Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] High speed spindle chuck

JanRwl@... wrote:

> In a message dated 14-Dec-00 23:38:22 Central Standard Time,
> Smoke@... writes:
>
> > I do you get the CNC to peck drill 4 or 5 holes a sec. You'd really need
> >
>
> Yes, but I'm talking 0.1" between centers! Not the ones 1" or more!
>
> I don't know how the machines are designed/built, but I have seen 'em in
> action: Four quills, each with a "set" of drill-bits for the job being done,
> so that when a drill-change is required, the machine will stop drilling and
> "go over" and re-fill the collets automatically with new drills. Also, if a
> drill breaks, the machine will DETECT and insert replacement, and continue,
> leaving warning to check that hole and re-drill manually, if necessary (if
> drill broken off in material). Each of these four quills can drill up to 7
> layers of 1/16" FR-4 glass-epoxy copper laminate. Mind-boggling thing to
> watch! Data for holes is typed-in as "X and Y coordinates, drill-size". But
> that was 18 years back. No clue how much has changed, since!

At the top end, not much. Excellon is still the 'Cadillac' brand, i think,
and their machines are made pretty much as they were. The base is a
5' x 5' x 8" thick granite surface plate sitting on two enormous graite
legs. The table rides on this plate on 4 air bearing pads. The X axis is
a beam of granite cemented to the base. The Y axis is a beam of granite
that floats on air bearings, and is moved by by the X axis. It is kept orthogonal
by a big aluminum block with air bearing sliders on the X beam. The table slides
on the Y beam on air bearing sliders. A very impressive XY motion base.
The drilling heads are mounted in quill slides on a granite gantry-like beam.

This stuff is PLENTY expensive, I think a 2-spindle machine sold some years
ago for $100,000. Undoubtedly, the price must have gone up since.

Jon