Serious question about tool libraries for prototype work

I visited a maker space in Nashville last weekend and noticed they had a Tormach PCNC 440 set up for member use, but the feed rates were all dialed way back - has anyone else run into issues with community machines being tuned too conservative for production-quality work?

3 comments

3 Comments

joseph5299d ago

Wait, they actually had the Tormach PCNC 440 dialed way back on feed rates? That's crazy. I mean those machines are already pretty conservative compared to a full VMC, so running them even slower must make even simple aluminum parts take forever. I've seen maker spaces do that to protect the spindle and keep newbies from crashing, but it totally kills any chance of getting a decent surface finish or reasonable cycle time.

alex_taylor109d ago

Bet they're trying to save on tooling costs more than anything.

kevin2185d ago

Wait, are you saying they had the PCNC 440 dialed back even more than the default conservative settings? I ran a 1100 in a shop for a while and had to bump up the speeds and feeds just to get decent cycle times in 6061.