Making Rings on the Haas Desktop Lathe

This simple project is a good way to show students how to set up a machine to run multiple sizes of a part as well as manufacture rings in brass for outreach events, open houses, or any other events where the classroom meets the public. Once the machine is set up for this size of ring, a fresh copy of the part can be edited within Fusion using the scale tool to adjust the size to fit a given finger or target ring size. Once the part is re-scaled there are only a few parameters that need to be altered for a new size of ring to bre ready to manufacture.

This project is set up to run on a Haas Desktop Lathe, other lathes are available however they will require a different post processor in Fusion as well as different tools based on the substitute lathes setup and configuration.

Supplies needed:

Haas Desktop lathe with included wedges and screws for tool turret and pair of pin wrenches for loosening and tightening the chuck.

Autodesk Fusion software on a PC or Browser based educational version

1" round by 1.250: long bar stock blanks in Brass or Delrin

Cutting tool- 1, 55 degree 6X8MM shank OD turning tool with .005 tool nose radius inserts LINK

Parting tool- 1 2MM wide 6X8MM shank LINK

6mm carbide drill- Short length

6mm Micro Radius Grooving Tool

Deburring tool

The F3d file below will work for a ring of approximately .790 inner diameter

Power up and home your Desktop Lathe:

Press the green power button

Wait for complete boot up

Open the lathe's clamshell door- verify the machine is empty

Close door and press the Power up key

Wait for lathe to home itself.

Press the Cancel button to exit startup and begin setting up the machine

You will need a supply of 1 inch round bars in either brass or Delrin/acetal plastic. I found that bars 1.250" 1 -1/4 quarter inches in length led to a happy balance between stock to hold onto and tooling far enough away from the chuck. Please note that this size reccomendation is for the Haas Desktop Lathe. Other machienes may neccessitate a longer piece of bar stock.

Load one of your 1" round bars of bars that has been accuraltey cut to 1-1/4" long into the desktop lathe.

The two pins provided with the lathe mount in the photo as illustrated. The right most pin roates clockwise to tighten the chuck and counterclockwise to loosen.

Rotate you machine to tool turret station 2.

Home the machine- if not already done as above and insure that the clamshell lid is closed.

Hit the MDI key.

Type T2 on the keypad.

Push the Turret FWD Key.

Bolt the 55 degree turning tool in station 2 using a 4MM hex key and the video attached as a reference.

Make sure to touch the tool off to a 1 inch round bar See the process below in step 5 and the example from a different project in the embedded video.

The grooving tool is attached in Tool Station 6.

Press the MDI key.

Type in T6 into the controller.

Press the Turret forward or turret reverse key.

Load the tool cutting edge pointed down in the slot marked 6 Secure it with the locking wedge nd 2 screws.

Once secured, close the lid on the lathe and key in 1000 and the Forward key to get the spindle moving at 1000 RPM.

Touch the leading edge in X and Z off on your barstock loaded in the chuck.

For X, press the MDI key and the Hanlde jok key on the controller, folloed by the x+ or X- directional arrow and the .001 key.

Turn the jog wheel to move the tool as desired, to change axis simply press the Z+ or Z- keys if you need to move the Z axis.

Jog the tool slowly into the moving bar until it just touches the outer diameter of the bar.

Press the X diameter Measure key on the controller.

Key in 1.0 when it prompts you to for the diameter.

For Z, jog the tool towards the face of the bar until the left edge of the cutting tool just barely touches the face of the spinning part.

Press the Z face measuere key.

This is one of the more unusual installations in the lathe. Use of the standard micro ID tool holder is not advised as they hold the tool too far out into the workspace to be safe for use. You will need to use an ER11 collet holder. Installation is similar to a drill bit but the cutting edge of the tool needs to point towards the center of the tool turret.

To touch off this tool and set zero, the tool tip needs to be ligned to the centerline of the chuck.

Measure the tools width, and divid that number by two.

Highlight the X column on the tool offsets page and press the F1 key to align the tool to centerline.

Key in an X minus value equal to the half tool width calculated above.

Touch the tool front to the front of a chuck loaded 1.25" blank nad hit the Z face measure key.

Key in a Z minus value equal to the radius of the profiling tools radius, mine was .080 so i keyed in a -.080 in X

The tool is now aligned.

Installation of a drill is easy, your drill will go into station 1.

Use an Er11 collet holder to hang onto your short 6MM carbide drill. Hangout should be around .800 out of the ER collet holder.

Place the holder into tool station 1 and retain with set screws

On the offsets page, highlight the z column for tool 1 press the F1 key to align the drill to the machiens centerline

Touch the tip of the tool to the front face of a moving 1.25" blank and press the Z face measure key

Post processing the Fusion file is simple. Make sure to Use the Haas ST10 post processor, tweaked slightly to accomodate.

If you saved the Post processed G and M code file to a USB drive, getting it onto the lathe is simple.

Place the USB drive in the side of the Haas Desktop Lathe controller.

Press the list program key.

Press the USB tab on the controllers touch screen.

Highlight the 5 digit coded program and press the select program key.

Running your rings is as simple as powering up and homing your lathe, pressing the List Program key, highligting the desired ring program -either in the USB or the Haas Controls hard drive- and pressing the Select program key. Press the memory key to run the machine in automatic mode. Hit cycle start to make a ring.

Safety warning. When the machine cuts off the ring at the end of cycle, the ring will have a large burr on the cutoff side all the way around its inner diameter. Deburr the ring thoroughly before you put it on your finger.

Please note, in terms of material, use either 360 brass or Acetal/Delrin Plastic. The Haas desktop lathe is not a powerful machine and running other materials will viod your warranty and damage the machine.

Follow the video to learn the quick and easy process of scaling the ring size up or down to fit may sizes of finger.