5-axis mill? yessir

[skife]

this is amazing.... i've seen 4axis stuff be done before, but this 5axis mill is just amazing

http://fazed.net/video/?id=646

[sixtoes1313]

I saw the same thing on my monte carlo forum! Cool stuff

[MoeMag]

WOW! That has to be one EXPENSIVE block. We have a 5 axis at school. never seen it do an engine block before! we mostly use it for turbo compressors and turbine blades.

[skife]

i wonder if its the new GM LSX block... i just wonder, i don't know.

[Rudz]

good lord thats friggin awesome

[Mango]

What I find truly amazing is that a human programmed every single movement into that machine.

[Nick E]

The amount if man hours it must've taken to program it, yah, crazy. What is it doing when the block is rotating around the cutter? it it cleaning up the bores or what?

[skife]

The amount if man hours it must've taken to program it, yah, crazy. What is it doing when the block is rotating around the cutter? it it cleaning up the bores or what?

i think so, i personally like when its machining the coolant journals. i think its amazing.

[GroovYChickeN 2.o]

I know nothing about metal working or machining, but that was cool.

[slade]

I worked at a company last summer that sold those matsuura machines. they also sell nakamura machines, maier lathes, fanuc robodrill mills, fanuc robots, and a few other machines. I worked setting up the fanuc robodrill machines. four of the machines i worked on went to a company that makes carburators for nascar cars, a few more to a company that made medical equipment, and there was even a robodrill set up to mill graphite.

the matsuura's were the largest mills there. as a demo someone used a matsuura to mill a full v8 engine block, and to show off the 5 axis capabilities they also milled a propeller. for an open house they milled a stainless steel corkscrew and gave them out (i have one) and used a wire edm (electronic discharge machining) to mill a small intricate emblem.

What I find truly amazing is that a human programmed every single movement into that machine.

whoa! that would be amazing. fortunately, they have CAM (computer aided machining) software packages to model a part and export the milling code from the model. two years ago i saw a parabolic lazer reflector the company machined (i think for a weapons guidance system) and since CNC machines can only mill straight lines or circles, its a bit of a pain to mill a parabola. they milled it by doing a few roughing passes, and then going back with a small ball end mill and doing many many passes of circles to approximate the parabola. imagine trying to program that by hand. you would need the coordinates of thousands of 3d points on the part surface, and the coordinate of each arcs center, or the radius of the arc. you'd be at it for years.

https://www.methodsmachinetools.com

they had some videos up a while ago.

[slade]

hah, i posted before watching the video. i think that that was the engine block that i saw last summer. small world?

*edit* never mind, i guess the video was from NTS. methods is the US distributor for matsuura, which is a japanese company. NTS sounds familiar though...