CNC Cutting of Fiberglass Tubes Question

So I recently saw a vide on the NAR Facebook page of someone's visit to Wildman where his Drago was kit was made, right before his very eyes.

The highlight of the video was the fin slot cutting machine.

Full disclosure: I have no idea how this works. Are both the index head on the lathe/tube holder and the cutter head CNC controlled? Or does the lathe/tube holder manually index?


Big question: If the tube holder is CNC driven, would it be possible to cut tube fins in the style of a Pemberton Kraken?

Call Tim and ask him!

Dwatkins said:

Call Tim and ask him!

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And post the answers here!

You can get manually indexing spindles or pay a boat load for the 4th axis motor drive. The latter speeds up the process by a few minutes.

Banzai88 said:

Big question: If the tube holder is CNC driven, would it be possible to cut tube fins in the style of a Pemberton Kraken?

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The horizontal axis (B Axis) appears to be CNC driven. I didn't look closely.

If it is CNC Driven, anything is possible. It could be designed specifically to only index THEN cut... But with enough ingenuity, a CNC can be programmed to do *anything*.

So if Wildman knows how to do it and is willing, then theoretically, yes, he could.

Mike

I have discussed this many times with Tim, the whole thing is CNC. I have discussed having him cut tubes for some of my products in development but the programming of more complex cuts is an issue.

Anyone have a link to the video? I tried looking for it but couldn't find it.

Ryan Toso's post on 06 June 2017 @ 1543.

I'll try the link, but Facebook is strange about cross links: https://www.facebook.com/ryan.toso.3/videos/1499975243358394/

[video]https://www.facebook.com/ryan.toso.3/videos/1499975243358394/[/video]

Thanks Tom.

I've talked to Tim about it once or twice. It was custom built. He has to write the code by hand due to the way the axis are set up.

It looks like they just use a pair of bull nose centers to hold the tubing in place. I doubt you can cut the end of a tube with it.

ChrisAttebery said:

Thanks Tom.

I've talked to Tim about it once or twice. It was custom built. He has to write the code by hand due to the way the axis are set up.

It looks like they just use a pair of bull nose centers to hold the tubing in place. I doubt you can cut the end of a tube with it.

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I'm sure that 'time' isn't cheap, but it might be worth paying for. I'm thinking that, to keep the tubes from collapsing with complete cuts, that tabs would be needed to hold it all together, and then the tabs hand cut. From there it's a simple task to sand the remainder of the tabs off.

Hmmmm....gears are turning!

Banzai88 said:

Big question: If the tube holder is CNC driven, would it be possible to cut tube fins in the style of a Pemberton Kraken?

Click to expand...

NO....it is a slotting machine only. Cuts slots and index's..... will not index/rotate and cut.
I have cut hundreds of tubes on it while visiting.

blackjack2564 said:

NO....it is a slotting machine only. Cuts slots and index's..... will not index/rotate and cut.
I have cut hundreds of tubes on it while visiting.

Click to expand...

Well, that ends that dream.