Some more Japanese iron showed up today

[WolfLMM]

We’ve been so slammed at work lately, that we have started integrating automation into every aspect of our shop. And this is the latest arrival, horizontal production mill with a 36 pallet MMC2 system (not pictured) I’ve got to get off the 14hr days and start having some free time again. My truck needs it, but mostly my family needs it. Tough waking up before the kids and getting home after they are asleep... hopefully this will take some load off me and all of our crew.

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[SmokeShow]

In your line of work, what's a reasonable time to recover on that money spent?

At your level or in your line of work (large CNC and automated machines) what does the worker do? I'm not asking as a knock or an inclination that the work twiddles thumbs while the machine works. Machining has always seemed like something I'd like but that's more small/manually operated equipment. I'm just curious what the worker does with those large computer controlled and automated equipment. Its so fascinating.

 

[WolfLMM]

With the right customers and work, the machine will cash flow it’s entire value quick, real quick, now of course most shops won’t pay one off that quick, usually go the standard 60 months.

As far as the machine operator, all of ours sit on their phones while the machines run, I’m doing it now. But that’s on large production ( stuff we a trying to move to all automation robots/cells) right now we have to robotic cells running almost lights out 24/7. Still have some issues with chip control.. It will actually send a text message to me or two other guys here if it encounters a fault that cannot be resolved automatically. Broken tools and such are easy for the system to resolve, we just have back up tools in the magazine, it will default to using those, but misloads on the lathe pretty much always require a person to intervene.

So basically a programmer/setup guy will get a job running on the machine and hand off the keys to an operator who is responsible for running and maintaining tolerances through the whole run. Sometimes our setup/programming guys get to run the job they setup, but it’s becoming very rare with how slammed work has been lately.

Sorry for the long post, but I can talk about this stuff for days, I love it, and I’m still green there is so much capability with the new tech and equipment it’s really mind blowing and humbling to see what people are capable of doing in this field

 

[SmokeShow]

Sounds cool.

 

[AZlml]

I watched a video where a basketball rim and net were machined from a solid chunk. The angles it could work at were unreal and the detail was amazing in itself. Very cool profession :thumb:

 

[malibu795]

Very cool:thumb:

 

[036.6turbo]

Nice!

 

[caseih03]

That’s what we run here at DMAX is makino, they’re awesome to watch run our cranks


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[WolfLMM]

That’s what we run here at DMAX is makino, they’re awesome to watch run our cranks


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IMO, and in many others opinion, Makino is the best machine tool builder.

 

[Chevy1925]

so does this mean along with my billet pulley set, i can get a billet narrowed crank too?

seriously buddy, that is cool shit. how long is the average programming time to make a part? how quickly do the machines run the average part you guys make or can you even give an average time? what do you mean by chip control? how many different tool changes does a machine usually do on a part? can you tell this interests the hell out of me too? :roflmao:

 

[WolfLMM]

Programming time can be 10minutes or 100hours just depends on the part geometry and complexity.

Machining time depends on material and part geometry so it’s a wide swing too. We have parts that come off in 1min 30sec and some that literally take 200hours.

Chip control means: keeping chips off of chuck jaws, no “birds nest” inside parts when secondary chucking is required, basically keeping all registery surfaces clean so the parts are loading in machine accurately and so on.

You can imagine if the previous part leaves a giant wad of chips on the chuck, then the robot tries to load a new part on, so now we have a part not seated all the way and either the robot will servo out and alarm (best case) or we have a serious crash inside machine where a tool rapids to its first cutting position and there’s a part in the way, or the part can fly out during actual cutting. Both are very bad and can seriously damage the machine spindles and def break off cutting tools.

 

[AZlml]

For something that takes 200 hours to machine, is it a complex part or just sheer size that takes so long? What's the largest chunk of material you can fit into a machine? I could ask a million questions about what you do it's fascinating to me.

 

[Wikid]

Makinos are nice machines, I have been looking at them and Okuma for a VMC and 5 axis.

 

[WolfLMM]

Makinos are nice machines, I have been looking at them and Okuma for a VMC and 5 axis.

We have several. Never had a single issue. Run the spindles at 14k for 92% of total run time. One has 15,000 spindle hours. You won’t be disappointed. Not sure your location but SST in north alabama is a great dealer.

 

[WolfLMM]

For something that takes 200 hours to machine, is it a complex part or just sheer size that takes so long? What's the largest chunk of material you can fit into a machine? I could ask a million questions about what you do it's fascinating to me.

Size, complexity, and material type all play a role. In that particular machine I believe maximum table load is 1000lbs. It’s very fast, that’s why the weight rating is low.

 

[Awenta]

Don’t know if you’re allowed to disclose but what’s the bill for one of those


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[fajitatone]

Don’t know if you’re allowed to disclose but what’s the bill for one of those


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If you have to ask....