STW's new machine making "stars"

a chance to see the new machine in action. it's making star points for the showman's/road loco

credit for this video goes to mark

Great fun these fancy live tooled lathes aren't they?!

Amazing, I can't begin to think how much programming goes into making it do that star

Once you get your head around what that machine can do the possibilities are incredible. You can turn bar stock into parts in a single operation, saving hours of set-up time and the need for special jigs and fixtures.

Mike

Wow.....what a great bit of kit.

Steve,

I can tell you exactly how much programming goes in to making it...........

The initial PROFILE only part took a full day!! . This was done while waiting for the new driven tooling to arrive so i could then add in the drilling and tapping part. Once the driven tooling arrived they both had to be put in and clocked up and tools added. The program part for this was relatively straight forward except that the first time the tool was rotated using the clockwise command it turned anti-clockwise!!!!(and broke the drill). After speaking to the manufacturer we were told this was how they were geared. In total the DRILL & TAP part took a further half a day so the total time spent on both was one and a half days.

The finish on the stars is not as good as the one's you will have received previously as it was impossible to reduce the chatter. Steve spent two minutes rubbing a file over them and decided that with a bit of a rub they cleaned up perfectly sufficiently. This will be a job for you guys to look to forward to.

Dean

...and here was me thinking there were plenty of 'stars' at STW already

Our old Mori Seiki had 90 degree live tooling...three blocks rotated normally with an M3 command, one had to have an M4...obviously the gears had been fitted in differently for some reason!

A row of those stars would look good down the doors of your A.M. !!!!!