Member postings for mike mcdermid

I used to work for dassault systemes as an applications guy 35k a year on software license??, is catia and large aerospace type of licence money for one seat , and it still doesn't bring the speed what a product like volumill does

we actually use NX and volumill as opposed to catia and volumill and thats where the speed comes from, that 7.5 k for volumill paid for itself in the first 6 months of owning it and it roughs material at 5mm stepover and 25mm depth in most cases the first time you press the button you think the life of the endmill will be measured in how fast it rapids to the job ,but to watch it is something to behold , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrqlxk6Lflw

, im not teaching you to suck eggs here but 30-40 quid is not bad if your getting 30-40 parts out an hour ,obviously you wont be but the economics do work and this is how we had to start up our firm plus we had to make the product here in the UK for the same as the taiwanese whilst we reshored the product and brought it back home

we had ridiculous sums quoted for some of our bike parts and even at the lowest quotes of 25 quid a component the first 150 alone cost more than the machining centre we bought and there are 8 cnc machined parts in our assemblies the economics said BUY

Owning your own machine makes it so you have a specific freedom but then the design for manufacture also goes out the window as you get in the mindset of "itll only take a minute to do this and this and this" by the time your done its a part that wouldnt look out of place on the ISS

However a lot of CNC subcon companies will take on work based on what they can make in that hour and if a client will pay 65 quid an hour (which is the going rate around here) or a guy comes in and says ive been quoted 40 quid an hour they arent going to even bother quoting, let alone when you add in its not a long term thing or theres a few to be made etc etc ......their eyes just glaze over

We machine 2.6kg of titanium to a part weighing less than 60g in less than 2 minutes that's about 20 components an hour done 1 at a time (not nested or fixtures) including faffage ,we use a cutter that costs 40 quid and our cam cost 7.5k

We had similar problems when we started making bikes but it's illusion all to think your going to machine titanium on purchased hobby CNc equipment and get any kind of monetary return or metal removal rateyou need a good two tons of rigidity to make a profit so I would budget 40k for a mill ,cad cam ,tooling and good carbide (not crap)as a minimum

alternately find a company like us that takes on precision jobs no one else does and is happy to take on unusual jobs most CBC shops want to make 1000 widgets at 5 quid than scrap a one off at 5k and we compete quite happily with the Taiwanese now we have production process

if you were making real parts you will quickly find the 5 or 6 an hour you make on your toy CNc would translate to many more if done by a company set to do work for you

You will need a special rod we use sifalbronze 32 normal sif 1 or 101 isn't interested and likes to behave in a similar capacity to a spitting cobra only with added fumes and flame

again with the silver even using tig but you must use a flux we buy it from thessco ,primarily I tig aluminium titanium and steel bicycles but ironically my actual oxy acetylene leaves far more to be desired than my tig welding skills, I find it easier to tig 0.5wall tubing than brazing it

i will try to post some pictures

you could look on it for f 2-3k yoiu can kill a chinese machine in industry then buy another one next year

as it will have made its money ,for those odd jobs we dont cnc it costs 120 quid for half a day for our local turner i think is ok tbh but its nicer just to have the capacity to turn some bits as one offs without interrupting money makeing jobs on CNC machines

for a hobby am i really ever going to need an M300 or a chester crusader sized machine? i dont know but some then turn into the odd job man round the corner and do indeed need more machine

it almost becomes a classic car mentality restoring machines and slapping some pain ton..<----yes i did mean to writ it like that

grabcad is also becoming a bit of a force in the 3d cad parts world

I recall having a conversation on here where i absolutely slated mine , I hated it , i switched to carbide inserts eventually and never looked back until

one day it got the better of me so i played with 2 different types of bit (this was when the lathe was cutting a 7 though taper towards the chuck)

one i ground and honed a .4 mm rad on one end the other 0.2

then also an old carbide endmill which had had its day was ground on the supplied jig

it turned magnificently the key was the little rad (correct feed per rev) and not the sharp point which would break down very quickly this also confirmed another thing ,the lathe was still turning straight but carbide tips break down quicker than you think, with coolant on SS it will give me a finish the same as the new HURCO cnc we have in the workshop

We have a boxford st280

in fact we are selling our old one and its going in the classifieds cheap but that's not why i posted

We looked at a chinese crusader or something along those lines and thought do you know it will get us by however ,went and looked at the chesters and they just seemed naff once you got past the fact your looking at a new machine and its shiny!!!

niggly little fit and finish things kind of creep into your mind so we did actually buy a used 280 which looked tatty but turned fine

