Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe !!!!

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awemawson:
Pete, hope that the tooth is ok when the drugs wear off :thumbup:

Yes I was very lucky today. I was booked in for 8 am and usually you hang around in pre-med as they work through their operation list, and drag you in when they've hosed down after the previous carcass has been shifted to the morgue. This time I was the ONLY one on the surgeons list so things were pretty fast. I did tell him it was probably because his fees are too high and he needs to respond to market conditions :clap: Then the anesthetist tells me he's had several hernia operations and has to keep coming back - just what you want to hear as the knife is poised :bugeye:

Still, end result is back home by 2pm sitting by a log fire and posting the 'light' thread, which I'm sure that you realise was actually made and photographed a few days ago :ddb:

But all this is :offtopic: Nowt worse than old blokes grumbling about the bits that are falling off :lol:

Got great plans for the lathe when I'm allowed back in the workshop. The Bar Puller (That sounds like a prostitute!) turned up at last the other day so my first thing is to try a simple 'multi component' run - something like a thick washer. Drill, part off, bar pull and repeat to get used to it.

Can't do much heavy stuff on the lathe as the coolant isn't yet filled, but my 20 litre drum of Castrol Hysol Excel arrived yesterday ready for it. At 7% it will take the full 20 litres. Got to clean and disinfect the swarf conveyor tank first. Normally you'd dump some anti bacterial cleaner like "Castrol Techniclean MTC 43" in the sump and run the machine for 24 hours before discarding the old coolant and filling anew.

However the sump is empty! ( Emptyish - got the usual tramp oil sticky gunge which will be fun to clean.) What I'm planning to do is shove the"Castrol Techniclean MTC 43" in the coolant for my Beaver Parts Master which could do with a coolant change, run that for a while, pump the coolant into the lathe, add more MTC 43, then run the lathe coolant pumps to circulate everything, as although it will be far from full, I won't be machining anything at the time.

dsquire:
Andrew

Glad to hear that you kept the surgeon in line and made it home in one piece with no parts missing. :lol: :lol:

Now will be the time for some rest and relaxation. Also an excellent time to do some research on your machines and scour the net for missing parts and manuals etc. In general, take the time to let it heal properly. You don't want to go through this again. :D :D

Cheers :beer:

Don

awemawson:

--- Quote from: dsquire on September 19, 2013, 01:23:23 PM ---Andrew

Glad to hear that you kept the surgeon in line and made it home in one piece with no parts missing. :lol: :lol:

--- End quote ---

Thanks for the good wishes Don.

Yes I told the surgeon as I went in that the wrist band they'd fixed to me said 'Gender - Male' and I wanted it the same way when I came out. :lol: :lol:

vtsteam:
Glad you're okay, Andrew. :beer:

awemawson:
A bit of progress. I've turned up a sleeve to allow me to fit the Bar Puller to the Tool Turret, and have been cautiously experimenting with the programming. If you look back a few posts you will see a picture of the Bar Puller, which is a little three legged spring loaded gizmo.

I've written a diddy program that selects the puller, locks the collet chuck, engages the end of the bar, unlocks the collet, pulls the bar out 10 mm then locks the collet. (I then actually push it back in to save wasting bar stock). Then it selects the parting tool and parts off (deliberately missing the bar !)

I've uploaded a pair of videos to Youtube. This first one has the camera inside the machine viewing from the tailstock and perhaps it isn't the best viewpoint.

Then this second one is shot through the safely guard and perhaps shows what's going on a bit better

It's all a bit nerve-wracking as one tiny slip and it would be very easy to wipe out the fingers of the puller. I think that I had better remove them and try and scan them at a fairly high resolution so I can potentially re-create them by laser cutting or possibly my Wire EDM machine in the event of an accident. Any suggestions for their replication would be welcome.

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