait to see how well that CNC lathe does threading. I assume it will be reactive enough to thread right up to a shoulder if the need arose.
That's cool.
They are a little 5c collet machine, the largest 5c collet is about 1 1/16".
Great Videos! A great coolant i use is OMETA 2 part. It is the best, nearly odorless, doesn't stain and is the easiest on your skin of all coolants i have tried. I have use it on my Lathes and mills for nearly 2 years now and love it.
How exciting! I've used Rain-X on my Lexan enclosure door and I would say it helped for a short while but the difference was fairly negligible. I don't mess with it anymore. What the camera really likes I've found is a straight unobstructed path to the action. My best footage has been when I open the top cover door slightly on my mill and mount the camera up high so it peers though the opening, then I just zoom all the way in to the tool, let it auto-focus, then switch it to manual focus so it never tries to refocus on the coolant spray.
NYC CNC yes and he doubles as a power drawbar. I'm working on expanding his capabilities to be an atc and to direct his spit up toward the tool. Lol
John I'd be grateful for a full description of exactly what you have there in terms of options etc over and above the basic model lathe. I see the full enclosure, turret and collet closer, but there is possibly more than I haven't noticed. Sorry if you've already covered this somewhere.
NYC CNC Thanks John, I appreciate you looking in to that so quickly, it really helps to know exactly what we're watching. A request for a future video, if I can throw that in the hat? Once you have the lathe and tooling sorted is machining a precision taper, I guess you use R8 on the mill, but obviously something that's useful for you. I'd love to see how good the lathe is at machining a taper without grinding etc and whether a useful end result can be obtained. Sometimes a custom arbor etc is needed and machining it on a lathe to be finished in situ on the machine it's to be used on can often give good results in my experience.
Accurate machine tapers are tricky to get a truly good result on a manual machine, but a no brainer to program on a CNC. However either way the tolerances are tricky and a what looks basic can be a real test in my opinion. Even a simple morse taper isn't easy to get really nice on a manual, at least not without it taking a long time. I use W20 tooling (look it up if you want a laugh), used by Schaublin and other top end machines for example, but Swiss engineering madness. A spectacular end result but stuff nightmares are made of (1.6667 mm pitch, non-standard buttress thread for example), I loathe making W20 tooling but for a CNC it's no more difficult than straight turning.
Keep up the excellent videos John, stay warm, and take care!
NYC CNC Yep the real deal is definitely normally hardened and ground John, but sometimes we need custom tooling and without access to cylindrical grinders etc etc, things even reasonably well equipped shops probably won't have, it's the old turn and burn (turn them on a lathe and make new ones when the old ones get too beat up). I've made quite a number of precision tapers, Morse 2/3, ER collet chucks, and so on from mild or other unhardened steel, the trick is to do the final machining on the actual machine they're for. eg turn the taper on the lathe, fit it to the mill, chuck a tool in the vice and skim the arbor (just as an example. Likewise for boring if that's the tool you're making. You get the idea). It trues it up and if the taper is keyed it seems to repeat ok when removed. The end result is often remarkably accurate because that final skim has been done on that actual machine it will be used on. It won't take the abuse a hardened/ground version would, but it's a buck's worth of 1020 (or lash out on 4140) versus hundreds to buy one ... assuming you can buy it off the shelf. Sadly the latter is the reality of the W20 Bizarro World!!! At the moment the setup time rules out making more custom tooling, but I'm generally very pleased with the end results. Being able to make them quickly in something like this slant bed would open up a whole new world of inexpensive tooling solutions when they arise.
I'll look forward to the video when you get a chance. In the meanwhile it's terrific to see you going from strength to strength while not losing sight of how you got there in the first place.
