Hello everyone, I’m researching machine options- I have a small consumer product needing to be turned on a lathe, but then a pocket needs to be milled perpendicular to the spindle axis. Can I make a gang setup to do this or does FUSION 360/ Tormach 8L or 15L have limits on such a configuration?
Thanks in advance!!!
You would need a driven tool in the gang tooling which would be possible to program with a custom post. I have never seen a live gang tooling on a tormach but nothings impossible. There is probably an easier way. Does the lathe have spindle locking? Because you would need that.
The 15L and 8L don’t have live tooling, a Y axis, a C axis, or spindle locking. One could certainly build a DIY live tool station but it would be effectively a drilling station only, you wouldn’t be able to mill an actual pocket. Even then, without a C axis and a spindle brake, it would be a dangerous thing to do.
Without knowing the actual geometry of the pocket it’s hard to recommend the right path forward but based on what you’re describing, a Tormach lathe alone isn’t going to do the job for you. A lathe with Y and C axis, and live tooling is the one machine solution but it will be costly. The alternative would be a lathe to do the turning work, and a mill (potentially with a 4th axis) for the pocketing.
As for Fusion, I’ve done little in the turning space with it so I can’t say for sure, but I believe it is capable of driving multi-axis lathes should you go that route.
Thanks Guys, much appreciated.
I have dreamed about dropping a lathe onto the bed of an 1100mx. I dont think there is anything out there that could do what it could do for $50,000.
Conceivably, how would you go about doing such a thing?
Well the idea came to me when I had a sherline mill and lathe. The software and post would have to all be rewritten as you would need 5 axis at least. Maybe 6.
You could do what you want to do on a 1100 with a rapid turn and a 4th axis as well. I don’t know if you could build something to act as a tail stock that fit inside the A-axis and then some kind of powered chuck on the A-axis as well. It would take a ton of development. If I had to find a solution I would get a used cnc lathe with an indexed spindle and a small drill press that could sit on the lathes cross slide. If it’s something that has to be fully autonomous your best bet is a lathe that is made to do this with multiple spindles. There must be some out there. Of cores it all depends on what your cutting, how fast and how precise.
@Coast_2_Coast there are a few factors to consider with our lathes. Most notably, while we have a spindle encoder for single point threading, the 15L does not support spindle orientation, nor does is have the option for a spindle lock. That said, I have talked to one customer who added live tooling to his 15L but his boss wouldn’t allow him to share with me how they achieved this.
The only option that we would have would be a 770/1100 M/MX with the RapidTurn chucker lathe. This isn’t a seamless solution but it will cost much less than a full mill/turn machine. In this workflow you would convert the mill to a lathe (~20min process on the MX), machine the round part, lock the RT spindle (available to lock in 15deg increments), convert back to mill operation (~20min on the MX), machine the pocket. Typically you would make all of the round parts then mill them out instead of repeating this process for each part.
Another option would be a lathe and a mill with a 4th axis.
There was a 3rd party product called the In-Turn, several years ago that was essentially a relatively high-speed 4th axis (3,000 rpm max, I think) that might do what you want. It used a servo motor on the spindle so it could be indexed and featured a caliper break that could lock it in position. It had electronics support for a PCNC 1100 in Mach 3 and possibly PathPilot plus a lot of documentation.
You can see a video of it in development here:
I still have the parts, components, and docs for one that I’d like to move along to someone else if there is any interest. I never even started on the installation so it is all essentially like new.
Thanks Mike, I will definitely research this path and keep you in mind!