Takisawa TS-15 CNC lathe

[Carpenter84]

Well, here she is.

https://youtu.be/QT0evZ5g2W8

I filled the tank full of coolant (took 7 5gal buckets...)
I did a quick program in fusion and tomorrow I'll have to figure out how to adapt it to the lathe. Lots of parameters to change. Huge learning curve.

There is still a bit of harmonic distortion in the cut. A roughing cut looks rough, but that finish cut isn't bad. Time will tell how that evolves. But time will tell me whether rebuilding the spindle is worth while or the machine will just be a roughing machine. 
I did not solve the draw bar cylinder issue. Not sure what will happen with that. Again, time will tell.

The coolant sprays EVERYWHERE... There will need to be some port adjustments and orings replaced. Likely not on the floor, but one of the jets sprays all over the window making it impossible to see what's going on.
 
Jeez, I hope I don't crash it tomorrow...

[4GSR]

Got her running! Cool!!!

Need to speed up the spindle RPM's and work on the rapid traverse. 

[chips and more]

Let us see you make a triple lead tread

[Carpenter84]

That video is me manually running the machine.

I spent ALLLL day trying to figure out the code.
Turns out the machine doesn't like canned cycles. I was stumbling over a G71 cycle - that's just a roughing cycle. Takes a whole pile of lines of code and condenses it into just a few lines. I read a whole pile of resolutions but I don't understand them. I will have to dig deeper into it. however, I found a button in Fusion 360 that says "don't use canned cycles". bingo, I now have 200 lines of code up from 30 lines. However, the machine runs a program now. It's doing what took me 15 mins in 4 minutes. And the tool has been standing up just fine - it's not the exact tool I want in the machine for this but this was the tool I used to set up so that's the tool I'll use for the remainder of the day cause I'll have to change all the offsets.

I'll post the video I took once it uploads.

We're off and running now... for now...

[Carpenter84]

Also, my goodness, this thing kicks off heat... I have the furnace set to 17.5 deg C every day. Now that the weather is getting nicer I usually turn the furnace off. I've been running the cnc for about 2 hours and the temp is up to 23C currently...

[chips and more]

I wonder if your new 3ph power meter is spinning like a top?

[Carpenter84]

not even a little bit. Since the hydro was connected what? two weeks ago? I've used 10kw/h. And if I remotely understand how it's billed, I believe that may be less than $5 usage. I could be entirely wrong, but, reading the meter says I have not used very much. In reality, I should try to use more for the first few months. According to Hydro's contract they take the mean of the first 3 months to dictate how much kw to zone you for. or something something something..... I guess I'll see in a few months when the first bill comes in.

[Carpenter84]

There we go... putting that together was an ordeal...

https://youtu.be/hrIHgwxFocs

I only have the machine roughing the bars. I turn the pilot and center drill on the manual lathe. Now you see why these have been such a big deal, that interrupted cut is pretty violent. The machine seems to handle it staggeringly better than the manual lathe.
The new idea with these is to get a 2 jaw chuck, mill a square profile into the jaws to self center the square bars. Drill a center in the cnc lathe. Then I'm only sawing them, not running them through 3 different machines.

But, now that it's running and I'm already beginning to understand how to run it better, figuring out the code better, I'll be asking for more work.

The only draw back to the machine is its short working length. It has a pretty good diameter capability (13") but it's max working length is only 12". I have a small machine shaft (with a taper) I seem to keep getting (replacements for when they break them) but it doesnt fit in the machine in one operation. I'm sure I could turn one side and flip, I'll just have to work my way to that point. The programming is still problematic. There's still things I can't understand/wrap my head around. I'll need to seek help on the CNC forums for help to understand certain things - I cant wait...

But, I'm happy - as long as things continue to work properly... I cleared out quite the load of chips out of the machine already.

[4GSR]

That looks like a lot of wasted material using square bar and turning it round.  Why didn't they supply round bar?

[Carpenter84]

So these are test samples.
To manufacture Boeing parts test samples have to be tested. During material prep they will take an X-long bar stock and cut it up. One cut for the part, one cut for test pieces, one cut for part, one cut for test piece, etc.
I will receive a chunk usually 6" long of varying diameter and I will have to cut 1-4 test pieces, depending on what they want. But they all have to be cut from the same 6" long chunk (usually 3 pieces).
After doing a lot of these so far, I have found the most economical method has been to saw a 1" thick bar from the length of the chunk, then saw it into 1" squares. The required finished product is a .800" x 5.75" round bar. This then gets sent with the part for heat treat. Then they do destructive lab testing to the bars to find out the various strength specs on the part.

I have done a LOT of struggling with this as some of the material is super tough. I see a lot of 4340M, 15-5PH stainless, 300M. The interrupted cut on the manual lathe is brutal. The thing shakes all over the place. This is why I bought the cnc lathe. It is orders of magnitude heavier and tougher and handles the cut significantly better.
The video made the cut sound brutal, but that's because I was using the wrong tool/insert. I have some Sumitomo inserts that rough like a dream. Surprisingly quiet for turning a square part round. I will load that up today as I have a bunch more test pieces to make.

I also have 100 316ss 1" bars to prep for weldment. I'm in the process of ordering an appropriate collet and collet stop to bang those out in the machine too. Sure, I could do it manually... but why walk when you have wheels??!