Needs C-axis and live tooling. Twin turret and subspindle would help, maybe.
Workpiece is 14m long x 260mm OD / 175mm ID. Needs necked down almost it's entire length with complex machining both ends. In practice the parts assemble stacked, so internal machining on one end, external on the other.
My original plan was to turn the OD full length on a twin saddle manual, and do the ends in a hollow spindle turning centre with outboard steadies. That idea has sort of fallen through because the manual lathe that I had lined up is no longer available. There are several other disadvantages to this approach anyway.
Soooo, I'm toying with the idea of doing it all in one machine. Twin turrets would halve the time to turn down the OD, but would make steady operation complicated, maybe impossible. Subspindle would perhaps enable single cycle parts, but again might be impractical if trying to juggle turrets and steadies.
I'd also be interested in hollow spindle machines big enough to do it two halves, but obviously that still requires 7m between centres, and the associated outboard handling.
Who makes machines like this?
Workpiece is 14m long x 260mm OD / 175mm ID. Needs necked down almost it's entire length with complex machining both ends. In practice the parts assemble stacked, so internal machining on one end, external on the other.
My original plan was to turn the OD full length on a twin saddle manual, and do the ends in a hollow spindle turning centre with outboard steadies. That idea has sort of fallen through because the manual lathe that I had lined up is no longer available. There are several other disadvantages to this approach anyway.
Soooo, I'm toying with the idea of doing it all in one machine. Twin turrets would halve the time to turn down the OD, but would make steady operation complicated, maybe impossible. Subspindle would perhaps enable single cycle parts, but again might be impractical if trying to juggle turrets and steadies.
I'd also be interested in hollow spindle machines big enough to do it two halves, but obviously that still requires 7m between centres, and the associated outboard handling.
Who makes machines like this?