We actually thought there was something wrong with it recentley (tho old one ) however it seems as carbide tips wear they take more force to cut and hence changing the tip it was back to turning to 1/2 a thou over 8 inches but by then the decision had been made to get new

they are bombproof little machines and you can get every spare from boxford

A little known fact when i was at 600 in hecky the guy who designed the M300 went to boxfords where the X10 lathes( thats the newer boxfords) were born

which is why whilst it cost more to do we bought a new one from them ,purely based on the fact that the old one has never missed a beat the only niggle i have is as the crosslide nut wears it rocks in its mounting which is easily fixed

you show me a Harrison m300 that is less than a grand and isn't flogged to death unless you are one of the lucky school finders

the old machine we had thoughts of getting it reground and painted back to new spec boxford quoted 3k just to paint the thing and check it Brian caddy 700 quid to put the thing back to factory,we were going to do this but dont have the time ,but it would still be a far better machine than any import

Edited By mike mcdermid on 31/12/2013 22:55:28

hi chaps its a boxford 280 industrial

brand new d1-3 chuck to be honest i had not noticed problems as i was using a 4 jaw and clocking everything

that got tiresome

spindle taper clocks at 0 if i put my finest clock on it and i probably am not as good as the clock

using a cheaper clock

i get runout on diameter of the chuck is less than 1/2 a thou

worst on face less than 1/2 a thou and if i put a

piece of bar in the chuck is 2 thou concentricity anything tighter i switch to the 4 jaw

if i shift the tailstock i can get ban on diameter over the length of 3"

even if i pu the old chuck on i get similar taper towards headstock

Lathe has developed a habit of turning tapers

smaller at headstock end ,it did always cut 1 thou or so over 6 inch but was never bothered ,this seems to have grown to about 5 thou now over 3inches

doesnt matter wether using tailstock or not taper is the same which rules out the tailstock, in fact i can get a good result by setting over the tailstock to eliminate the taper

however its not the best option

any ideas

no crashes or bangs and wallops of late

Stack them up and wire erode the square hole

Cutwell?

Edited By JasonB on 10/12/2013 19:40:25

Jason did you purchase the machine? Im in a similar quandry

Theres one on ebay at the moment but it seems there is a requirement to make the spindle adapters which im informed make it unusable for the time needed to make or buy them

simple answer No not for anything you cold subjectively call useful 3D printing is not a close tolerance thing it does not produce a finished item when you get to precision engineering,in fact the gentleman who sells EOS DLMS machines in the UK will tell you this himself he stood in a room full of aerospace execs and pointed out at this level it wasnt ready yet

the Gun still had to have all the post machining operations you would traditionally apply to get the precision needed in a firearm the difference is that the metals etc were not forged or cast so no tooling etc was needed

there are also materials being produced now that would not lend themselves to being printed but outperform both metals and ceramics in many ways in this area and they are kind of pushing 3d printing aside based on their unique properties alone

there are however machines that laser powder mettalurgy and machine to tolerance size inside one convenient cabinet so it is advancing all the time rather than coming of age

Respectfully Bill i will have to disagree re the quantum leap

rebekah

3d cad- learn a direct modeller like fusion 360 from autodesk you have an advantage and its paid for subscription £25 quid a month only as you use it or month by month on subs rather than 5-6k up front or an illegal download

Another otion sign up for a course at college get a  student card an purchase a student edition of one of the big vendors for much much less (hundreds) as opposed to thousands 

i have used solidworks from 95 onward ,Unigraphics Catia Inventor pro e you will find they are dying the technology (though the sales pitch is magnificent when you hear the sales guys full parametrics( a load of crap i doubt you will use it for your uses) are of little use

nearly 20 years on im now classed in the cad world too set in my ways to change ,you can learn something and not be constrained by all these packages did it this way mentality which all of us now have because all 3d cad works the same and does the same just with different icons for the buttons

Secondly find one with free support or a large user base , it seems everyone has a seat of Catia with all the bells and whistles these days though i doubt its paid for in any way, and really as i demo for solidworks occasionally everytime i see a guy saying how do you do this on a seat of solidworks its obvious who is licensed and who isn't, i should be reporting it

Edited By mike mcdermid on 26/10/2013 11:22:45

Edited By mike mcdermid on 26/10/2013 11:25:04

Edited By mike mcdermid on 26/10/2013 11:26:35

All the above has been said before re maintenance, skills etc they said that about another classic aircraft

theres a vulcan bomber flying around at the moment

Edited By mike mcdermid on 25/10/2013 19:10:30