Pete
NYC CNC John no need to send anything, I'm down in Australia so that gets expensive. My wife and I intend doing a road trip around the US in a few years, so by then I'll arrange to pick something up from your PA at your corporate head office ;) W20 is probably the most difficult taper I've struck, i.imgur.com/7tJPDLZ.png The difficulty with that one is the thread is a special buttress form 45/5 v 45/7 so no inserts are available (at least not that I've found). That means a special tool needs to be ground to cut them. I could send you up a ground tool and the rest of it should be very straight forward for a CNC lathe like yours, but you'd have no way to test the taper in any case.
Instead I think it may be very interesting for your viewers to do a morse taper project, say an MT2 to fit your manual lathe's tailstock. I think self locking tapers are the most difficult test as they need to be absolutely spot on or they won't lock strongly. Tapers left soft actually lock better in my opinion, so a case right there for leaving things soft. Blue it and check it for fit to see how accurate the slant bed is cutting a taper. I'll chase up a very simple live centre design I made a couple of years back that allows pipe centres, tailstock chucks, regular centres, etc etc to be interchanged from the same MT2 spigot. I'll email it to you in the next few days and see what you think. If you don't have something like that already it may be very handy for you as things like pipe centres aren't used too often by most people, but are very handy to have around. It's a simple project and would be suitable for a 1 or maximum 2 part RUclips video that I think others would enjoy too.
Pete
PS I have to plug your Arduino videos while I have the floor. Despite electronics being my trade in a past life (before a career change), I'd never dealt with anything like that but am extremely impressed with what Arduinos/shields can do. Your videos are an excellent introduction to them. Nice job!
Hi John,
How about a rotating disc like they use on boats to provide a self clearing viewing window for a camera.
Why touch off to the diameter? The tool offset in X shouldn't change. You get some error due to workpiece and tool deflection, but you'd need to take a cut and measure to correct for that.
NYC CNC
Oh, does that idea float your boat? :-)
What a thing of beauty! Congrats! Hey btw. in terms of filming through glass and stuff like that I'd recommend you get a polarizer filter, which you turn and that will allow you to get rid of most of the reflections on glass, water etc. Keep it up!
Dude! Awesome video! The conversational probably makes it "Go to G30" every time, and you can set where G30 is by moving to a safe distance and hitting the "set G30" button. Easy peasy. But I like to keep mine far enough out that it won't screw me next time if I forget to set it for a longer workpiece. For aluminum inserts I get mine from KBC Tools, the shiny polished ones leave an epic surface finish and you can get them stupid sharp with 1/128" tip radius! When I come out for the open house maybe I'll code up a neat part that we can run all day. Brass shot glass or something.
Yeah John is right, I was going to let you know about the G30! The turret looks sweet, I also like the full enclosure!
Very cool, I want one now.
Hey John, very nice acquisition !
Share your feeling.
I love these videos, John. Please keep it up! We're learning a lot! :)
Awe yeah! :) Please share any and all your Arduino exploits. I've found them so entertaining!
hi john, great video i would check g code and edit it down smaller as run time of your parts will take to long i.e. your lathe is homing to many times, but please check tool clears work by an inch or so for tool changes !! you can check your program by zeroing z 4 inches back and run the g code without cutting anything. Daniel
Great Video! Thank you
This is a very good looking setup and a turret setup is the way to go. What I like about this programming style is that its block builder like Mazak's mazatrol. Simply put that if G and M code aren't strong suit this is perfect. I'm excited for you to see your progress. The inserts aren't that big of a deal until your straying away from aluminum. But key note on grades of inserts are that if its polished its non ferrous and if its dull check grade and check manufacturer recommendation.
Roughly 80% of my experience is with CNC lathes and live tools. My specialty was in Swiss style with Citizen Cincom A and L which are gang tool and another portion was with Mazak Quick Turn which are turret tools all of which with live tools. I really enjoy complex multi axis lathe work so part size matters for platform. Anytbing smaller than 1.25" is great on swiss machine bc of there high accuracy with detailed parts and gang tool tools can only reach a certain tool length. Anything bigger and turret are great due to the opposite of swiss machines. They have a bigger dia reach and more rigidly equipped with turret. Another added plus is Z travel X travel and when equiplex Y travel are all much greater due to turret clearance. So to answer youer question part determines a more favorable application.
