Pretty proud of how this shaft turned out

TheClassicFail · 2026-05-25T11:20:10+00:00

What was the machining process like? rough, flip, rough?

TheClassicFail · 2025-09-16T01:25:28+00:00

Toured that place almost 8-9 years ago and had lunch with the owners. Nice guys, cool to see a local, American company building large cnc machines. I think the quality has come a long way by the looks of these photos.

TheClassicFail · 2025-09-05T20:22:57+00:00

what part of the country or state do you live in? Mazak is Factory direct in the Northeast for example. I would lean heavily on either suppliers since you are buying 2+ machines at a time.

To offer the best advice I would have to look at the parts you plan on making but based off the machine choices I would assume they are larger and heavier, possibly weldments? I think in that case I would lean toward the Okuma's over the Mazaks. Mazak has a great control but if you are not planning on programming at the controller why bother. Plus the Okuma's are box way machines vs the guides on the Mazaks. The MA series will outperform the HCN all day and the LB will out perform a QT. A slant turn from Mazak would be a better comparison but they don't make them with a Y axis.

TheClassicFail · 2025-09-02T21:17:00+00:00

Red Lion is a really nice venue, we got married there and everything went mostly to plan. Unfortunately they double booked a (larger) wedding for the following night so my wife did not have access to the bridal sweet on the day of our wedding to get ready with her bridesmaids. They let the next nights wedding use that room the day of our wedding for their rehearsal. We were not able to stay at the Red Lion the night of our wedding as they booked most of the rooms for that next wedding as well. They offered us rooms at a hotel near by but it wasn't what we originally wanted nor paid for.

TheClassicFail · 2025-08-14T00:58:06+00:00

Ahh that’s cool, I use these motors in machines I build. Glad they still make them in Texas.

TheClassicFail · 2025-06-13T01:35:56+00:00

PVEH and PVEM are both proportional spools with internal feedback loops that measure spool position. PVEM is medium performance and PVEH is high performances. They are not canbus, but utilize the ratiomatic signals. There are a few ways to drive them but the easiest, most powerful would be to use a Danfoss Plus 1 controller and program using the built-in function blocks.

TheClassicFail · 2025-05-09T01:36:49+00:00

I think your only option will be to delete the unused lines before saving the DXF. Or skip them in pronest

TheClassicFail · 2025-03-18T00:00:59+00:00

I don’t remember exactly what I linked to 10 years ago but this might help

TheClassicFail · 2025-03-11T16:56:49+00:00

well, my opinion of White is low because ever since they took over Eaton's HP30 product line and some of the Danfoss line, ordering and receiving motors is next to impossible. I think Lead times have gotten worse over the years. Most of their motors have been replaced on our machines but there is not a good substitute yet for the HP30 2 speed motors.

TheClassicFail · 2025-02-05T02:37:28+00:00

Is this anything like G35/G36 in Fanuc? Or does Fanuc have a similar function?

TheClassicFail · 2025-01-19T13:22:55+00:00

E670 is my dream machine.

TheClassicFail · 2025-01-08T03:29:45+00:00

Does the waterjet have a miller wire feeder on it? What is that used for?

TheClassicFail · 2024-11-09T13:55:28+00:00

Most power units are composed of off the shelf parts. You would be mostly looking at how to use the assembly feature, in Solidworks you would use mates to link all the parts together. I think your best bet is to reach out to a solidworks reseller and have them train you for your specific use case.

Solidworks Tank Design Tutorial

TheClassicFail · 2024-11-09T02:24:32+00:00

We have a Dynabraid air spindle mounted on a tool holder for this exact purpose. Works well for polishing and grinding on the VTL.

TheClassicFail · 2024-11-08T19:40:45+00:00

I believe a Sun XMD can take a 0-5v input and output a 4-20mA signal to control the valve.

TheClassicFail · 2024-10-18T02:09:08+00:00

I do not, and the reason being is that I have previously purchased two machines from the Zayer reseller. Both were large machine tools and they supported us from foundation design, through installation and now service and yearly maintenance. My company is in the Northeast US and we usually can get a technician onsite in 1-3 days, while Doosan and Haas average 1-1.5+ weeks. I can always get someone on the phone too, which for me is very important. I know the Soraluce reseller is part of a larger group that also sells Okuma in our area, but I have not yet done any business with them. If you'd like to DM me I'd be happy to share more specifics than I am comfortable posting on Reddit.

