I've come up with a new product that very well might mean the addition of a new machine and larger shop. I've been looking at Mazak's Integrex and Hyper Quadrex machines. That's some crazy technology going on in those two bad boys. I realized that with either of those, a machining center is a moot point.

The Integrex has a large and stiff milling head that rotates sideways to point to either the main lathe spingle or sub spindle or at any angle in between. The tools are like machining center tools in that there are 36 of them and the tool changing is similar, but it can be either milling or lathe tools that are held. The milling tools can be spun at 12,000 rpms. The machine can do full 5th axis parts and can have 1000psi coolant as options. They can also have a turret for the back spindle, so simultaneous cuts can be done. There's not much that can't be made on one.

The Hyper Quadrex is essentially 2 full lathes in one. It has 2 twelve tool turrets and can do things like rough and finish turn at the same time on one part or be doing two completely different parts in the main and sub spindles. It can also hand off parts between chucks at full rpm. It has live tools on either turret, and has a Y axis on the main turret and C axes on both. Their larger models come standard with a robot arm to load and unload parts. A crazy productive lathe.

I am going to job shop out the more complex part first to see if there's a market like I suspect there is, and if so, maybe make the jump.