The more intricate the more challenging and satisfying to complete. The best of both worlds but limit on OD size are Miyano. www.marucit.com
John, what would you say is the largest diameter you can turn? I have a 7.5" OD x 3" long parts I would use a machine like this to cut. There are a couple of o-ring grooves at about 3" from the center (6" OD). Would you think this is doable?
Hello John!
Great Video! I envy you for this great machine. As a hobbyist (who uses a small manual lathe) i can think of a thousand possibilities i could use this thing...
Keep up your good work! I am looking forward for your next video, and everytime i did learn a lot.
(please excuse my bad english)
Greetings from Dortmund, Germany
Could you show us a comparison between two identical parts machined with your lathe and with your mill+fourth axis?
Very cool idea. Time will be the largest factor since the 4th axis turns so much slower! If you keep with a .003/rev can you imagine how long that would take on the 4th axis? Then add multi pass. (That's a night run activity).
Lance Gifford Yep, I'm guessing time and surface finish are the biggest reasons to use a lathe. But if one can get the same dimensional accuracy out of a four-axis mill and isn't planning on doing any production runs, it may make more sense to save the money and use only one machine.
NYC CNC No powered slots on the lathe turret?
NYC CNC $20 says you'll have that modded in by the end of the year :)
NYC CNC Definitely looking forward to that video log!
Very nice lathe. Did the part diameter come out .003 over? Wouldn't putting the paper between the tool put the tip out where the diameter is .003x2 bigger?
David Queen yes you're right, he should have accounted for 0.006" offset ;-).
You're already are a "real machinist" IMHO. I on the other hand sit in the cheap seats on RUclips and just dream. Looking forward to more with the lathe and mill. If they could do that conversational stuff on the mill that would be way cool.
Looking back at my original comment I think it may have sounded like I was saying you did something wrong when really I was just trying to understand how it worked. I don't have a machine or even know how to run one if I did. I stumbled onto you looking for Taig information long ago. Even the Taig is still out of my means at the moment. I watch these videos by you and a few others to learn and your good teacher. Thanks for the videos.
Nice video, John! Best of luck with the new lathe. It is a beauty! I'm curious about the steps necessary to do threading properly. That should be a good test for how easy Tormach's software is to use.
Thanks,
-mike
Hi, if you look in the gcode generation tool the last (the yellow) the arrow goes from two sides ... dont know anything more than this but incase you didnt notice it shows the two way cut there ... maybe better in some strange way? =)
Awesome man!!! Congrats!!! Cant wait to see this thing when we come up next wed.! Maybe I can sweet talk my senior manager to budget this next year!! hahahaha Also the camera quality through the plexi was awesome I was surprised, def. looking forward to watching when you get the lights installed.
That looks awesome
This is one of the best video's on this lathe, it's 6 years old, and there's still no video on tramming the turret anywhere on RUclips? Anyone have a walk-through on that?
I know what "tramming the head" of a manual mill is, but what is tramming the turret on a lathe?
I have been a machinist for a long time. Teach me something. :)
@@EarthSurferUSA getting the turret level to X, perpendicular to the spindle, and height in Y adjusted to the spindle center-line. They gloss over it in the installation instructions, as a newbie it was totally confusing. After a few weeks I finally got the right guy (Ethan) at Tormach on the phone and he walked me through the best way to go about it. (the method in the instructions is an exercise in futility) I had to shim my turret up about .005" front and back, and I'm within about .0005" of being dead zero to the spindle on ONE tool pocket. So now when I set tools in my turret, I'll probably be within' .001" or so worst case and won't have to bother shimming each tool holder up or down +/- .005".
Learn anything?
Would be nice if there was some LED bright lighting inside. But what is the precision of this CNC? What kind of accuracy can I get from boring an aluminum cylinder block? Like 0.005mm? Can you change the unites from imperial to metric? I would like to use "mm" notation instead of the "thou".
