For you machinists: i experienced my first CNC crash today

[BURNSURVIVOR725]

Luckily it was not my fault. I was running an Okuma lathe, the same lathe running the same part ive done for two weeks now. among the tooling in the 2 turrets are a carbide inserted drill on the B turret and a turning tool and .250 parting tool on the A turret. every now and then this lathe decides to do its own thing. it decided to cut a grove where it shouldnt be, the diameter it left was smaller than the diameter of the drill. so when the drilling cycle came next the piece stuck on the drill. when the B turret moved out of the way for the turning tool the piece stuck on the drill hit the turning tool. i knew it didnt sound right so i hit the emergency stop. i opened the cabinet to find the turning tool halfway knocked out of its holder, i was actually able to remove it by hand. luckily since i was on my toes and got her shut down fast the only casualty was the carbide insert on the turning tool. it took me and the one of the set up guys 25 minutes to have it running parts again. It was a valuable lesson! he could have had it running sooner but he was walking me through the steps to set everything back up. then he let me play with the offsets myself to get my dimensions back where they need to be. i cant wait to go back to school and play with the HAAS stuff!

Cliffnotes for those who have NO clue what i just typed:

i run a $200,000+ machine that cuts metal.
i heard a bad noise, said OH ****! and shut it down
The only damage was a $10 insert
I gained experience by adjusting the machine myself

 

[MontereyC6]

But, you forgot to add in the cost of the part that was ruined, and the down time on the machine. All of that costs money too.

 

[BURNSURVIVOR725]

But, you forgot to add in the cost of the part that was ruined, and the down time on the machine. All of that costs money too.

well if you put it THAT way . . .

 

[ZbornacSVT]

Nice save! I know how bad that could have been

 

[XtremeVel]

The only damage was a $10 insert

That's not a crash ! LOL

The worst crash I even seen is one I actually came upon late one Saturday evening. We have (16) Swiss made Charmilles Wire EDM machines and we set them up on Friday to run unattended over the weekends. We program them to retain the slugs and we remove them by either stopping in to check up on them over the weekend or just wait and do it Monday morning. This was my weekend to stop in and do the " check". What I found was on one machine, a large slug had dropped early due to a error in the program. It ended up blowing up a $2500.00 Mecatool fixture, $1800 damage done to the ceramic lower head and diamond guide, and lastly bent the lower arm in which we had to have the manufacturer come in to repair what they could and replace the rest. We were never told what the latter part ended up costing.

 

[lovemachine]

Amatuer!


I've never ran the CNC before. I'm old fashioned, I use the machines that are 80 years old. We've got a CNC mill, but only 1 guy gets to use it. Annoying.

 

[johntheplinker]

Must have been something in the weather today. We had 2 crashes. First one the machine I was running decided to put a hole where there wasn't supposed to be, and screwed up the part and fixture. Of course it had to be hot part so somebody is going to be p.o.ed about it being late. Second another machine decided to move the offsets about 8"in Y. Actually looked kinda cool. It seems like when its hot and humid CNCs like to get stupid on occasion. Wait until a factory tech tells you it can't do that, while he is watching it happen. Hilarious.

 

[BURNSURVIVOR725]

That's not a crash ! LOL

The worst crash I even seen is one I actually came upon late one Saturday evening. We have (16) Swiss made Charmilles Wire EDM machines and we set them up on Friday to run unattended over the weekends. We program them to retain the slugs and we remove them by either stopping in to check up on them over the weekend or just wait and do it Monday morning. This was my weekend to stop in and do the " check". What I found was on one machine, a large slug had dropped early due to a error in the program. It ended up blowing up a $2500.00 Mecatool fixture, $1800 damage done to the ceramic lower head and diamond guide, and lastly bent the lower arm in which we had to have the manufacturer come in to repair what they could and replace the rest. We were never told what the latter part ended up costing.

OUCH! we have an AP&T draw press that they recently flew two engineers in from Sweden to fix. i DO NOT want to see that bill.

Amatuer!


I've never ran the CNC before. I'm old fashioned, I use the machines that are 80 years old. We've got a CNC mill, but only 1 guy gets to use it. Annoying.

CNC's are cool but you just cant beat a bridgeport!

