SJ Larson Co's Blog

New Big Kaiser Boring System Rewrites The Rules

sjlarsonco — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:36:39 +0000

An Elk Grove Village based aluminum die-cast house and machining operation isn’t afraid to go all in with their tooling. In a highly competitive market seconds count in any operation. One place most wouldn’t look to be able to save time is with an 11.75″ diameter bore on an older BT40 mill, but with a new tool from Big Kaiser the rules have changed. Why can’t we run faster on larger diameters and on smaller taper machines ? Tool weight is the key: too heavy to get the SFM’s up, too heavy to tool change. With the new series 318 boring system from Big Kaiser, both of these questions were answered with an off the shelf tool. Series 318 uses anodized aluminum components for the strength of steel with a substantial decrease in tool weight. Additionally, the new system allows for integral slide components to further reduce weight and the additional cost of multiple components. When the customer asked what we might have available for the application, it could not have been better timing for this product. Here are the net results in the customer’s email to me after the tool test. The only issue they had was clearance in the magazine with a large tool on a BT40 machine:

“That tool is awesome. We had to modify pot in, pot out sheet metal and that’s it.

Ran a part 2400rpm @ 19.2ipm with the regular inserts (carbide) you set up, looks beautiful! “

That’s 2400 RPM on an 11.5″ diameter..do the math on the SFM’s yourself. I think many, many, large production bores are now up for review.

11.755" diameter on a BT 40 flange. Tool weight approx. 15 pounds

Fullerton G3 Makes The Grade

sjlarsonco — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 23:20:49 +0000

Fullerton Tool’s new Alumamill G3 tool proved itself to be the class leader in high performance aluminum endmills at a Chicago area contract shop. The details:

5/16″ diameter standard length tool

6061 Alum / .880 deep slot / Took .220 at a time / 1500 SFM / 54 IPM / 500 Parts

The customer used 3 end mils on this job instead of an other 3 flute tool from a national distributor. Production was tripled.

The key to the performance was the wiper flat on the bottom of the tool, providing superior surface finish even at high speeds and feeds.

Contact me for your no charge test today

Applications Wanted…

sjlarsonco — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 02:04:32 +0000

Fullerton Tool has just introduced a new tool to the market, the AlumaMill G3. It’s a hybrid rougher/finishing tool with superior wall and floor finish capabilities. The team at Fullerton’s experience and r&d capabilities helped to develop and deliver this tool to set the bar for high performance aluminum milling. Applications are wanted, test tools are available on a guaranteed performance basis. I’ll be posting results as we get this product rolling, feel free to contact me for a sales flier and additional performance specs.

The AlumaMill G3 Is Here

Extended Heule Defa Tool Saves Scrap

sjlarsonco — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:38:08 +0000

An aerospace contract shop had an expensive problem – producing a front and back countersink by hand on a magnesium housing resulted in parts being scrapped. At $15,000.00 a part, the problem needed to be corrected more than fast.. Just to make thinks more interesting, the location of the countersinks on the part required over 14 inches of reach from the top of the tool to the face of the holder for clearance. Using a stock standard Defa front and back chamfering tool from Heule Precision Tools allowed the customer to machine the 90 degree countersink in their horizontal machining center, solving the problem. We provided specs to the customer to help them build their own extension, I’ve attached a few photos of the tool. Heule Precision Tool’s twin bladed Defa tool allows for adjustment of the chamfer diameter on the tool and allows for toleranced chamfers and countersinks from 4mm to 44.5mm. Click to view slideshow.

Speroni Delivers Under the Covers…Competition, Not So Much.

sjlarsonco — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:31:18 +0000

This may be a bit of a long post and sorry for the bad tag line but hang in there…

I installed a new Speroni Magis presetter at a customer in the Chicago area last month. While it was good fortune for me and the customer is very pleased with their new machine, it was a bit of a tough pill for them to swallow. They purchased our new presetter due to the almost constant breakdowns to their only three and a half year old existing unit. Why did they have to replace such a relatively new piece of equipment? Well, I had the opportunity to take a look under the covers of my competitors unit and to say I was a bit surpised is an understatement. I’ve attached a slide show of some pics of the competition’s unit and I would like to point out a couple of design features that over time, proved to be their undoing.