Ok. Just watched Tormach's video making a plumb bob. Is that last little operation it does after turning a diameter a facing cut? It does the same thing in their video too.???
Nice vid John. CNC mills are fun but CNC lathes are addictive :); not sure why. This vid might put me back into rehab.
Arduino window wiper!! Lol. The going home thing would drive me nuts too. Also can you have it come back for the finishing cuts after all of the different diameters are cut? Doing a finishing cut on a section of the part that is being cut down more is kinda a pointless. I'm not busting your chops on this I get your just getting to know the new machine, just curious. Very nice machine and video as always. Thx.
I'll bet it homes at the beginning of each of the appended sections from your conversational control. As in, when you add another op, the software isn't smart enough to know what was there before, and then optionally put in the re-home - instead, it homes every time. I wonder if a little post-processing is in order - or at least, comment out the line of code that rehomes at the beginning of each stanza. Good stuff as always. Keep it up!
wouldnt that be .006" on the diameter? if the paper is .003"
If you want to get it to stop going to G30 after every cut and your going to use the same tool and tool offset, just delete the blocks that say something like:
G0 G30 U0;
G0 G30 W0;
also delete the following tool change. Make sure your position is good for the next cut. If it's not just insert a line where you deleted the G30, insert a rapid G0 X Z where you need to start.
When you get to the blocks that you edited for your first test run, just single block it with dry run enabled, rapid set to slow, no spindle running, and check where it's going to go.
*Don't do this if your switching tools, or you could stuff the turret into the work piece.*
Conversational is ok but your better off with CAM CAD, those cuts could have easily been done with a single G71 and one shot down the face.
If your interested in all the G and M codes and tech stuff, there's a great book "CNC Programming Handbook, Third Edition"
I really hope Tormachs change to LinuxCNC with this cnc will actually provide some goodwill and they give back to the opensource community as well.
Hey John I might be wrong be at the end of the diameter being turned I think it might be cleaning the face up?
That's my suspicion as well.
4:58 I like your shop assistant.
Yeah, this was awesome. ^-^ I want one soooo bad! T__T Can't wait to see jobs coming off of it! If you do an adventure series on the lathe I have a part I love to see you make..
Lemme see if I can do a drawing or maybe I could mail you one..which would you prefer?
I am looking for a replacment fore my 1988 machine but the rapid travel is so slow!!! My 1988 machine is about 4 times faster. Sorry this is not for me!
Takisawa
yea go spend an extra 100k
I think the rapid is 100ipm. When that machine goes back to z-zero, (looks like a tool change move), I am sure he is in feed mode. Looks like about 30ipm
That's cool!!!
It is propably obsolete right now. But propably when u are doing this conversational part after each action it's not defined that there is another action following. and at the end of a program it is programmed that it has to go home. so when u are stacking the actions and appending these to the file u are just stacking the "go home", or better say the machine is stacking this action.
another question: is it possible to have a mill tool on the tormach lathe to cut a groove for an adjusting spring for example?
cheers
set the G30 for where you want to change tools on the Z
so do they have a powered collet option or is it only manual?I know the trend has been away from bar feeders(tend to be messy and take up a lot of floor space) but a bar puller on the turret is definitely worth it if you can open and close the collet from the program of course could still be done with your setup would just need to add a pause,pull pause
sweet..I will have to look into a bit more then prob start saving my pennies lol...I never really got interested in the hobby sized cnc lathes for the simple fact that the trade off of cost wasnt worth it vs manual.With options like bar puller that changes a bit!By the way excellent work on your videos...its nice to see someone with a small shop thats not afraid to try out new equipment....Now i just wish our "big boy toys" were not so damn expensive lol...makes it hard to decide between want and need
After a conversational program with several ops has been created and run can it be edited in the conversational program utility or do you have to edit the G-code?
Nice!!!
