Re: Newbie - Help & Clarifications

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "David A. Frantz"
<spinwizard@f...> wrote:

> I have to agree with Dave here. You risk damage to both the

machine

> and yourself by disabling or removing these switches. the risks
> involve more than human error. But like the poster below I've

seen my

> share of people permanently injured because they thought that a

human

> error was beyond them.

In the not so distant past, many machining centers and turning
centers were shipped fully enclosed, and with door interlocks that
prevented access to tool, part, and/or fixtures. There was little
if any provision for view ports into the enclosed machine workspace.

That is they could only be used with preset tools as there was no
method provided for a setup person to use simple tool touch
techniques to set tool length and work offsets. No accomodations
were provided to use edge finders for example, to set part zeros.

Few production or tool shops left the interlocks in place as it was
impossible to use the machines for any but strictly dedicated
production jobs.

These machines were a combinaiton of paranoid safety reactions and
lousy/inadequate controller design. The legal environment left few
options available to US machine builders. This was a major cause of
the failure of the US machine tool industry between 1980 and 1995.

The Japenese were exempted ( an profited greatly) because you can
only get a few drops of blood out of a distribution network sourced
from another country.

Fred Smith - IMService
http://www.cadcamcadcam.com/hobby