First, take a look at the large voids in both the base and column castings. My customer felt that with larger, heavier tools in their 50 taper spindle, the machine would not repeat. I can understand this due to a lack of support from the castings. Trying to hold tenths with lack of stability is hard to achieve. Secondly and where the customer had multiple problems, is the completely unprotected gold colored glass scale strips along the x and z axis. Even with the covers and bellows installed, contaminants were making their way into the machine and causing the scales to misread. The readout would jump by as much as .010″, the guys in the tool crib were actually using a 20 year old height gage at the end to set lengths out of fear of crashing tools due to bad measurements. My customer machines a lot of stainless and still had contamination problems – good luck in a cast iron shop!

Needless to say, the quality of construction that goes into both table top Speroni Magis and floor model Esperia presetters could never allow for these pretty glaring deficiencies. Solid castings, massive guideways and sealed Heidenhein scales are the foundation for constructing a machine that is designed to last decades, not months on the shop floor. If you’re coming to IMTS 2010 and in the market for a presetter, stop by Big Kaiser at booth W-1600 for a look at the Speroni machines. We’ll give you a look under the covers. Click to view slideshow.

Not Your Average Off The Shelf Tool

sjlarsonco — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:27:13 +0000

One of the biggest advantages to a program like Big Kaiser’s modular boring system is its built in versatility. You start with a list of tooling manufacturers and give them the application. OK, I need a Cat 50 tool to reach over 14″ into a part. Not a problem for many, although most will have to stack so many extensions that runout at the cutting edge will be a problem. Oh, by the way, we need to back bore this part to hold .0002″ concentricity. Everybody else tosses in their cards except Big Kaiser. We flip the insert holder on a standard 310 boring head and cut the part. Case closed.

Snap Tap – Heule Tool Brings It Home

sjlarsonco — Wed, 12 May 2010 01:56:37 +0000

Ran a successful Heule Tool test today in A36 steel, using a Snap Tap tool with a TiAlN coated carbide insert.

Here’s the set up: Cat 40 vertical mill, 9mm drilled hole, followed by an M10 roll form tap. The tap was “pushing” a burr on the backside of the part that could only be removed with a countersink on a drill press.

Two problems with this program: 1. Handling the part twice.

2. Pushing the burr back into the threads. The no-go gage was getting a workout.

The fix: Only Heule’s Snap Tap tool can cut a chamfer large enough to allow a tap to produce a thread and still leave an edge break. We ran a Snap 5-9.0mm tool cutting an 11.5mm diameter chamfer at 1600 RPM and around .008″ per rev. Results: consistent front and back chamfers, parts came off clean, no drill press, no Q.C. complaints about messed up threads.

Snap Tap is a stock standard offering for tap sizes from M6 to M12. Everything is run on a performance guarantee…

Front and Backside Chamfering from Heule Tool Company

In Case You Missed It….

sjlarsonco — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:03:39 +0000

Congratulations to all at Big Kaiser who put it a lot of effort to make the Grand Opening event a success. With representatives from Big Daishowa Seiki Japan, Heinz Kaiser in Switzerland, Speroni SpA Italy and Innotool Austria, guests were treated to multiple new product introductions. Highlights included the 1 Micron adjusting EWB-UP boring heads, the ultra high precision Mega ER Grip collet system, and the latest Magis line of tool presetters. A few pics below of the showroom with machining centers for demos and the new training room.

If you missed it, give me a call and we can make a visit over for a tour, lunch is on me…

Click to view slideshow.

Big Kaiser Grand Opening Week

sjlarsonco — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 13:29:56 +0000

Looking forward to this weeks Grand Opening of the new Big Kaiser facility in Hoffman Estates. The preparations have been underway for months, the new demo / showroom is ready. If you have the time, feel free to stop by on Thursday or Friday for a tour,new product introductions, live demos and a beverage.

Welcome Video

sjlarsonco — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:54:48 +0000