Your Z 0 set is the front of your part? Do you have to set your X on every tool or is there a probe? I work on a couple of CNC Okuma big bore lathes and love it. If your interested i can get you some insert numbers that work wonderful on alum.
assuming you have DCLNR holders: Kennemetal - CNGP431 KC730 (1 radius) and the CNGP432 KC730 (2 radius). I used these all the time on Alum.
You call that rapid feed?
I bet it would have saved you from a few crashes. :)
I think he is in feed mode, about 30ipm. He admits he is still learning the machine.
Just some tips:You need to change your facing cycle so you face down to Z0.0 and everything is measured from Z0.0 You're are cutting pretty slow for aluminum.
Very nice lathe John, I'm sure it will be great to use. Just a guess with the home operation between each feature. Seems to me that the conversational/interactive mode pieces together a complete CNC listing from each new feature that is added and has home in between each. Maybe there is (or should be) an "optimize" function that removes these or possibly just left up to the operator/programmer to remove manually?
Might be default setup for tool change; and in this code the pieces may be stitched together with a leading Tx. If you remove the Tx it may just stay with the part.
Great video as a basic demo/tutorial. This machine looks like it will be a great addition to your shop. How will you determine what projects will be done on this lathe vs your manual lathe? Also, the video quality was spectacular, I hope you keep these settings and use them on future videos.
Waterproof/Outdoor LED ribbon is cheap and will fill it with light pretty well
My guess is it returns home between operations via the conversational control. Does this spit out G-code or are you stuck looking at the conversational? If you can output the program it should be very easy to edit the code to stay close to the part. Or just start hand-coding the simple stuff. 2-axis lathe work is quite easy provided it has all the normal canned cycles.
Nice to see that you got a CNC lathe, now your videos are more valuable to watch and learn.
Is there any way you could do some CAM stuff with Mastercam?
PS! GrabCAD started from Estonia before Stratasys bought it and I am from Estonia so you can google and imagine how far away you have viewers! Good luck!
Congratulations on the new lathe. It's awesome! BTW what are using for coolant?
NYC CNC
I know what you mean about the Tears, I'm a FFL dealer, but fortunately, I live in Texas. I think we are about to pass open carry in Texas. I use Rustlick for my coolant, I use is both as a mister on the mill and flood on the lathe. Works good for me.
What is the biggest part possible in this?
Tormach should have made the chip drawer slide out nicer, I can see chips getting underneath the drawer and causing problems.
Dang it...just a longer evil teaser video! lol
Very cool machine. How much extra does the turret option run compared to the standard gang tooling?
Wow... Nice! I was at Tormach doing the mill training the day the lathe went "hot" for ordering. I loved it the moment I saw it!
So John, I have a couple of questions. I heard the new controller software is Unix based. Is that true?
Also - and this is very important to me on so many different levels - the highest being safety - the Feedhold - how long does it take to activate when it's hit? On the mill it's far from instantaneous (Windows). When I bought my 1100 I asked if they would be moving over to a Unix based controller. (I worked for Microsoft for 8 years - in my opinion CNC and Windows isn't a great match - Case and Point - Feedhold).
Unix is the original mainframe language. Linux was an offshoot. The Apple computer uses NEXT which is another offshoot of Unix or Linux.
:)
What an awesome machine looking forward to seeing heaps more videos from it.
Dave
Is it wrong to be drooling?
The reason it does that quick nick on the back side after your finish cut is to remove any burrs from the cut. Just a simple way to ease cleanup and prevent snags or cuts. I know, I don't have the tool yet... But that is how I do my passes on my lathe at home most of the time, so I would imagine it is similar logic. Such a beautiful finish. Did you use gwizard to determine the feeds and speeds for it?
As for changing home on the machine, look at section 6.10 and 6.12 in your manual. If I read correctly, you are able to change the home position, OR (and this is my recommendation since she uses limit switches) use the offsets command.
