Chevalier FBL-460

The Chevalier FBL-460 is a big-bore slant-bed lathe: an A2-15 spindle nose with a 6 in (153 mm) hole through it and a top speed of 1,500 rpm. Those three figures say what it is for. This is a machine for large-diameter, slow, heavy turning and for pipe and tube that must pass through the headstock.

Maximum cutting diameter is 26.7 in (680 mm) and swing over the bed 33.0 in (840 mm). The maximum bar material diameter is given as 5.5 in. Cutting length is 30 in (762 mm), the same as on the FBL-360B, so the step up from that machine buys diameter and bore, not length. Distance between centers is 32 in (820 mm).

The turret has 12 stations as standard and takes 1 1/4 in x 1 1/4 in tools on S.A.E. machines or 32 x 32 mm on metric ones. Z travel is 32.2 in (820 mm). A programmable tailstock with the same 32.2 in (820 mm) of travel supports the work on a hydraulic MT 5 quill, 4.3 in (110 mm) in diameter.

The machine weighs 20,944 lb (9,500 kg) and stands on 170 in x 86 in x 87.7 in (4,323 x 2,189 x 2,230 mm) of floor. Its bed is a 45-degree slant casting with what Chevalier calls a torque tube design structure, and the control is a Fanuc 0i-T. Two rows are missing from this page because the maker's inch and metric figures contradict each other: X-axis travel and rapid traverse.