New to me Lathe

[Jud96]

As I mentioned in a previous thread, I got a new to me lathe, a 2011 Prototrak 1630SX. I bought it used off an older machinist and it’s in excellent condition. I had it professionally inspected and everything checked out. It only had .0001 of backlash in X and Z, so very minimal wear. It came with a pile of tooling, tool holders, inserts, 3 jaw 10” Bison Set Tru, 8” 6 jaw Bison Set Tru, 10” 4 jaw, pneumatic collet closer, manual collet closer, an Aloris CXA tool post with about 20 holders and a 4 position indexing tool post along with all the manuals and some helpful notes.

I will be making a pair of inboard and outboard spiders for it and will be chambering barrels with it, along making tools and fixtures. I am very happy with my decision and I think these Prototraks are one of the best options available for a CNC lathe used for chambering. Short enough headstock, manual hand wheels, simple programming, manual tailstock, heavy duty and weighs 1000-1500lbs more than typical manual lathes used for chambering, and it’s built like an engine lathe so it feels familiar.

I’m a machinist by trade and very familiar with CNC and G-code. However this machine uses conversional programming so different than what I’m use to. But I watched about 30 mins worth of videos and read the programming portion of the manual and within a couple hours made some basic turning and threading programs.

I personally think this machine will speed up the process for me and allow me to enjoy my hobby without turning it into more work after real job lol

 

[boltfluter]

Looks like a very nice machine and should be perfect for what you are doing. Congrats.
Paul

 

[Sniperhandle]

Looks like a perfect machine for gun work. See if you can talk to "Shortgrass" on this forum, He has experience with conversational programming, He may be able to give you some pointers.

 

[Sam3460]

As I mentioned in a previous thread, I got a new to me lathe, a 2011 Prototrak 1630SX. I bought it used off an older machinist and it’s in excellent condition. I had it professionally inspected and everything checked out. It only had .0001 of backlash in X and Z, so very minimal wear. It came with a pile of tooling, tool holders, inserts, 3 jaw 10” Bison Set Tru, 8” 6 jaw Bison Set Tru, 10” 4 jaw, pneumatic collet closer, manual collet closer, an Aloris CXA tool post with about 20 holders and a 4 position indexing tool post along with all the manuals and some helpful notes.

I will be making a pair of inboard and outboard spiders for it and will be chambering barrels with it, along making tools and fixtures. I am very happy with my decision and I think these Prototraks are one of the best options available for a CNC lathe used for chambering. Short enough headstock, manual hand wheels, simple programming, manual tailstock, heavy duty and weighs 1000-1500lbs more than typical manual lathes used for chambering, and it’s built like an engine lathe so it feels familiar.

I’m a machinist by trade and very familiar with CNC and G-code. However this machine uses conversional programming so different than what I’m use to. But I watched about 30 mins worth of videos and read the programming portion of the manual and within a couple hours made some basic turning and threading programs.

I personally think this machine will speed up the process for me and allow me to enjoy my hobby without turning it into more work after real job lolView attachment 1690138View attachment 1690139View attachment 1690140View attachment 1690144View attachment 1690145View attachment 1690146

 

[Sam3460]

I worked in a bunch of machine shops. You have much, much better tooling than I have ever seen. Now, you need to get a milling machine and a surface grinder. I am really envious of the quality of your tooling.

 

[Sam3460]

You might want to get an Aloris quick change tool post. We had crap imports but they worked very well. The only advice would be to get a lot of tool holders. Once you get your tool set up, leave it in that holder and you will save a lot of time when you change operations. Don't think of tool holders as an expense, think of them as a short cut and a labor (time) saving device.

 

[DaveTooley]

The conversational part will come along. You have to get where you think like the machine. That can take time. Having no experience with G code it took me probably 6 months before I could converse with my Haas. There's not such thing as intuitive.

Here's a tip to get the Aloris tool post to repeat. Lock the toolholder down hard. Really hard.

 

[LVLAaron]

That's awesome. I'd love to find something like that, but I'm scared of the programming.

 

[ShtrRdy]

Sounds like you got a nice machine for what you're wanting to do.

 

[Jud96]

The programming is actually really easy and they have a ton of YouTube videos going over it and their manuals are very good and they’re free to view online. G code in my opinion is much harder to understand and use. It’s like learning a different language. Once you get it, you got it. But it’s not intuitive.

 

[BuffaloBill]

Congrats on the awesome lathe & tooling package! I just finished threading a tenon on my manual lathe and while doing so was thinking about how CNC people just zip it on there with a button press. Very cool.