Manual Lathe is Dead

All discussion about lathes including but not limited to: South Bend, Hardinge, Logan, Monarch, Clausing and other HSM lathes, including imports

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Glenn Brooks
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Re: Manual Lathe is Dead

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Certainly true in the commercial world. And more and more in the hobby world with the advent of small printers and CNC machines, particularly with dxf. integration. I retired from a second career in IT and SWORE never to touch another line of code, or ever see an error message again. Beginning to regret that decision now. Lots of good things can happen automating complicated parts runs these days.
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Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
whateg0
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Re: Manual Lathe is Dead

Post by whateg0 »

I have a friend who has a rf45 converted to CNC. He drives it through mdi when he isn't running a program. I would rather have a full manual machine than drive it that way. Far easier and faster to make small adjustments to something by hand than one line at a time. Plus, if I start to turn a crank the wrong way, it's easy to just stop turning it. If you put the wrong command in and hit enter, it better be right or you better have the e-stop nearby
LIALLEGHENY
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Re: Manual Lathe is Dead

Post by LIALLEGHENY »

On a CNC mill you have half a chance of reacting fast enough to hit the E stop.....on a lathe/turning center you have little to no chance of reacting fast enough. If your smart you test run your program several inches off the part to proove out the program, assuming you have enough travel to do that.
Manual lathes are far from dead in the commercial shops. Many small jobs take longer to setup and program on a CNC than to run them on a manual machine....I know , I have both.

Nyle
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Bill Shields
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Re: Manual Lathe is Dead

Post by Bill Shields »

Giggle...nothing beats an air cut..but...

Evidently you have not worked with the CNC lathes where you can walk the program through line by line using the operator's handwheel...and the tool only moves as fast as you spin the handwheel following the loaded program..including in REVERSE if you find yourself headed toward an untenable situation.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
LIALLEGHENY
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Re: Manual Lathe is Dead

Post by LIALLEGHENY »

I have heard of Lathes and mills with handwheel mode, that go line by line, but never actually seen one run. Those of us with the older machines don't have that nice little feature, so we air cut. Several years ago I looked at a Haas toolroom CNC lathe, it had some nice features such a being able to programing a chamfer , or radius while using it in manual mode....you could get the best of both worlds, full manual or CNC or a blend of both in one machine, but I couldn't justify the cost....someday maybe. Doesn't mean I would give up my Monarch though, it will tear through material quicker than my Mazak or Okuma anyday.

Nyle
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Bill Shields
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Re: Manual Lathe is Dead

Post by Bill Shields »

This is not a new feature. Relatively speaking. Been around for best part of 10 years ( of which I am aware )

Handwheel mode without reverse...maybe 15 years...on select manufacturers.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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NP317
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Re: Manual Lathe is Dead

Post by NP317 »

https://www.southwesternindustries.com
TRAK knee mills and lathes.

CNC machines with fully manual operation capable using the electronic hand wheels. (Except for cutting threads on the lathe.)
Simple conversational programing at the machine, or on my desk computer, with flash drive transfer to the machine. Knowledge of G-codes not required.
Also manual program run-through at whatever speed the hand wheels are moved, and reverse the wheel to move backwards through the program.

I started using these machines in my University student shop nearly 30 years ago. Crashes by my students did not occur! (Boggles the mind...)
I would have loved to acquire the SW Industries TRAK knee mill for my home shop but budget did not allow the purchase. (About $27K new, then.)
Example: Being able to machine the valve expansion links for my Allen Ten Wheeler on the TRAK mill was simple and repeatable.
Test runs are done by lowering the table so the cutter does not contact the material.
After testing the program, turn on the spindle, set the Z depth (for the 2-CNC axis mills), and just turn the handle through the program, or press GO and watch.

I also used these machines (mill and lathe) at a commercial custom machine shop I worked at.
I still wish I had one of their mills in my home shop. And their lathe too...
RussN
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