[time-nuts] metric / English

Chuck Harris cfharris at erols.com
Sun Dec 18 03:31:48 UTC 2011


The manual machines are still in use for limited production runs,
such as are used in prototype manufacture.

Screw machines, and second op lathes see extensive use in
manufacturing because they are quicker than CNC machines...
that and very cheap to use.

I use manual machines because it is quicker to whittle out a prototype
chassis or do-dad on manual machines than it is to do a formal
CAD drawing, and then work out the tool paths to do it on a CNC
machine... and then find you have made it a mistake... wash rinse
repeat...  CNC machines are like printers.  In theory they save
time and materials, but in practice, they can burn time and waste
materials like no human running a manual machine ever would.

[As a tree farmer, who sells trees into pulp production, computers
and printers have been a godsend.  More trees go into paper
production today then ever did before the advent of the "paperless"
office.]

-Chuck Harris

Chris Albertson wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 4:48 AM, Chuck Harris<cfharris at erols.com>  wrote:
>> Which works very well, but unlike all of the English
>> thread combinations, you must keep the lathe's half-nuts
>> engaged to the lead screw ALWAYS.  That means when you reach
>> the end of the thread, you must stop the lathe, and back
>> it up to the beginning of the thread to make the next cut.
>
> That method always works.  But another might.  There will always be
> some integer number of pitches that get you back exactly without
> error.  But it might be say 5 inches back so there is almost always a
> way to run only forward you method might be the best.
>
> But are people still using these old machines for production work?
>
>
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
>
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