Must have been something in the weather today. We had 2 crashes. First one the machine I was running decided to put a hole where there wasn't supposed to be, and screwed up the part and fixture. Of course it had to be hot part so somebody is going to be p.o.ed about it being late. Second another machine decided to move the offsets about 8"in Y. Actually looked kinda cool. It seems like when its hot and humid CNCs like to get stupid on occasion. Wait until a factory tech tells you it can't do that, while he is watching it happen. Hilarious.

ive been told that my machines turrets like to play tag with each other and the tail stock every now and then. I just saw you are in Perry county, you wouldnt happen to know the Pollard family would you?

im getting ready to go into my 2nd year at Vincennes. i got lucky and got a REALLY good internship this summer. here are a few of the things ivemade so far.

here is my V block straight out of heat treat

My Mold

and my die

 

[alwalker84]

I crashed one once when I was working at Mitchel and Scott Machinery. It was a 6 axis machine that had a two patr process one a tranny gear part. I put the part in backwards on the wrong step. Spindle came in and BOOM!!!!!!!!!!! Machine seemed like it hopped up off the floor. Ruined alot of equipment in there and was fired. I say it was there fault...Machine shouldnt be set up to allow such an error. O well, that was ages ago.

 

[MontereyC6]

well if you put it THAT way . . .

LOL, no worries. I know that if I totaled up all the wrecks I have had in the last 18 years it would have to be close to 6 figures. The most violent wreck I can remember was on a 1920's era blanchard grinder. I knocked a block over and it damn near came out and hit me in the head!

 

[downzero]

Having four years in industrial maintenance myself, congrats. I didn't have a lathe to play with, but if I did, I'd tear it up

 

[Big Hank]

Congrats on witnessing your first crash, and also thankfully nobody was injured. On a very serious note, remember these things get a mind of their own every once in a while. Treat a CNC like you would a loaded firearm when it's in motion. Some of the older ones, and most of the new ones I have been around will still run with the door open, so be careful. I used to use a lathe I can't remember the name that had a chuck in the 20" range. From time to time it would rapid toward the chuck instead of away from the chuck when it was going for a tool change. The machine was about the size of a Chevy Blazer and Wow it could make some noise.

 

[tnek]

Used to be an EL for a company in Kokomo and have seen some intersting "following errors".
Funny how a machine thats programed well and has run thousands of the same part can just crash. Usually its a chuck not holding a part or tooling put in wrong or wrong tooling. Once in a while a machine will actually have a NC/CNC whack out and do evil things.
You guys who do job shop work get to have all the risk of a tool engineer for setting up a machine for one or a few parts and that takes time. A good T&D guy hard to find.
I prefer Fanuc controls but for job shop machines that cross into production I also like the Mazaks.
I used to work in plants that had a dozen differnet controlers. From all of the faunucs, AB 9 series, Siemans step 5 and 7, Indramat(one of the biggest differences from generation to generation) G&L, Okuma(never did figure that one out) and a couple other propitary small machines.
Now Im in a different situation and dont get to play with the neat toys anymore.
Bummer.

 

[lawrra]

Good ol' Okumas. I ran a few at my last job, but mostly ran Fujis. The weirdest crash I've seen was an insert drill pulling out of the cam40 tool holder, staying in the bore of the part, and the boring bar grinding itself down into the back of the drill.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Luckily it was not my fault. I was running an Okuma lathe, the same lathe running the same part ive done for two weeks now. among the tooling in the 2 turrets are a carbide inserted drill on the B turret and a turning tool and .250 parting tool on the A turret. every now and then this lathe decides to do its own thing. it decided to cut a grove where it shouldnt be, the diameter it left was smaller than the diameter of the drill. so when the drilling cycle came next the piece stuck on the drill. when the B turret moved out of the way for the turning tool the piece stuck on the drill hit the turning tool. i knew it didnt sound right so i hit the emergency stop. i opened the cabinet to find the turning tool halfway knocked out of its holder, i was actually able to remove it by hand. luckily since i was on my toes and got her shut down fast the only casualty was the carbide insert on the turning tool. it took me and the one of the set up guys 25 minutes to have it running parts again. It was a valuable lesson! he could have had it running sooner but he was walking me through the steps to set everything back up. then he let me play with the offsets myself to get my dimensions back where they need to be. i cant wait to go back to school and play with the HAAS stuff!

