Driven Tooling Retrofit

[markb2]

Hi there,
We are thinking about trying to make up some driven tooling for our Mazak QT15N 1991 maybe use a small hydraulic motor driven by a seperate power pack.
just for milling a flat, slot, or drilling a hole. Obviously the m/c has no c-axis or spindle break , so we were thinking of removing the parts catcher and making up some kind of mechanical break using the parts catcher ram and m-code.we cant index the spindle, but it may still do away with some second ops. Has anyone out there done anything similar?? we also have a Gildemeister NEF CT40. any advice would be appreciated.

 

[EdDanzer]

This is difficult to make work, indexing the turret disk would require a 2 port rotary union installed on the index center axis for plumbing the hydraulics to the new spindle. We tried to gun drill in a turning center and plumbed the high pressure coolant to the disk with quick disconnects. It never was practical. The next problem is choosing a spindle speed. Hydraulic drives have a limited speed range adjustment for constant HP, a gear box would probably be required.
We had a Wasino LJ63M mill turn with 1 speed live tools. The live tools were under powered and not very rigid.
Unless you had a specific part or machining step, setting up to do this probably won’t be worth while.

 

[grinderguy]

The people in the screw machine business generally know how or where to get the tooling to do this. If your volume is high enough to need this flat on a cnc lathe, the volume could be high enough to buy a screw machine with this tooling on it.
Bob

Robert Setree

http://www.advanced-grinding.com