Here, we show how to perform a channel changeover on an FMB Turbo 5-65 bar feeder. This also works on FMB Turbo 5-55. The video is strictly for a channel change, and does not show the hard nose or spindle liner.

Transcript to FMB Turbo 5-65 Channel Changeover:

Hi, I’m Paul Diefenderfer from Edge Technologies. We’ve had a lot of customers asking about how to do a channel changeover on a Turbo 5-65.

This middle channel piece in the bottom is what’s known as the remnant piece, and it’s different from the other channel pieces. There’s a slide pin here that is actually locking it in place. If you want to remove this, you can push this in, and there’s a slot on the other side where you can push it to install it. You take this and push it forward past the pin and lift it up. Up and out. The other lower sections are held in by pressure with these ball detent pins. Pull this pin out and then you can pull the channel piece out. So we’ll turn the pin, the channel will drop out and the channel is shaped in such a way that it can only go back in the same direction, so you shouldn’t be able to get them backwards or in the wrong position. If you flip it, try to attempt to get it back in, you can see it just won’t happen.

So what we’re going to do now is we’re going to take the pusher out. But before we do that, we’re actually going to remove the collet. So this collet is held in with a pin. We’re just going to push this pin out using a screwdriver. So I’m going to cradle the collet under the pin. We’re going to push this pin out and capture it. And now I have the pin. Take collet off. Put the pin in a location where you know you will find it.

Okay, now after we have the collet off the end of the pusher, we’re going to remove the pusher from the bar feeder. So, we’re going to grab the pusher; we’re going to lift it, and we’re going to slide it out of the hanger in the rear. And we’re going to pull it back, pop it out of the channel hanger, and we’re going to move forward again, pop it out of the back hanger, and now the pusher is free to remove from the machine. Now that we have the pusher out, we’re to remove the pre-feed pusher. It’s just going to be 5 mm socket head bolts. And then we’re going to remove that. Now we’re going to remove the top channel piece on the pusher side. Now that we have the pusher removed, it’s going to be the same. We’re going to go loosen these holding devices. There’s three of them. And then the channel will drop out. Now we should be able to just pull the hangers out. Now for the bottom, once you’ve removed, all these tension plugs that are holding the channel in, you should be able to now lift channel from the end right out of the bottom extrusion. And we’ll remove this from the machine. Be careful because it is pretty heavy. And now we are ready to put the new guide channel set in.

Before we install the new pusher, we need to assemble the pusher. So we’re going to to take the pusher flag and attach it to the pusher body. You’ll have two bolts that’ll come with the machine. These are hex bolts. They could also be torque bolts. We’re just going to put the flag and pusher, lightly put the bolts in place, and then we’ll use our Allen key to tighten them up. So we’re going to get it snug. What you want to do is actually push the flag toward the center of the pusher before you tighten it up. Now we’re going to assemble the prefeed pusher. So we have the prefeed flag and the actual prefeed shuttle, which will be dependent on the size of the channel. So we’re just going to take this together here, place the bolts. You’re going to want to make sure when you attach the flag that it’s going to be oriented in such a way that the body of this will sit in the channel set, and this will attach on the carriage and go in the right direction. We’re going to keep this kind of tight. You want to push the flag toward the center of the prefeed pusher. And then we’ll tighten this up. These two bolts will attach to the carriage when we put the prefeed back into the machine.

Before we put any channel pieces in, we need to install the hangers. And the way it goes is we have these two holes. These two holes will actually have guide pins that allow them to pop into place. Now that we have the hangers installed on the top, we’re going to take the top channel piece. This channel piece is shaped with a larger portion towards the front, smaller portion towards the back. So, this profile will allow us to install it in only one direction. And this channel piece will keep the hanger locked in place. And then we will turn these locking mechanisms back into place. Bottom channel is shaped in such a way that it can only go in one way. So, I’m going to go ahead and place it. And if you notice, try to do it line it up where these grooves line up with the hangers, and they will sit into these open pockets. There should also be stoppers on each end to keep it from going out of position. Now that we have the bottom channel in place, we will put these hooks back in to keep the channel from popping out of position. We have completed the pusher side of the channel change. We’re going to put the pre-feed into the machine and attach it to the carriage. Put it in this back slot. We’re just going to put these bolts two bolts into place. And then we will fully tighten them. We’ll make sure these are nice and tight so they don’t get loose. Otherwise, if they do get loose, your pre-feed can get in a bind. It’ll basically cock and start wearing on the channel, bind the pusher up. Now we need to get the pusher to the top of these hangers. We’re going to do this the opposite way we did it last time. So, what we want to do is actually get this back section up. Lift this straight up and get it in the hanger. Perfect. I’m going to go forward, and I’m going to slide it back. Pop it back into this back channel, and we are in. This is 67 mm. It’s probably not a single person job unless you are very, very strong or foolish. One of the two.

Now we’re going to install the rest of the channel pieces. So, we’re going to take the remnant piece. It has slots, and it’s got a hole. So, we’re going to line this hole up to corresponding pin. It’ll drop down and then you slide it away from the gripper. We’re just going to push the pin into place and now our remnant flap is installed. We’re going to continue on with the lower section. There is one channel piece in the lower section that will be longer depending on which model machine you’re installing the channel in. The longest piece will go toward the remnant flap and then the additional pieces will all be the same length. And once we have all the channel pieces in the lower section, we’re going to put our pucks back into place. Should be roughly one per channel piece to keep them from falling out. Now we’re going to install the top portion. You will have one channel piece that will be longer and that’ll go towards the grippers. The reason is each channel piece actually has a hole here that allows the oil to flow from the top to the bottom. We’re just going to keep installing them through the top until we have all the channel pieces installed.

The next thing we need to do is install the collet on the bar pusher. So depending on what size material you’re running will determine what size collet you need. The collet should, on this style of bar feeder with this style of pusher, match the outer diameter of the pusher. So to attach this, it slides over the top and has three set screws that we’re going to tighten and it’ll lock it into this groove. Once you tighten all three of them, you are finished.