Power Tool Racing Massive Success

0800 808 477
June 2012
TIP TALK
www.iscar.com
Power Tool Racing Massive Success
This year’s Power Tool Racing Series run by Iscar
Pacific and sponsored by Grabatool kicked off on
the 12 May with engineers and machinists from all
over Auckland battling it out in pursuit of the highly
prized trophy and the kudos of building the fastest
racer. With 21 machines competing, the heat was
on, and once again we were reminded that it’s not
just the fastest on the day, it’s also about staying
power. The enthusiastic participation resulted in the
old record of 2.322 being obliterated by 4 racers and
a new record of 2.208 being set.
Participants started building their weird and wonderful creations months before the big date. With only a
few rules there was ample opportunity for all of the
competitors to get as creative as they liked. The wise
few who competed in last year’s Championship knew
that one of the main challenges to be overcome
was the ability to grip the track. Many tricks were
tried including softer tyres, using a belt grip, running
down the rails, and sticky spray. Ironically enough,
the fastest power tool racer only utilized the sides
of the track to propel itself into victory. A very close
second and the largest improvement in time went to
Mike from Iscar who softened his tyres for his later
runs.
Defined by kilowatt ratings, there were three main
classes open to competitors. The less than .75
kilowatt category was won by young Travis Buckley
with a time of 3.330. Mike from Iscar who was in the
same class actually had a faster run in the heats, but
crashed out and was unable to make the final.
In the .75 – 2.0 kilowatt class, Russell from XACT
Tooling dominated with the fastest time of 2.713.
Russell’s design was a blue monster truck driven by
a 900 watt grinder. Second was Ross from Buckley
Systems with a time of 2.9238.
The over 2.0 Kilowatt was the most powerful class
and produced the fastest run of on the day. Jamie
from RPM delivered a phenomenal performance
as his power tool racer clocked a lightning 2.208,
setting a new course record and winning the overall championship. Simon from RPM had the second
quickest time recording a super fast 2.426.
Other awards given out at the end of the event:
Most Likely To Impress The Girls - Mark from Thoroughbred Floats for the immaculate horse float
replica. Engineering Challenged - Scott from Buckley
Systems who presented and ‘ raced ‘ his version of a
time machine. Video’s and photos from the day can
be seen at www.powertoolracing.co.nz. We plan to
run the event throughout the main NZ cities in the
coming months. If you would like to compete please
register your interest at www.powertoolracing.co.nz.
Any Tool. Best Price
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today to get yours.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Advanced Aerospace
Buys Another Spinner
Setups and changing fixtures on a CNC machine is time consuming. A family can have one fixture to
handle all parts. Changing tools in the magazine takes time, but with a family of parts, it will be possible
not to have to change tools in the machine.
From a machining perspective, however, other characteristics can also define a family. Consider parts
that you can:
•
•
•
•
hold in the same fixture
run with variations on the same program
make using the same type of operations
machine with the same set of tools.
Sometimes it’s hard to see these commonalities, but once you do, you can use them to boost
production by reducing setup and changeover time, minimising programming effort, or improving other
aspects of your process.
Tooling
Parts made by the same processes and tooling might not look the same, but you can consider them to
be a family and you will know this because you won’t be changing tooling between parts, so ensuring
virtually no downtime. In doing this you will also be making the best use of the space in the tool
magazine and this is significant if you have limited tool spaces in the turret or the tool changer. To assist
reducing tool changeovers you can make sure that you keep a multi-function tool in your turret that can
perform many different options (see also Delivering Profitability article).
Programming
As you add parts to a family, you may be able to use portions of previously written programs. Suppose
you are already making a part with a particular feature on it, and the customer asks you to make
another part with the same feature but in a different size or location. You can copy the relevant section
of the program and use it again, with the appropriate adaptation. The programmer can easily make use
of this commonality in the program without doing anything especially sophisticated.
More advanced software features help you to do more. If you repeatedly program a certain feature or
process, you can write a macro, which will automatically run the desired series of commands. Plug-ins,
often written by consultants, can take this approach to another level.
Workholding
The benefits of a family approach to workholding can be considerable. If you are using the same set of
jaws, offsets are the same. For example, you could use stepped jaws. The top, wider step could hold
larger parts, the lower step or steps could hold smaller parts.
Any opportunity to group, streamline, consolidate, rationalise, or optimise programming, tooling, work
holding or other aspects of production can benefit your whole operation.
The fact you have a family of parts is not important. What you do with the family – how you use the
family’s characteristics to help you increase production and reduce costs – is the advantage you can
gain from recognising what parts have in common.
A real testament to the value of a machine tool
dealer’s service and machines is when a customer
returns to buy again. After previously purchasing a
SPINNER U-620, Advanced Aerospace decided to
take a fresh look at what the machine tool market
had to offer. With the criteria that their new CNC
lathe must deliver the best value for money,
SPINNER’s TC400-52-MC found its way to the top
of Advanced Aerospace ‘s list once again.
When Mike Sexton (Machine Shop Manager)
was asked about the driving factors and critical
requirements behind the search for a CNC Lathe
he stated the following.
“We had already purchased a SPINNER U-620 in
the past, however we began looking for a CNC
lathe after we decided that we could obtain
substantial economic benefits by purchasing a
lathe that held the programs within. This would
mean easy pull-up, material cut to the right
lengths, and ease of manufacturing for our
standard components. We had the opportunity
to look at a few machines, which we did, and
we found that some were compatible with our
requirements and some weren’t. A C-axis was
quite critical and we wouldn’t have ordered a
machine without one because 75% of the turning
work that goes through our manufacturing
process has a subsequent operation which needs
either milling, drilling or tapping. A C-axis was
always going to be of great benefit to us as we
wanted to relieve our machining centre of some
of its work load.
I started the search by taking a fresh look at the
market. While all the other machines had decent
attributes I felt that the SPINNER was a good
sturdy machine whose size suited our capacity and
it had the C-axis. Plus the price was right! When
I did a comparison on all of the machines based
off the cost ratio I found that SPINNER was the
best value for money. Plus for the critical C-axis
SPINNER was the best value for money when
compared to the other machines. So we went
ahead and bought the SPINNER. “
As for the service, you cannot beat it! If we have
a problem - it might be our problem or a machine
problem - all I do is call Craig and he is there. I
have never had to wait for anything and service
is major for us. If we had to sit around and wait
we would lose a lot of money as we would not be
manufacturing wanted product. Overall I’m very
happy with our purchase from SPINNER NZ.”
The last photo he took
CONTACT SPINN