5161-5169 - G28 Home for (X Y Z A B C U V W)
5181-5189 - G30 Home for (X Y Z A B C U V W)
5210 - 1 if G92 offsets are active, 0 if not
5211-5219 - G92 offset (X Y Z A B C U V W)
ALSO, MOST IMPORTANT PART! Page 48:
a G30 is inserted before each tool change command, and unless a turret and tool is selected and set up, it may very well be inserting it... Don't know why though.
Turret: If the turret option is selected, T commands T01 through T08 causes the turret to index (regardless of current machine position) and the offsets for the requested tool are applied. With the turret setup, tool numbers higher than eight are still available, and a T command of, for example, T09 does not cause turret rotation but does apply the offsets for tool 9. Therefore, it is possible to mount a parting tool or gang of drills to the lower portion of the carriage and assign tool numbers higher than eight to these tools. The machine does not automatically retract to G28 or G30 position before a tool change. It is the operator’s responsibility to program the machine to a safe position before executing a T command. If you have generated code using the conversational features of the control, a G30 is inserted before each tool change command.
Keep up the good work! It is so exciting (for me) even if you can now sleep after getting a new tool, haha.
NYC CNC Homework? haha... I view it as learning. Like I have said before, I want to know as much about as much as possible! :-D
Now to get back to fixing my TV... :-P
NYC CNC I have always loved fixing things, especially when I can get something cool on a great deal... 72 inch, FHD Samsung DLP tv... for $200 in parts. :-D
The original owner got rid of it since it didn't work. After pulling it apart, only a few pieces needed replacing; bulb, ballast, and scratched lens. College student here, so I have little budget! :-D I am a "junker". Typically, I try to make everything better... now if only I could figure out how to make our government better.
NYC CNC oh dear... assuming a 3 to 1 ratio for fix from break... at least 3*6y11d8h 18 years and a month. That is for just the latest problems. minimum. Nope. I had 12 hours last week. .. can't fix that one
It would be way faster to just do a quick chip down the work piece instead of using the paper method. Btw, is there a reason why you put the work piece that far out of the chuck ? And one last thing I noticed is, that the coolant comes from the wrong side. Is that intended ?
NYC CNC Always put it in as far as possible, my rule of thumb was always to have 2mm clearance between the tool and the chuck, but you can do less of course ;)
NYC CNC Says the one with 10 inch clearance :P
***** far from 10 inches. And for someone learning his new cnc lathe a bit of stick out and voiding a spindle crash is smart. But I'm sure you had .030" clearance tool to jaws on your first part. Don't be a jerk. 2mm is huge BTW.
akromix Did you even read my comment ? I said he can do less of course. 2mm was my rule of thumb, nothing wrong with that and nothing wrong with going for less if possible. And calling someone a jerk who is trying to give constructive criticism is not the nice way.
NYC CNC Actually I think this guy has even less humour since he took that 10 inch thing serious ...^^
Btw, when can we expect to see your new tool changer in action ?
Tormach seems to make great machines. I will have to learn more about them.
Install a windshield washer on the inside
That is a sweet setup! Your enthusiasm and excitement really comes through. I am curious from more of a business point of view, when you make a capital investment in a machine like this, how long are your payment terms? What is the depreciation rate and payback rate you would see from this? Of course if you don't want to share this I would understand, just more curious than anything.
NYC CNC Honestly, that is the best way to do it unless the market is dying for such work. Financing is great when starting a full business but has so much risk. I started my general construction bus the same way. No cash, no way. I have no debt so no concerns, and minimal bills. KEEP IT UP! Keep rocking these tools, and its awesome to see that you have your finances set well. I have had family try this work type, but because of where they live, they rarely had work... one of them made some expensive investments and he had to take a 50% hit when his shop shut down... :-( Live and learn from others!
