CNC help needed.

Dan,

Not yet, I am still open to suggestions. Bob Cam does not support Swiss. So I am still wandering around in the land of the lost looking for the Holy grail of programs that I can afford. LOL

Nick
 
Dan,

Not yet, I am still open to suggestions. Bob Cam does not support Swiss. So I am still wandering around in the land of the lost looking for the Holy grail of programs that I can afford. LOL

Nick

I use GibbsCam, but I'm not sure that will work with your Swiss machines. Besides, it's a pretty high end software. If it does work with Swiss machines, it will probably be in the neighborhood of $10,000.00. It's good software, but it's expensive.
 
Did you figure out what software you need for the machine?

Dan (in Kansas)

Dan,

Not yet, I am still open to suggestions. Bob Cam does not support Swiss. So I am still wandering around in the land of the lost looking for the Holy grail of programs that I can afford. LOL

Nick

Nick

Did you ask the company that you bought it from what they were using? Perhaps they have a seat (a license copy of the software) they can sell you.
 
Dan,
Good idea, I will check tomorrow to find out. I picked up the wire and conduit for the Swiss today. I should have it wired to the panel tomorrow.

Nick
 
Well Folks,

A year later and a lot of cussing and extensive trouble shooting. I have been operational for about 9 months.

The list of copper bullets that I named as X-Fire and developed through R&D are as follows:

45-70 opens up to 1.7"
45 colt and 45 ACP open to 1.34"
44 mag opens to 1.7"
40 S&W opens to 1.25"
9mm, 38 sp and 357 mag open to 1.1"
380 ACP opens to .835"

I am currently doing R&D to make a .308 that will open up to 1.7" first test failed, they opened up in the air. I now have to make them stronger.
 
Can you tell us what CAD and CAM setup you ended up using? Great Story!
CG.


Well Folks,

A year later and a lot of cussing and extensive trouble shooting. I have been operational for about 9 months.

The list of copper bullets that I named as X-Fire and developed through R&D are as follows:

45-70 opens up to 1.7"
45 colt and 45 ACP open to 1.34"
44 mag opens to 1.7"
40 S&W opens to 1.25"
9mm, 38 sp and 357 mag open to 1.1"
380 ACP opens to .835"

I am currently doing R&D to make a .308 that will open up to 1.7" first test failed, they opened up in the air. I now have to make them stronger.
 
Well Folks,

I hired a guy to write an initial program and help locate the tool paths needed. He used Mastercam. From that one single program, copy and paste with an editor to get what I needed as well as learning what to do. I am still learning a lot. LOL This means writing code by hand.

Nick
 
Dan,
I have come to believe there is no decent cadcam available for a Swiss cnc at a reasonable entry level price. LOL Sooooo, having talked to several folks about cadcam software there is only one that I found that I may be able to swing money wise and it costing me $3,500.00. That would be Gibbs Cadcam. The only thing I can say is I have to sell a lot of ammunition and firearms to be able to cough that up and not have a tangible product in hand to sell for that investment.
 
I'm probably way ahead just keeping my big trap shut, but were someone to ask (which no one has) I might tend to approach this whole thing a bit differently.
That is, yes, the CNC lathe can do everything and better than any other machine in the world (just sayin'), and yes, this is a home CNC forum, but i look at your product line and notice you're selling ammo. Projectiles. That means once 50 items have dropped, you've sold ONE box of ammo (or 2 the way they package it nowadays). You're wanting to build a jillion of the same thing: a fairly simple projectile. And you want to do a lot of them for a long time.
Why not save several thou and just get an old Brown and Sharpe Screw Machine? Grind a tool bit (or two) to match your desired ogive; set it up and let it run. Copper is forgiving and most tools will last nearly forever. This technique has been working for decades -- even before NC existed.
Sure, it rattles a lot, but they're hard to beat when turning out your kind of production.
Change out a 20 foot stick of Cu whenever one gets done or even find one with a stick handler and load up a dozen sticks; turn off the lights; and come back... on the weekend!
Haven't been looking, but saw two of them on Craigslist about a year ago... for less than the price of a good software package.

Wrat
 
Good point,
However, I have a buddy that has 15 B&S screw machines, According to him they will hold 1-2 thousandths tolerance. That is not tight enough. Plus any and I mean any adjustment for size is basically a regrinding. I make about 500 a day when needed. Just not enough demand yet to put in another machine or two.

Nick
 
Back
Top