Advice on purchasing a cnc emco lathe !

I am in need of a cnc lathe and run across an Emcoturn 340, 1986 vintage with a Siemens 810 control, The owner said he never had it powered up and decided to sell it, I would agree to purchase if he could power it up and I could determine that it could be used.

I spent an entire day in his shop and he could not get it running, the little 7 inch screen illuminated, and read turret overload, his electrician says it keeps popping relays that are easily resettable in the rear of the machine.

I feel this is an omen to stay away from it, Am I being to hard on the machine? It seems to be the right size for my shop real estate constraints,

I am very open to another type machine, Some say to look for FANUC controls because of availability and price, what I have seen on here is that Siemens is pretty reliable ( read more dependable ) So that is why I am asking for advice on this potential purchase of my first cnc lathe.

I realize the machine is almost 25 years old, is this a good machine to learn on? or should I look for a newer version,?

I have looked at the HAAS TL1, seems over priced to me and with the "options" that I feel you MUST have (tailstock is an option?).....it seems like alot of money for a cnc/manual machine.

If I am going to spend 20,000+ dollars I think I should go full cnc, all advise will be taken with thanks. the Emco I spoke of at first is only 7,000 dollars which wont make me panic looking for work to feed it .

Thanx

Mick

I don't know what kind of stuff you want to make, but I recently went through this analysis for my needs. It is discussed in this link:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/thinking-about-cnc-manual-lathe-203159/

As you will learn if you read the link, I ended up with a Romi. Good luck.

Bruce,

I am reading through it right now, many many opinions! I really wanted to hear stay away from the emco I guess...... thanx

Mick

MICK 1958 said:

Bruce, I am reading through it right now, many many opinions! I really wanted to hear stay away from the emco I guess...... thanx Mick

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I've heard that Emco charges for phone support, by the hour. That alone is enough to make me hesitate when looking at any Emco cnc.

QB

MICK 1958 said:

Bruce,

I am reading through it right now, many many opinions! I really wanted to hear stay away from the emco I guess...... thanx

Mick

Click to expand...

OK, stay away from the EMCO! I have 2 in my shop. A 340 and a 342 and they have both been excellent machines. I don't know the vintage of the 340 but the 342 is 1989 and both have Siemens GA1 controls. However the electronics behind the controls (spindle motor, servos and servo drives which are all Baumuller in the 342) are different between the two machines. In the last 5 years both machines have made quite a few excellent parts. However when we have had problems with them it was a real PIA to get them fixed and some times took months. Most of the electronics are so old they they are completely unsupported and I have been told by a number of people that if the control or even the monitor in the control goes that the machine is scrap. You can't get parts for that control anymore and the cost of fixing anything is more than the machine is worth. FWIW Retrofitting too is more expensive than the machine is worth. On top of that this machine you are looking at isn't even running. You said the turret is faulting. Ironically the Sauter turrets are still supported and are relatively easy to work on. however bear in mind that the encoder in that turret is around $1000 these days. There are many good used machines out there that are of a much later vintage and running fine so if I were you I would keep looking. Look for a machine that is well represented in the work force or at least has a control and electronics that are. That way the parts will be available and more importantly technical information will be easier to come by.