Just waving a thing

[Ian Petrie]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182674265856

ends at quarter to seven

[Toby Williams]

CNC Lathe would be sooooo sweet. I hope we can get there in the future.

[Andy Noyes]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152630210097

[mikethebee]

It says no bids where made, £50 seems a good price for a spot welder, and it is on my wishlist as a tool to have access to. Did you not bid or are extra votes needed for it to be an rLab space taker?. - Mike

[Ian Petrie]

Maybe this one?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sealey-spot-welder/282596360685

[Andy Noyes]

I'm surprised it didn't sell for £50, maybe because of the space it takes up. The seller hasn't relisted it and it's only in Bracknell, they may be prepared to do a deal off ebay, if they haven't already, which is why it hasn't been relisted.

A bench mounted one is much more convenient for small projects than a hand held one, but the amount of use it would get would need to justify the space it would take. Spot welding is much easier and would be more accessible to beginners than MIG or TIG and since there are no real consumables there aren't the running costs either. It would also compliment the other machines in being able to weld very thin material which you can't do (without a great deal of skill) on the other welders.

 

On Thursday, 3 August 2017 12:21:55 UTC+1, mikethebee wrote:

[Andy Noyes]

(I've asked the seller if it's still available)

[Andy Noyes]

The Hirst spot welder is still available. Do we want it? Do we have space for it? Footprint is approx 1000mm x 600mm, it might double as a small workbench but it does have the welding head attached to the top.

The seller is currently away on holiday, so we have a little over a week to decide.

I could probably transport it from Bracknell (though not sure how heavy it is).

[Ian Petrie]

Lets get it and evaluate its potential. If it doesn't fit then we can pass it on. I'll pledge a tenner towards it.

Ian

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[Gavin]

Also in for £10

[Eric Rowen]

In for  £10 

[mikethebee]

I'll pledge a tenner, thanks Andy.

[Andy Noyes]

If I also put in £10 we are there (assuming the seller will take the £50 starting bid, seems reasonable).

I will make contact next week when the seller returns.

[Toby Williams]

That's not a cnc lathe. THIS is a cnc lathe:

https://www.gumtree.com/p/lathes/haas-moderl-hl-2-cnc-lathe/1260642924

[Alex Gibson]

Blimey.

 

That is a heck of a lot of machining capability for a reasonable price that we could in theory buy outright.

 

Were we to seriously consider it, additional costs would be factored in including an ongoing maintenance plan for it which could be a lot.   Software cost, availability and training could be a gotcha.

 

Our current non CNC lathe allows people to get into the heart of lathe operation without the complexity of programming machining strategies on a computer.  

 

I wonder, how many rLab members and other local people have a need to use this level of machine, and how often?

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[Toby Williams]

In reality, I believe the barrier to entry is too high for this machine to be practically useful. A DRO on the current lathe would be a great upgrade for much less cost and complexity.

Funny though. Seems like sooooo much of the cost of CNC machines these days is the controller and software, not the iron.

T

[Alex Gibson]

Agree on both counts.  I would be daunted by the time investment in learning it even if the software were cheap, which it won’t be. 

 

It’s like any high cost machine, once out of its warranty/depreciation/support window, it plummets in value, as you’re in a whole different market – users with lower budgets, lower frequency of need, who will either take a chance and run it into the ground, or pay for extended support, but this comes out of the cost of buying the machine.  It’s not in the company’s interest to lower the cost of software and support, or they end up competing for new machine sales against a growing pool of their own old products...

 

Would love a DRO for our current lathe, this could be immediately useful, and adds no real complexity for a new user.

 

Eventually it could be good to add a simple, limited CNC upgrade to it – AFTER we are done with and confident using the Shapeoko, and ideally using similar control toolchain.

 

 

 

From: 'Toby Williams' via Reading Hackspace [mailto:reading-...@googlegroups.com]
Sent: 15 August 2017 12:41
To: Reading Hackspace
Subject: Re: [RDG-Hack] Re: Just waving a thing

 

In reality, I believe the barrier to entry is too high for this machine to be practically useful. A DRO on the current lathe would be a great upgrade for much less cost and complexity.

 

Funny though. Seems like sooooo much of the cost of CNC machines these days is the controller and software, not the iron.

 

T

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[Toby Williams]

back to the 'waving a thing':

Boxford CNC Lathe, currently at £520

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Boxford-cnc-lathe/132292029948?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D45564%26meid%3D459a745b414245f885266d54cf91509f%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D182674265856&_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850

[Andy Noyes]

Re. the spot welder. Apparently it's no longer available, the seller had it advertised elsewhere.

[mikethebee]

That's a shame, but gives an idea of what to ook out for. - Mike

[mikethebee]

From my experience, the real value of a CNC on a lathe is for repeat operations. Connecting to CAD/CAM systems allows transfer of designs from the tech. drawing team to the ops, but only justified on a batch, or where the lathe can do multiple operations such as drilling. CNC on a mill is more akin to a 3DP and thus the automation is valuable even for a oneoff.

[Alex Gibson]

IS this kind of spot welder usable for joining cells together to make battery packs?

 

Cheers

Alex

 

From: reading-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:reading-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of mikethebee
Sent: 20 August 2017 10:55
To: Reading Hackspace
Subject: Re: [RDG-Hack] Re: Just waving a thing

 

That's a shame, but gives an idea of what to ook out for. - Mike

On Friday, 18 August 2017 21:15:13 UTC+1, Andy Noyes wrote:

Re. the spot welder. Apparently it's no longer available, the seller had it advertised elsewhere.

 

--

[Richard Ibbotson]

This is my experience too. Our work toolroom would nearly always use a non CNC lathe for the types of jobs we do at rLab.

A CNC lathe would be way down my list of useful tools to take money and space. It is higher on the interesting tool list, but in reality, more of a project. Maybe when the Shapeoko and Boxford mill are done, we might look at a project like this. I am interested how the CAM part of Fusion 360 can handle lathes and rotary laser cutters.

 

The ability to make coordinated XY moves is the big value to the CNC mill, but the need for coordinated multi axis moves is much less on the lathe. The whole tool holding, tool change is much more difficult on the lathe too due to tool shapes and more degrees of freedom in tool mounts. Guess this why many CNC lathes have very different geometric configurations to manual lathes.

 

From: reading-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:reading-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of mikethebee

Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2017 11:01 AM
To: Reading Hackspace <reading-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [RDG-Hack] Re: Just waving a thing

 

From my experience, the real value of a CNC on a lathe is for repeat operations. Connecting to CAD/CAM systems allows transfer of designs from the tech. drawing team to the ops, but only justified on a batch, or where the lathe can do multiple operations such as drilling. CNC on a mill is more akin to a 3DP and thus the automation is valuable even for a oneoff.

--

[Andy Noyes]

Yes, it could do battery packs but would need a set of electrodes making so that both are on the same side of the tab to be welded. (Normally the work is pinched between one fixed and one moveable electrode). This could be a simple handle with two prongs.

[Eric Rowen]

No idea if they do a CNC capstan lathe but that is what you need for multiple tool changes, but there is a lot of setup to do so not really of interest unless you are producing lots of the same part, which sounds like production not hacking. 

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