Found this instructional manual on screw machine (think of it as all mechanical CNC machine that takes forever to tool up) setup, and it got me thinking about how much of a lost art running one of these things is. CNC lathes and machines in general are obviously much easier to set up but they still cannot match the potential of a multiple spindle screw machine that can spit out parts like nobody's business (they can come quite close however).
Another topic of conversation that fascinates me is the concept of the multiple spindle milling machine, at first glance it seems like an inelegant solution to the problem of increasing mill production, but that's just me. Does anyone have any idea if form tools were ever used to cut the outer profile of parts in one pass on these machines?
Perhaps I am looking at this from the wrong way however, once production becomes so important that you need to improve the output of a screw machine, it might be best to look at other options (die casting, stamping, etc.).
One last note, I wanted to see what people think of stamping sheet metal gears. Is this just a novelty thing someone does for their CAD portfolio or something actually viable?
More sources below... How many spindles are really necessary? Running a multiple spindle machine in a small part run world