You’d have to move the part from the lathe to a mill. Inc., Ramsey, N.J., noted: “If you’re working on the OD of a part and you then need to mill a flat or drill and tap a hole, you can’t do that on a traditional static lathe. Leigh Bickham, product manager for Sauter and EWS live-tool distributor ITI Tooling Co. Heimatec's BMT 65 face-working tool adds versatility to what can be done on a lathe. Image courtesy of Heimatec. So it saves time and prevents possible errors.” Koma Precision carries Alberti brand live tools. Frank Cerrito, general manager of Koma Precision Inc., East Windsor, Conn., put it succinctly, “The main reason customers invest in live tooling is that it allows them to do an operation that would have otherwise required another setup, off of the lathe. Other industry experts agree that a live-tooling system offers significant advantages. There’s no secondary setups or wasted material, and the operation is basically unattended that way.” The workpiece is a small bar, it’s expensive material, and they can feed it out, finish the whole thing, and cut it off and be done. “We’ve got a medical customer up in Minnesota that doesn’t even turn the part, but they’re using lathes to finish it complete. “There’s a lot of work being done these days that you can bar-feed through a lathe, maybe do a little turning-and maybe not even do any turning,” said Preben Hansen, president of live-tool maker Heimatec Inc., Prospect Heights, Ill. State-of-the-art live tooling is versatile enough that it is applied even when the turning function of the lathe itself isn’t. What many users of lathes and live tooling don’t realize is just how useful live tooling has become. Driven by the CNC, with a wide range of possible spindles, subspindles and toolholders, the live tools perform off-center operations while the workpiece remains oriented to the main spindle.įrom the start, live tooling was added to increase a lathe’s usefulness. A servo in the turret powers tool indexing and operation. With a face-mount version, the tools are located on the front of the tool-plate face on a radial-mount or star turret, the tools are arrayed on the OD of the tool plate. In a typical setup, the tools are mounted on a disc turret. Koma Precision’s Alberti live-tooling systems benefit from improvements in gearĪnd bearing fabrication. Live tooling allows the user to mill, bore, drill, tap and perform operations other than turning. Live, or driven, tools are offered in straight and angled configurations and can be used for axial and radial cutting. In a standard turning operation, the workpiece is turned against a static cutting tool. Since the 1980s, purchasers of CNC lathes, or turning centers, have had the option of including live tooling with their machines.