Bar feeding a cnc lathe

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 18:59:40 +0100
From: "Peter Smith" <peter@...>
Subject: Re: Quiet list

<snip>

>How is bar feeding catered for on a small CNC lathe?

Peter

The simplist bar feeders that I've worked on use a constant air pressure on
the end of the bar. When you need a bar feed, switch tools to a piece of
round stock, drive it near the cut face of the bar, open the collet or
chuck and the air forces the bar out against the round stock, drive the
z-axis back the length of stock needed (the air pressure keeps feeding the
stock) and close the collet or chuck again. Such a thing would not be at
all difficult for an HSM to build.

I've seen fancier feeds and multi bar setups but most use the lathe's
z-axis for accurate positining of the stock.

Ray Henry <rehenry@...>
From Michigan's Upper Peninsula