Esoteric toy at work, I think I want one really bad.....

[machinist@large]

I think many of you may have caught the post I made about a month or so ago in one of Poboy's thread's about how I won the posting at work to take over the tool room at work. It's been interesting to say the least.

Basically the guy who just retired took over from an actual tool maker. Problem is, he didn't want much to do with the amount of work it would take to do that job; he just wanted the pay check.

It means that I have a bunch of machines that have been criminally neglected; (why did he need 7 oil cans if they were all empty, with the evidence showing they hadn't been used for a really long time?!?!?!).

I have found some tarnished jem's thought.

One of them is the SERVO VALVE CONTROLLED hydraulic duplicator attached to the larger of the two engine lathe's that I need on a daily basis.

Photo 1 is an operators position view with the servo control valve on its arm swung free and locked down where the stylus won't run into anything. On the left you can see the slave cylinder slide with the tool post: middle is the valve and it's arm joint, and bottom right you see the fixed guide rail. I say fixed because your template, whether it be just a straight bar like mine or contoured shape is locked down when you have everything set up. In this case, I'm using it to cut a 1 in 16 taper.

Photo 2 show's it all set up and about to pick up the small end of the taper. Photo 3 is a view of the plumbing layout. The pump and tank are to the right.

The OEM is a company called MIMIK, out of eastern Canada. I haven't had a chance to look them up to see if they are still in business. The lathe itself was built by Nardini in Brazil. It has various operator indused damage issues, but I know I can make this work. The lathe was a high end unit when new, so was the tracer attachment. The other guy hated them both because you have to think to use them........

I asked the CMM room to double check the arbor I made: they said that I was right on the money. That means I have a basic handle on the machines issues, and can work around them to get the job done.....

 

[OzFab]

So, it's a bit like an EZ tracer? a pointer runs on a guide (template) & transfers the shape to the job? That's cool, I want one

 

[machinist@large]

So, it's a bit like an EZ tracer? a pointer runs on a guide (template) & transfers the shape to the job? That's cool, I want one

I haven't heard of an EZ tracer, but that's a great nick name for this unit. It's pretty obvious that the other guy didn't like the unit based on how worn out the taper attachment is on the smaller lathe. Of course, since he considered the small one his baby, that's the one he abused all the time (if it's your baby, why would you ignore whether or not the gearboxes have any oil in them?).

Needless to say, he left me a mess, and the whole company knows it. What's really kind of scary is how engineering signed off on the purchase order to have our communications contractor pull the cable to put a phone in the tool room so that we can speed things up. They've been farming out most of the R&D tooling projects for years due to the other guy just not wanting to bother with it.......


EDIT!!!!!! MIMIK is still in business!!!!! www.mimiktracer.com