Emco 340 Lathe - What might i be getting into?

I have a small farm repair shop. Ive been looking for an inexpensive "quality" cnc lathe for a while. I've come across an 89 emco with a Siemens 810t control for a reasonable price. Current owner says the turret brake needs replacing. Can anybody expand on "replacing the turret brake" on one of these guys for me?
The machine itself looks to be very well built, for a smaller cnc lathe. The price is definitely right (assuming I can fix it myself, and I do have machine building as a background).

What says the PM masses?

Is the thing a heap, money pit, pile of turd?
I've read that they are quite accurate when running well. I have no experience with one, hence I ask.

I've had excellent luck turning the bucks with cheap second hand gear, but this one has me thinking.....

Cheers!

Stu

I have a 91 Emco 342 with the 810t control(very similar). I paid very little for it with a bad servo drive. Found a new one on ebay and it runs great. I have had it for 5 years and only have had to replace that drive and a prox sensor in the turret. Machine is very rigid for it's size. Not fast but will hold tenths all day long. Even from dead cold in the morning. The turret should be a Sauter. Indexing technologies carries parts for them. $$$$

The 810T takes some getting used to but it's not to bad. Has it's own code and cycles.

What do the ways look like? What shape is the rest of the machine? What are they asking for it? I paid $3k for mine. I would not pay any more than that for a broken one.

Thanks for response.
I going to look at the machine on Friday. Current owner says it needs the brake replaced. There doesn't appear to actually be a brake on this turret.
Turret is a Sauter 0.5.480.316 8 station.
Ive found this pdf, that is mildly helpful. http://www.indexingtechnologies.com/catalogs/(PI-49e) Product Information for TYPE 0.5.480.5xx.pdf
If any has any idea what this fella might mean by "it needs the brake replaced" let me know.
Seems best case scenario, encoder may need adjusting, worst case, rebuild with new hirth rings, but unless the things been totally grenaded, Ive personally never seen a need for a new hirth.

macds said:

Thanks for response.
I going to look at the machine on Friday. Current owner says it needs the brake replaced. There doesn't appear to actually be a brake on this turret.
Turret is a Sauter 0.5.480.316 8 station.
Ive found this pdf, that is mildly helpful. http://www.indexingtechnologies.com/catalogs/(PI-49e) Product Information for TYPE 0.5.480.5xx.pdf
If any has any idea what this fella might mean by "it needs the brake replaced" let me know.
Seems best case scenario, encoder may need adjusting, worst case, rebuild with new hirth rings, but unless the things been totally grenaded, Ive personally never seen a need for a new hirth.

Click to expand...

No brake. Just a motor and a "pre indexing pin". These do not use a Hirth coupler either. They use some kind of cam system. Find out what alarm it has and post them here. I have all the manuals for mine. Make sure that machine comes with all of them. There is a mechanical hour meter in the back of the machine also.

Do you have any information regarding the turrret that you could share with me? Any schematics, diagrams, error codes would be great. Im going to see the thing tomorrow, and having a good background on it would be helpful. Thanks!

So I went and had a look tonight. Machine is located in an aluminum casting facility. Aluminum dust in/on EVERYTHING. Pretty sure I got miners lung from the 45 minutes I spent there.
Turret is apart in pieces in boxes. Machine powered up, but could not be moved because of errors from turret. I did however manage to hijack a copy of the rebuild manual they had received from Sauter! Quite detailed, and I was unable to find online anywhere. This is a big plus to me....possibly.
Im considering picking this thing up. Pretty sure I could get it for about 3k Canadian mini bucks. Only real issues I think, obviously aside from the turret being in pieces (I HATE putting crap some else took apart, back together) Is that the inside of the compinet has a fine coating of aluminum dust, and I'm not sure if theres issues with machining aluminum castings being hard on a machine (I know cast iron is awful for working its way in), and it only has a collet setup in the headstock. I cant really see how you'd mount a chuck on it, but it does appearantly have an A5 mount? Im not a lathe guy, so pardon my ignorance. All my lathes (manual) are d1-6.
Im pretty sure I can get this thing running without replacement parts, or I can likely make/source what I need relatively cheap.
Any opinions on the cast aluminum dust/ machining/ chuck mounting issues?
Cheers!

Hi alum dust maybe not be as hard on the machine ways as cast dust but I would think its not very good either. Also you better MAKE dam sure all the turret parts are in there, I can see if something is missing the cost and the hassle to get a new part. I would rather have to together and not work than in pieces.

Yup, I think im going to pass on this one.... basket cases suck. Couldn't get the proper error codes out of it, cause its not put together. Unless they want to donate it for the price of scrap, I think theyre gunna have a REAL hard time moving it.

I think I would keep looking and spend a little more and get something that works a lot less hassle. Also it been for sale for 8 months to a year they started at I think 7500

you should probably plan on removing and cleaning all the boards,connectors etc. if the dust is that bad, amazing it still runs...just one short away from a boat anchor.

twr said:

I think I would keep looking and spend a little more and get something that works a lot less hassle. Also it been for sale for 8 months to a year they started at I think 7500

Click to expand...

Ah.... you know the one Im talking about then lol
The machine...mechanically is in great shape. But having things apart the way they do with no labeling, just thrown in a frigging box, electrical stuff for the turret, hanging in the air, I don't know where it goes!, and covered in shite. Brutal. Very nice people, but I pride myself on precision and being beyond anal (yet Im looking at cheap machines). I have fixed a lot of CRAP up, and more or less counted it as hobby time, turned it into good money. But this is pretty rough goings.
Me thinks ill keep looking. But turning centres are spendy around here, even if they are total junk. Weird like that.

I know what you mean, I have been looking to. Lathes around seem to be $$$$ 15,000 to 30,000 for anything half assed!!!

Yup, its brutal. As a hobbiest/second shift at home guy, I cant justify 20K on a single, BASIC machine that might do 5-10K a year. I don't need anything fancy, although it would be sweet to have something quasi modern. Fast rapids, bar feed, live tooling, etc. Just don't NEED it for the farm repairs, and small production I do. Guess I just keep on using my tracer with patterns made on my greasy old Hurco hawk I got for next to nothing for a bit.
Although, sipping draught while making money aint a bad thing.....
Cheers

I has emailing the guy about the hurco you bought for dirt cheap but I thought i would rather have a lathe than another cnc mill. I should have bought the lathe where I got my VMC from but I was short on cash to buy both at the same time. Kick my own ass many times!!!

Honestly, the hurco was a total bag of shite. Machanically very good, except the varidrive rattles like a bastard. Need to pull it apart and fix the top end. No biggie. Electrically, I think they had a peshmerga (no offense) rewire a bunch of $hit. Once I got it all figured out through hurco (for free!!!!!), I screw mapped it myself using gauge blocks, and the freaking thing holds less than .0002 on arcs (circles) across the table. I took a plate I bored in multiple locations to work and CMM'd it, and I cant believe how tight this old girl holds in XY once shes dialed in. We have some expensive gear at my day job that would have a hard time competing, although a LOT faster. Im very happy with that, just needs a tool changer now.
Sounds to me like we should get together for some shop talk.....

I am in anytime just pm me and I will give you my number, I wish I had the high-tech stuff you have at work. I am just a poor mechanic that likes making stuff. I love the vmc I bought even though its slow, its beats the hell out of my manual Bridgeport. Now I can make some stuff that was near impossible before!!!