Cliffnotes for those who have NO clue what i just typed:

i run a $200,000+ machine that cuts metal.
i heard a bad noise, said OH ****! and shut it down
The only damage was a $10 insert
I gained experience by adjusting the machine myself

Yep, been there, didn't like it.
Moved on twenty years ago and haven't missed cutting chips any since.

 

[BURNSURVIVOR725]

Congrats on witnessing your first crash, and also thankfully nobody was injured. On a very serious note, remember these things get a mind of their own every once in a while. Treat a CNC like you would a loaded firearm when it's in motion. Some of the older ones, and most of the new ones I have been around will still run with the door open, so be careful. I used to use a lathe I can't remember the name that had a chuck in the 20" range. From time to time it would rapid toward the chuck instead of away from the chuck when it was going for a tool change. The machine was about the size of a Chevy Blazer and Wow it could make some noise.

yeah the door safety switch has been disabled on this machine, every now and then the B turret pushes it open. its a decent size lathe, its taller than me and im 6' 7". the spindle through hole is 8+ inches. but it still doesnt hold a candle to the conomatics. those suckers are monsters They are huge, noisy, smelly, and spray cutting oil EVERYWHERE. i think they are cool as hell.

 

[Tactical Dave]

If it makes anyone feel better I know someone that crashed (destroyed) a million dolloar machine when he went to work on it and forgot to ground himself.. he touched one of the boards and he got one of those static electricity shocks and said OOPS. He was honest about it and got to keep his job.

I have never messed with anything more then the old standard lathes but I hear the HAAS stuff is pimp.

 

[BURNSURVIVOR725]

If it makes anyone feel better I know someone that crashed (destroyed) a million dolloar machine when he went to work on it and forgot to ground himself.. he touched one of the boards and he got one of those static electricity shocks and said OOPS. He was honest about it and got to keep his job.

I have never messed with anything more then the old standard lathes but I hear the HAAS stuff is pimp.

Dang! at least he was honest! V.U. has nothing but HAAS CNC's. i took CNC programming 1 last semester. we ran a "simulated" machine through software named immersive. this year i will get to play with the actual machines. the have mini mills, a super mini mill, several VF-2's, 2 super VF-2's, 2 SL-20's, and a TL-1. theres a lot of projects brewing in my head id like to make

heres a video of one of the 3rd year projects on the VF-2SS with a 5 axis trunion

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YpAeO_pkp4]YouTube - Vincennes University's 5 Axis HAAS[/ame]

 

[TheLoneRaider]

I watched my cousin destroy a Nakumura-Tome machine. It was bar fed he jacked up the turret and crashed it into the collet. My uncle was so mad at him.

 

[Tactical Dave]

Dang! at least he was honest! V.U. has nothing but HAAS CNC's. i took CNC programming 1 last semester. we ran a "simulated" machine through software named immersive. this year i will get to play with the actual machines. the have mini mills, a super mini mill, several VF-2's, 2 super VF-2's, 2 SL-20's, and a TL-1. theres a lot of projects brewing in my head id like to make

heres a video of one of the 3rd year projects on the VF-2SS with a 5 axis trunion

Not long after another high dollar machine got trashed the same way. They asked him about it and he honestly said it was not him and they said ok and that was that. This was at a plant that builds some insaine lasers and super conductors........ he told people that he helped build death rays haha.

I went to VU at the Indy Airport campus for Aircraft Maintenance. VU is a whole is a good school.

I have thought about taking some machine/CNC classes for the fun of it at some time but I have a learning disability in math and suck at it so my choices may be limited.

In High School I never got to use the mill (manual) wish I could have. I have even offerd to work with someone on the side for free just to learn some of this stuff....... someting cool about making things out of metal... I guess that is why when I started working on aircraft I got into sheet metal/structures and composites pretty quick.


If you ever need any lube for small drilling projects this stuff is the only thing used in aviation, great for steel and titanium...

BOELUBE - home


This stuff makes PB blaster look like a joke......

KanoLabs.com