New Toy, er Tool

Many machines also have powered door locks, a solenoid locks the door shut when the machine is on. If you have it running and can not open an access door this is likely the reason.
 
Made a little progress. We go the machine moved into it's final position. Had to rent some machinery skates to move it the last couple of feet. No room to get the forklift in there and didn't have any pipes to put under it. Using a couple port-a-power pucks we were able to lift it to get the skates in the forklift pockets and pinch it over the last little bit. Got it leveled and almost ready to make chips.

My son has been learning how the controls work and was able to make an air cut. It didn't crash the machine so life is good. He ran a few test ''cuts'' at dead slow speed until he was satisfied the everything was OK, then cranked it up to operating speed. A bit scary to watch it run. One minor problem is the high pressure coolant pump, it's stuck. But that's a minor issue, easy to fix.

This represents a face off, turn OD, change tool, make a small profile cut, part off. Then index again, grab the bar in the chuck, pull it out to stage for the next part. Maybe next time we'll use real tool holders rather than plastic blocks representing tool holders. :grin:

 
Maybe next time we'll use real tool holders rather than plastic blocks representing tool holders.

Yup, it's smart to do baby step until the machine and the operators know what the other will do.
Great progress, you will be cranking out parts real soon.
Congrats!
-brino
 
Do not be afraid to push such a lathe way harder then you think prudent from past experience, that is a robust machine well beyond what hobbyists are accustomed to. I wish that I had such a machine today, ran 25 aluminum parts in a Bridgeport/Romi 2 axis lathe, 7" X 3 1/4" long saw cuts ending in 70% metal removal, the chips were nearly unmanagable.

Set it up and let it eat, you will not be disappointed.
 
Take this for what it is worth, the guy that services our machines was in to replace a brushed DC servo motor in a lathe this week.
His belief is that leaving the motors holding position when not in use, during lunch for instance, will shorten their life as they are under power yet not rotating. He recommends E-Stopping the machines when not in use yet powered up, (not having just paused a running program of course) this does make sense for there is no reason to have it hold position if not required, would also reduce electric usage.

However I do not know if an E-Stop will disable the drives in all machines as it does in this one, you may want to check if it does on that Hardinge.
 
I'll check that out, thank you.
 
And another update. We finally got the lathe powered up off of the RPC. That was about a 3 day job to get it wired in. Started off with replacing the shop breaker panel. After looking at things we decided that there weren't spaces available so we went from a 16 circuit to a 24 circuit panel. Made life easier.

So here is the lathe
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We put the RCP motor up on the shelf to get it out of the way.
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And the RCP control panel
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I'm pleased with the voltage balance. 239 (incoming), 237, 239, 236. Incoming power is running 1.4KW with the lathe powered up and the spindle running unloaded. Max system load seems to be about 9.5KW with the spindle at 150% power on accel. What I find a bit odd is the incoming power is 11.8 amps, but the 3 legs of the 3 phase are right around 20 amps. I guess the PF correction is doing its job, glad I added that. The incoming power reads about 25 amps with the PF correction out of the circuit. These numbers verified by my Fluke clamp on. Everything seems to run OK.

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Now comes the real fun, the insert holders will be here tomorrow. We'll be making the first chips.

:dancing banana:
 
Jim I'm afraid you're gonna turn into a turning junkie, looking for all the jobs you can take on with that spinning device. I wouldn't blame you a bit. I wish...well no, I don't but it sure would be fun. I made twenty nose bushings for a rubber band aircraft today, stock 6160 alum 3/8 OD, .530 long, drilled though .0635, nose od .130, .500 long, cut off. Two minutes a piece. With your machine they'd be done in less that the time it took me to set up a turret lathe.
 
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