NYC CNC John, that's awesome! Really great that your business generates enough revenue to pay your staff, pay yourself, and generates enough profit to cash-flow your capital investments. I guess having a facility cost that is highly subsidized is helpful. So when you build your new facility, will you be saving and building that with cash also? I am also debt free, and have a small side business that also has no debt. Your an impressive young man! So keep saving up so we can see some more new toys down the line!
NYC CNC Solid plan, makes a lot of sense, crystal clear sir! Looking forward to going along on the ride with you
Thanks for the tips you have contributed here.
AR Handguard?
Oh i was thinking about cutting the ID threads.
I love the threading and rigid tapping features on this lathe. I believe it's capable of multiple start threads as well, and I've been looking for an excuse to try it. Now if I could just get rigid tapping on my 1100 I'd be a happy camper!
PS: Dear Tormach, can I get a 3J spindle w/ collet closer for xmas? Pleaaaase?!
Jesus what a sexy machine! Could you give me an estimate how much you would pay for a CNC like this?
I want one
I know how to run both but I want to start my own business
looks great! if you need some help with that code and it going home between processes, feel free to message me!
WoooBuddy!
I have a Tormach 1100 PCNC from 2007 that I bought for $12,000, and have been living off of it ever since, (modify small gas engine cylinders with it for RC cars mostly. Light duty work). I have over 1.25 million dollars worth of work through it and it has only been broken down for about 1 week total. I think I need to tighten up the gibbs a bit.
Tormach: It is a pleasure doing business with you. Doug in Michigan. Earthsurferperformance.com
no jonh. you are 2x paper thickness on X if we want be acurate, but you are using inch so not matter. mills are allmost 3times more acurate lol 0.0001inch vs 0.001mm. 0.0001inch is 0.00254mm right? using G20 moving 0.0001inch moves 0.00254mm when using G21 moving 0.001mm its 0.00003937inch. so why use inch G20? how you make tool offset correction 0.00005? ok you never can cut that acurate but thought :) i use 0.01mm shim thats allmost more better than using G20 ha
Damn, I could have had 4 tools touched off by the time I read that. :)
isn't this actually more dangerous
using a keyboard as control???
Very misleading and very disappointing video. First, this is no "Pro" machine and will NEVER be a "Pro" machine. Pricing "starts" at $16,400 ...but the machine is not usable at that price. For a machine of 2015 era, using "steppers" and the very ridiculous "single direction, back up tool changer" ...this machine is NOT for any shop of any kind. It is a "LEARNING MACHINE" ...nothing more. Yes, YOU are obviously "excited" with this machine in your basement ....but don't try to suggest this is a great machine. By the way ....that is a very poor surface finish on the aluminum part.
You comments depend on the work you are doing. You can make a living with Tormach machines. For example : I have a Tormach 1100 PCNC from 2007 that I bought for $12,000, and have been living off of it ever since, (modify small gas engine cylinders with it for RC cars mostly. Light duty work). I have over 1.25 million dollars worth of work through it and it has only been broken down for about 1 week total. I think I need to tighten up the gibbs a bit. :)
There should be no problem getting a good surface finish with the right inserts and correct programming with that lathe.
"Machine is not usable at that price." What does that mean? I can put enough work though it to pay it off in just over a year.
It depends on the work you are doing.
Doug in Michigan
Machinist for 2 decades as an employee at over 20 different non-union, (where the skill is), shops.
An associates in machine tool
2 Bachelors, manufacturing and quality engineering.
Self employed since 2007. (credentials just so you know I am no nubee)
@ NYC CNC:
Hi John, I know you will enjoy this video:
ruclips.net/video/A_qHR_H_2cg/видео.html
You're actually 1.006 dia not 1.003 dia
hi john, i remembered you staying that filming with flood coolant could be hard work on your new cnc lathe, please watch this video as it could give you an idea of something to get or make to solve the problem ruclips.net/video/YPVBnBK09OM/видео.html let me know wot you think. Daniel
your machine is slow as fuck
+Vide Infra They are not made for high speed machining. It's a 11k dollar machine, not a 110k...