Pecking is good but from the videos you're losing a lot of time with
retract speed.
The peck shown was mesy and manual. The guy doing it had no idea what I had
in mind and thus wasted a lot of time on the retract. All I wanted to see
was a split second removal of the thrust but alas, he thought I wanted full
retraction. An automatic, adjustable timer fixes that, especially if PLC
controlled and adjustable.
Also, you may experience high cutter wear because the
pneumatic cylinder has some squish to it as the cutter makes contact
with the work. You get rubbing instead of cutting for a brief instant,
which can be pretty nasty on alloy and stainless steels.
Excellent point.
Hydraulic
would be better, though a lot more of a pain if you don't already have
all the support equipment. Much more controllable too.
Hydraulic is more than possible. We do it often enough to handle it. The
only thing I don't like about the hydraulic is... well... the oil.
I guess you don't have the torque and linear force to run an indexable
drill? They have excellent chip breaking capability.
Depends on the hole size. I can go to 3 HP with very low RPM and create up
to around 1500 lbs. of thrust. However, the machine is only about 120 lbs.
total so it's not going to be nearly as steady as a Bridgeport or even very
large drill press, etc. It's tough to make a hole with standard tooling
(step works) at that size as the micro-vibrations simply kill some tooling.
The problem isn't so much the stability of my drill, but the fact that
nobody wants to build a 5,000 lb. fixture to hook up a 100 lb. drill.
You can get indexable trepanning tools but they usually start at Ø3"+
and they look pricey.
I'm selling the machine, not the tooling so...
Thanks as always for the thoughts Robin. You and a few others around here
make the group worthwhile above and beyond the entertainment value of the
spam.
--
Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
(800) 871-5022
01.908.542.0244
Automatic / Pneumatic Drills:
http://www.AutoDrill.com
Multiple Spindle Drills:
http://www.Multi-Drill.com
Production Tapping:
http://Production-Tapping-Equipment.com/
Flagship Site:
http://www.Drill-N-Tap.com
VIDEOS:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AutoDrill
V8013-R