Hi All,
I had a screaming deal on a Clausing Colchester Storm 100 that ended up going south . I'm now onto greener pastures.
Not being the most familiar with CNC lathe brands, and more specifically the various problems and quirks with said machines, I'd like a little input on a list of potentials I've put together.
The requirements:
In reality I don't believe the requirements are all that strict, hence my semi-large list of machines.
What am I using this for? In-house prototyping. I have a manual lathe that needs replacing, and a budget surplus of $30K that I need to dump within the next 6 weeks. This budget includes machine, freight, rigging, electrical hookup, and travel to inspect said machine. The rigging and electrical hookup will be handled in house, so cost probably less than $2K. I won't get into details on the budget surplus, but there are limitations on what it can be spent on. For the ease of discussion, we'll say only capital equipment spending.
For the list of machines:
I'm not overly concerned with which machine is the fastest. I'm not going to be pushing these machines anywhere near their limits I'm sure. A toolchanger would be nice, but not absolutely necessary as we won't run more than 20 parts a most at a time. Most parts that are made would likely have 3 tool changes at most. Depending on the deal that can be worked out, I may be willing to put up with manual tool changes like with a Prototrak machine.
A good conversational interface is necessary, and the importing of CAM files would be ideal. I'm not sure how some of the older machines listed would handle this.
Ok, I think that's it. Fire away!
I had a screaming deal on a Clausing Colchester Storm 100 that ended up going south . I'm now onto greener pastures.
Not being the most familiar with CNC lathe brands, and more specifically the various problems and quirks with said machines, I'd like a little input on a list of potentials I've put together.
The requirements:
- Parts availability (lower cost to maintain the better)
- 15" Swing (6" turning diameter)
- 19" between centers minimum
- Toolchanger - Turret or Indexing Toolpost OK
- 20 HP spindle or less (power restrictions)
In reality I don't believe the requirements are all that strict, hence my semi-large list of machines.
What am I using this for? In-house prototyping. I have a manual lathe that needs replacing, and a budget surplus of $30K that I need to dump within the next 6 weeks. This budget includes machine, freight, rigging, electrical hookup, and travel to inspect said machine. The rigging and electrical hookup will be handled in house, so cost probably less than $2K. I won't get into details on the budget surplus, but there are limitations on what it can be spent on. For the ease of discussion, we'll say only capital equipment spending.
For the list of machines:
- (2004) Prototrak 1540V -- Prototrak VL
- (2004) Prototrak 1745S -- Prototrak SL
- (1997) Mori Seiki SL 200 -- Fanuc MSC-518
- (2002) Okuma ES-L8 (2500 hours) -- OSP-10UL
- (1994) Nakamura TMC-300C -- Yasnac
- (1999) Romi G-20 -- Fanuc 21iT
- (1993) Mori Seiki SL-15 -- Yasnac
- (2000) Hwacheon Hi-ECO 10 -- Fanuc 0TC
- (1993) Mazak SQT-15M -- Mazatrol T32-3
- (1994) Okuma Cadet LNC-8 -- OSP 5020L
- (1991) Mazak QT-15N -- Mazatrol CAM T-2
I'm not overly concerned with which machine is the fastest. I'm not going to be pushing these machines anywhere near their limits I'm sure. A toolchanger would be nice, but not absolutely necessary as we won't run more than 20 parts a most at a time. Most parts that are made would likely have 3 tool changes at most. Depending on the deal that can be worked out, I may be willing to put up with manual tool changes like with a Prototrak machine.
A good conversational interface is necessary, and the importing of CAM files would be ideal. I'm not sure how some of the older machines listed would handle this.
Ok, I think that's it. Fire away!
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