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We have been fortunate over the years to have a shop about an hour
away that is nothing but screw machines. He will make 1 or 100,000.
Only ones I have seen in operation were at a tool show. We try to
specialize in low volume production work and manuals--we have a lot
of manual equipment, but are down to only 3 guys that run it daily,
all are over 55. The "great ones" are quickly becoming a thing of
the past.<br>
<br>
We are bridging the gap with prototrak style machines. Those things
can knock out some 1-2 pc orders quickly.<br>
<br>
Everything in the grind shop is all manual, and pretty new.<br>
<br>
John Hall<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/3/2020 6:38 AM, Stephen Offiler
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAP6upcivi04XuFoo4mWWx8UZx7yR9vtuvzgdsi3-B7NHcjYCXg@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">Hi John -
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Hope the list will tolerate some CNC banter. We have 1 job
that we hold close, using .0001" offsets; all the rest it
would be more like .0005" or more. Swiss excels in small
precise stuff and also long slender stuff, and we are heavy on
the latter. Don't need all that precision, but it's handy to
have: I can give the guys setup sheets with .XXX" dimensions
and no tolerance, and they can hit the numbers dead-on quite
easily. Keeps me from having to even think about tolerances
which is quite a luxury for an engineer.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The job you mention is 6 diameters - that's a lot! I
hope at least it's steel. I only deal with this issue when
making back cuts on the sub. We cut a lot of aluminum. I
have to keep it down to 3 diameters, and I still have to
deal with taper.</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>We deal with a couple local general job-shops, and among
the rows of verticals and conventional lathes, they each have
at least one Swiss over in the corner. As you know, there's
always those special jobs a Swiss machine can hit out of the
park. But they're kind of their own special beast too, a
little different mind-set. And in our case, with the older
machines, there's no Mastercam or conversational programming
involved, just straight G-code not to mention wait-codes to
coordinate the sub. Programming can get tricky; fortunately I
enjoy it. I make a game out of avoiding crashes when
developing a new job (and I'd score myself around an A-minus)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>SO</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Apr 2, 2020 at 10:13
PM John Hall <<a href="mailto:jtchall@nc.rr.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">jtchall@nc.rr.com</a>> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div> About .0002' is as close as I care to hold. We often
make offsets of .0002-3. Want some fun, try turning
something 1/4" in dia sticking about 1 1/2" out of the
chuck---a 10" 3 jaw that is. Slow on work so we pulled back
in a job we had subbed to a screw machine shop. Yeah, those
Swiss machines will kick my butt all day on the tiny stuff.<br>
<br>
John Hall<br>
<br>
<br>
<div>On 4/2/2020 6:03 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Our CNC lathes are all Swiss-type, Star and
Tsugami, from the 1990's. They all have magazine bar
feeders (now they do; one machine used to have a
single-stick tube that I retrofitted with an Ebay bar
feeder) and we run them unattended after-hours, aka
"lights-out". Despite having worked in unknown other
shops and beat who-knows how hard, they all can still
hold tenths, and the Tsugami has encoders that go out to
.00001" - not that we could ever work to that level of
precision; between thermal issues and the ability to
make measurements down there, that's way beyond what we
need or could possibly do. We're slowing down but we're
still plodding forward, customers are still ordering,
some. We're keeping the people employed and building
inventory where it makes sense.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>SO</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at
9:06 PM John Hall <<a
href="mailto:jtchall@nc.rr.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">jtchall@nc.rr.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px
0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div> My boss has never bought hardly any used
equipment in my 30 years--and it was all manual
machines (2 horizontals, radial drill, long bed TOS,
3 grinders and some small stuff from an acquaintance
that was retiring). All 3 of our CNC lathes are
Mori's, great machines. We have never pushed them
hard like a lot of shops, their accuracy is great. I
do have one that couldn't repeat the last job we ran
on it, so it will need some attention from the
dealer. Of course as slow as things are now........<br>
<br>
John Hall<br>
<br>
<br>
<div>On 4/1/2020 7:56 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Not surprised about the
compression, Spencer. Japanese bikes are built
more or less like Toyotas and Hondas (go
figure)... they just last and last. I see
you're tooling up, and wanted to mention THE
go-to source for motorcycle-specific special
service tools, Motion Pro: <a
href="https://www.motionpro.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.motionpro.com</a>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So, speaking of Japanese.... at work, one
of the many things I do is manage and grow our
CNC capabilities. We are small, funds are
tight, and we aren't a job-shop so I can't
just finance a sweet new piece of equipment
and pay for it by selling parts to others. We
build parts for our own internal needs, so I
pick and choose parts we currently purchase
from others, figure out what we can save doing
it inhouse, and use the projected savings to
fund the acquisition of used CNC equipment.
Once I locate a suitable machine and
coordinate shipping and rigging, it lands on
the factory floor, I next get it all set up,
leveled, aligned, and powered, then on to
figuring out what's wrong. Bear in mind we're
talking say $15,000 for a machine that was
$200K new in 1997, so they have some miles on
them. I do all the necessary refurbish,
largely myself, but I also know a great
independent CNC repair tech for stuff that is
beyond me. Then I do all the programming,
tooling, debug, and finally write detailed
"cookbook" setup instructions so I can
hand-off to the shop floor guys for daily
operation. Sorry, I'm rambling a bit... my
main point was that these CNC machines are
Japanese, and ~25 years later, they will still
happily run 10,000rpm on the main spindle, and
still hold tolerances in the +/-0.0001"
range. I like older Japanese stuff. Back to
your Kawasaki, we've got two vintage bikes:
my wife has a '76 Honda CB-200 and I've got a
'75 Yamaha DT-175.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>SO</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Mar
31, 2020 at 8:53 PM Spencer Yost <<a
href="mailto:spencer@rdfarms.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">spencer@rdfarms.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">So I
mentioned a little while back that I was doing
a valve lash adjustment on my 1989 Kawasaki
454LTD. It is been awfully hard to start, and
valve adjustment is a common culprit. I’m glad
I did it because the adjustments were
definitely out though I could tell they were
not so far out to affect starting to a degree
its been happening. So I started looking for
other explanations. I seem to have spark and
had the smell the fuel on spark plugs. So I
didn’t think it was fuel or spark. I then did
a compression test: For a 30-year-old bike
it’s got startlingly nice compression. 135
both sides cold with no oil. But I also
noticed that it took 15-20 seconds of starter
time to actually get the four or five
compression strokes you need to get a max
reading. Hmmm. That’s suspicious.<br>
<br>
So while the alternator crankshaft “peep-hole”
cover was off so I could rotate the crankshaft
for the valve adjustment, I took a look see at
how fast the starter was spinning the engine.
The engine wasn’t spinning at all except about
every 5-10 seconds it would catch and turn
over once. Clearly the starter clutch was
slipping. This would explain why I had
better luck roll starting it than using the
starter. But the engine is big enough and I’m
small enough that I need a pretty big hill to
roll start it and that just isn’t viable where
I live or wherever I might stop so I have to
fix it to be in “riding” condition.<br>
<br>
So I took this opportunity to order a few
things on eBay like flywheel puller and a fuel
petcock that this bike desperately needs. They
should be coming in a few days. My guess when
I get it disassembled is to find weak springs
in the clutch.<br>
<br>
The goal is to have this bike starting and
running smooth before the covid-19 zombie
comes to get me so I can out-run it. :-)<br>
<br>
Spencer<br>
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