Gang tool lathes, Hyundai and others

Does anyone out there have any experience with Hyundai or other brands of gang tool lathes? How about Ameritech, Omni-Turn and Haas? I'm thinking about buying another lathe
and this type of machine seems like a good match for the parts I need to make but I haven't had any experience with them at all. Any input would be helpful.

TIA,
Mike

I have seen both the Haas Mini Lathe gang style and Omniturn in action. The Haas is much heavier duty, but I didn't hear any voices upstairs saying, "I must have this machine". The Omniturn is much faster compared to the Haas. I had cycle time studies done on both machines for the same parts. You aren't going to be pulling .100 depth of cuts in alloy steel all day long. If you're are using the machine for light duty work, {Alum, Brass, Leaded Steel}, the Omniturn said, "Buy Me".

As far as the Omniturn Salespeople, I don't know much. Tough to find a qualified salesperson for any machine tool, let alone Omniturn. Most of these people never pulled a chip in their life. I'd talk to fellow owners before I'd put any stock in what a Salesperson claims.

I own a Kia Kit30B with Fanuc Control.
6000 rpm spindle, 6" hyd. chuck, and 5c tru position chuck.
These types of machines have become the favorite of many screw machine operators.
They are fast and tooling changes are instant. Depending on what type of parts you will be making, if you don't need a center or tail stock they are some of the best.
they are easier to program.
I was turning a fiber optic alum part with a .021 wide groove +/-.001 x .221 deep +/-.001 and ID of .220 +/-.0005
with a 4 sec. cycle not including hand load of 2 sec. from start to stop with auto ejection. By the way, it was a thin wall part and no distortion. The machine was purchased just for this part because of its fast startup and stop capabilites. It ran 11ppm - 14000ppd - 500,000 in 35 working days. It has turned over 60K in 35 days.
Currently the control has 900 work hours.

Plan to retire soon, moving, everything goes.

eddiez

You can also check out a LICO machine. I think the parent company name is Lipoco out of California. They make a sweet gang tooler with Mitsubishi control and drive. You can get all of the options separately and add others later just by plugging them in and setting one software bit. They have excellent reliability.

Check out the Wasino line too.

Regarding the Omniturn... check with a fellow named "Gunner" on the rec.crafts.metalworking newsgroup... he is a former service tech for Omniturn and still is activly involved with this product. He would be able to answer your queswtions, and is definitely not a "sales droid" type.

Mark