PEG Precision Engineering buys XYZ ProTURN lathe for apprentice training

The 16-employee company, located at Plympton, near Plymouth, Devon, focuses on providing a complete manufacturing service that includes advice, development and prototyping through to volume production and delivery of fully-traceable finished components. A former PEG apprentice, John Bailey is a firm believer in the apprenticeship system as a way of bringing skills into the business and PEG Precision currently has two apprentices, one training as a welder/fabricator and the other as a machinist. Works director John Bailey, who acquired the business from its founder Malcolm Ross, is a former PEG apprentice and a firm believer in the apprenticeship system as a way of bringing skills into the business. PEG Precision currently has two apprentices, one training as a welder/fabricator and the other as a machinist. Now in his second year with the company, apprentice machinist Anthony Harper had been shown how to use an existing XYZ ProTURN SLX 425 CNC/manual lathe but was actually working most of the time on a manual lathe. This restricted the type of work he could be given and it was while visiting XYZ Machine Tool's Burlescombe HQ that Mr Bailey decided to invest in a smaller 7.5 hp/50-4,000 rpm ProTURN SLX CNC/manual lathe. "Our XYZ machines are all CNC/manual rather than full-CNC as this fits the type of work we do, which is not all long production runs. Our operators are highly skilled people who write their own programs, set the machines up and take responsibility for the quality of the components they produce. Looking to the longer term, I want our apprentices to learn these skills and the right way of doing things, so Anthony now has a new machine equipped with the latest ProtoTRAK SLX control, which is a good system to introduce someone to the intricacies of CNC machining." The ProtoTRAK SLX control can be programmed easily without any specific coding knowledge being required, while standard features of the 1000 mm between centres ProTURN 355 include constant surface speed (for optimum surface finish) and TRAKing, which allows the operator to execute a program by winding the apron-mounted handwheels.