mill / lathe questions

[Cobar]

That is true.

I am told that they used to have a machine at work from an old factory that we got shut down. It was all mechanical and only made one part. But they couldn't get a $200K CNC machine to make the same part faster.

If your looking to make prototypes and not mass producing, you probably can't go wrong with a 3 axis mill and a lathe. You can pretty much make anything that way. Once you start getting in to producing in numbers, they will still work, but more axes, live tooling, or specialized machines can really really make a difference.

Heck it would take longer but I could probably make most stuff just just a manual knee-mill and engine lathe. CNC really starts to help with complex curves and making repeat parts. Don't forget about making jigs and fixtures to hold the part in different orientations for certain operations. That can make up for lacking a 4th or 5th axis or live tooling.

[HTRN]

Short answer, don't.

If you don't know enough to make a basic decision on what kind of machine to buy, then you certainly don't know enough to efficiently select tooling, decide on process, do the programming, etc,etc, etc...

And what you're talking about generating a program on the machine is generally called conversational programming. HURCO is generally considered to have the best out there(the hardware however isn't as great, I think DMG Mori builds a better machine, with a worse control).

CAM PACKAGES ARE NOT CHEAP. Go see what a seat of Mastercam costs. Decided to use conversational? Does Solidworks do nice clean Dxfs? Then your gonna need Autocad. That's 4 grand right there. Proyally the best option is Fusion360, which is free.. for noncommercial, the second money becomes involved, its 1200 bucks a year for the 3d version, and it doesn't do 4th axis, let alone five.

Go talk to a job shop AFTER they sign an NDA. This way you're only on the hook for the parts you order, and not paying for a machine that cost high five to mid six figures to start with.

CNC makes things very complicated, as you can often do what would be considered a lathe job on a mill, and live tooling on turning centers make the reverse also possible.

If you want to tell me what you're making, just a general description, I can make suggestions. Personally, I think a TM1 or a TV is a bad idea, unless you're doing small runs, and are getting a fantastic deal on the machine, as it's something like 2/3RDS the cost of a decently kitted VF-1, with far les hp and rigidity, especially if you don't need single phase power.

Have budgeted in all the other crap you're gonna need? Mills, lathes, bandsaws, welders, hand tools, tooling (oh wait till you see what that is gonna cost you) hell, what about hardware? Ever sit down and price out what having an adequate supply of nuts and bolts is gonna cost you? I still find holes in ours, and we've filled an entire lista cabinet with SHCS. To be perfectly honest, I'm thinking you're seriously underbudget for what you want to do.

[Darrell]

We have a Bridgeport mill and a LeBlond Makino servo shift lathe for sale... have a metric shitload of tooling too.

[Precision]

Short answer, don't.

Fair enough. I had considered that as a possibility / probability.

The business Idea is suppressors. I had a couple of guys who own a machining company want to be partners. Short story, they decided their machines so I get to be a 1099 employee despite being the designer AND they only want to pay a percentage on sales NOT anything for the intrinsic value of the designs AND they get to decide what counts as a commissionable sale AND if they terminate my employment I get no royalties. NOT gonna happen.

So the new plan is to form 1 a couple of the designs. If they work like I hope they do, then shop them around to some investors and get the seed money for a real business and off we go.

I really want to get the licenses and do my own prototyping (assuming the basics work well enough to pursue it). Perhaps a machine for prototyping and farm out production to a real machine shop. Although not that many have firearms and Suppressor licenses.

Or just accept the delay and have them do all iterations of the evolution of the designs until I can afford to bring it in house?