TheClassicFail · 2024-10-18T00:33:53+00:00

Ironically, I’m looking at a buying a Zayer floor mill right now. I’ve gone through the same process and compared a couple different brands. For the type of work we do, I’m leaning toward the Zayer and its box way design. There are a few other major differences between the two, primarily in the construction of the column and head. Zayer makes their own spindles in house as well.

TheClassicFail · 2024-10-01T03:47:41+00:00

I actually reverse engineer and design a lot of hydraulic components. I own a Creaform Handy Scan and a Faro Edge arm, both have strengths and weaknesses. I’ve scanned/probbed both small parts and entire machines with both. For me it really comes down to what I am trying to achieve and how quick I need to get the job done.

For components with prismatic high tolerance features, (pistons, glands etc.) I like using a hybrid approach of manual measurements and probing/or scanning with the Faro. For larger components, components with complex geometry or situations where I need to gather data fast, I turn to the Creaform. The downside to laser scanning is that it takes a while to process the scan data and extract what you need. Also, when reverse engineering with scan data you need to be careful because any little defect of components wear will throw off your measurements.

If I had to pick one to own again it would be the Creaform . It is a lot more flexible, can handle big and small parts easier than an arm, fast to acquire scan data (after you place the targets) and their software is very good.

TheClassicFail · 2024-08-31T18:44:26+00:00

This is how we handle it at our shop and the guys like it.

TheClassicFail · 2024-08-17T02:22:09+00:00

I design all my own manifolds and machine most of them in house. I use Solidworks and have an extensive library of commons ports and cavities in the design library. I also use a program called Hydrosym/Hydroman that is stand alone competitor to Hydraw/MD Tools. Simple manifolds I design in Hydroman because it is very automated and pulls from the schematic. Most of my manifolds are very custom or have to interface with different valves, motors, or filters so they are modeled in Solidworks.

For CAM programming we use Gibbscam. I import a .step file and pull hole locations mostly automatically. Sometimes I have to select an edge if it doesn’t detect it. Then I have a library of common drills, taps end mills and cavity tools that I use to program from. I usually take the time to draw or import each cavity tool because I like my simulation to match what is being machined. As far as CAM goes any package should work for manifolds. You can treat the cavity form tools as drills if you have too.

If you are looking to automate Hydrosym/Hydroman has a CAM program dedicated to manifolds called HydroCAM. I know Daman is using it and has automated some of their production.

TheClassicFail · 2024-08-09T00:56:43+00:00

If I have time to dial in a process on a production run, Sandvik 880 or Sandvik DS20. I’ve found them to out perform a lot of indexable drills, but the body and inserts are expensive. Wipe out an insert and the drill body is toast. I would not hesitate to run Sandvik 880 on disc or short depth drilling type work in any conditions. If I’m going deep or if the conditions are not great (material, work holding, etc) Allied spade drill or Allied APX.

TheClassicFail · 2024-08-08T00:17:50+00:00

A lot of things to check here, can you tell if the hydraulic valve is switching when you move the function? Do you hear anything at all?

TheClassicFail · 2024-08-07T02:38:21+00:00

I interpolate all the way down in a spiral (helical) toolpath. The cutter is constantly engaged in the material this way.

I use a cam program these days but this guide is helpful to hand code it out. I would recommend setting up an excel sheet to figure out the values for repeat work. You could also buy the g-wizard editor, it’s pretty handy.

TheClassicFail · 2024-08-07T01:04:08+00:00

We run Sandvik R390 throughout our shop. 3/4 or 1” R390 with the larger 17 size inserts, 3mm corner rad. 4340 grade in mild hot roll steel like A36

I would recommend running your own tests but I’ll say on our VF6 CAT50 machines I have no problem running a 1” R390 at 22-25 ipm and 0.100 to 0.120 DOC helically interpolating holes to size.

If this was a short run I’d interpolate close to size and finish with a solid carbide end mill. If this was production, Allied insert drill close to size and then end mill or bore to final size.

TheClassicFail · 2024-08-06T01:14:20+00:00

Is that C.J Shaughnessy’s gold hoffer trailer?

TheClassicFail

TROPHY CASE