Looking to buy used hitachi seiki CNC lathe

ajk2004 · Jan 23, 2018

Hey guys,
I am a school teacher in Iowa and I am just getting myself and my classroom into CNC machining. I stumbled across titan Gilroy and the titans of CNC site and am rather inspired about everything that site has to offer. Thanks to his tutorials I have my students designing and programming parts and we don’t even have a mill yet. I was fortunate to get a CNC knee mill from govt. surplus. I’m picking it up soon and we will start making chips. On to the point of this post... I am getting into CNC machining myself and wouldn’t mind having a machine of my own at home. There is a used hitachi seiki lathe a couple of hours away that the company is selling for $2000. It looks like a decent machine and they said it works and they use it from time to time for production parts. They are selling a bunch of older machines which makes me think they are just upgrading their fleet. I want to learn how to do it but I can’t justify spending 10-30000 on a nice used machine. The model is an ht20. What do you guys think? Sound too good to be true? Thanks.
Andy

Vancbiker · Jan 23, 2018

Hitachi Seiki used proprietary front end software on most of their controls and in many cases proprietary hardware. They've been out of the machine business for a long time now. The availability of parts and support is pretty bad. It's one machine brand I'd never have for myself.

Kaszub · Jan 23, 2018

Vancbiker said:
Hitachi Seiki used proprietary front end software on most of their controls and in many cases proprietary hardware. They've been out of the machine business for a long time now. The availability of parts and support is pretty bad. It's one machine brand I'd never have for myself.

What Vancbiker said.....I would stay away too.

Bobw · Jan 23, 2018

My simple advice for buying a CNC anything... ESPECIALLY if you are new to it...

PARTS and SUPPORT!!! You have to be able to get PARTS and SUPPORT!!!!

If you can't get PARTS!!! and SUPPORT!!!! you might as well spend your $2k on
a giant boat anchor and have them deliver it straight to the scrap yard, you'll
save yourself a lot of time, money and aggravation.

72bwhite · Jan 24, 2018

ask how much they will pay you to haul it off.
old orphans are a really bad idea

also for home shop you have to look at the power requirements
as in do you have enough to run it

Mazak qt 10 s are getting on the cheaper side for the older ones
same with some of the old Moris with fanuc controls

mroy0404 · Jan 24, 2018

I bought a 1990 Hitachi Seiki HTII many yrs ago, I ended up selling the machine to a guy that had experience with that control and bought myself a Daewoo Puma 8s with a Fanuc control.
Take the advice these guy's are giving you and look for a machine with a Fanuc control, you'll save yourself alot of grief.

machtool · Jan 24, 2018

mroy0404 said:
I bought a 1990 Hitachi Seiki HTII many yrs ago, I ended up selling the machine to a guy that had experience with that control and bought myself a Daewoo Puma 8s with a Fanuc control.

How did you end up with Golden Goose Live Tools? Scary how I remember this shit.

You were hot to trot, but you never got back with a conclusion. http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/dont-get-ripped-off-buying-tools-online-202960/

Last we heard, you had the Police in Taichung City, Taiwan. Working on your behalf. Book em Danno. You never told us how that turned out.

I seriously doubt that actually happened. Do you honestly want us to believe, you can initiate a Taiwan Police investigation, over $1,980 bucks?

Surely it's only fair? You started the thread, "Dont get ripped off" by this company. You rorted / slanderered them, but never come back with a conclusion, good, bad or indifferent.

Guest · Jan 24, 2018

mroy0404 said:
I bought a 1990 Hitachi Seiki HTII many yrs ago, I ended up selling the machine to a guy that had experience with that control and bought myself a Daewoo Puma 8s with a Fanuc control.
Take the advice these guy's are giving you and look for a machine with a Fanuc control, you'll save yourself alot of grief.

The good thing about the Fanucs is control parts are all over the place even for models that are 30+ years old. Only the iron on old Fanucs end up in the scrap yard, the control parts end up on E-bay.

snapatap · Jan 25, 2018

They are a good machine when they are running, but parts are very hard to get, and support is nearly non existent. I would stay away. Look for a Mazak or something with a Fanuc controller.

shas595 · Jan 28, 2018

Andy

everyone is correct in saying parts and service are hard to come by - luckily I am here to help. I have a huge inventory of Hitachi Parts (Both mechanical, electrical and software) and have been servicing them for many years. Also have 20+ Hitachi machines operating in my own shop as well. If you do go the route of picking up that HT20 save my info and I will do my best to help you out. The control will decide how much easier or harder it will be to fix; but there is always a solution. Keep me posted!

John

Guest · Jan 28, 2018

Vancbiker said:
Hitachi Seiki used proprietary front end software on most of their controls and in many cases proprietary hardware. They've been out of the machine business for a long time now. The availability of parts and support is pretty bad. It's one machine brand I'd never have for myself.

I would take this guy's word over most anyone else. He seems to have a great knowledge of various control systems and has helped many members solve their tech issues on this board. Just an observation, I don't know the guy personally.

Steve Swihart · Apr 20, 2018

Need helop woth Seicos control - tool setting withour setter

John,

Are you still around with your knowledge of the Hitachi lathes? I have a HT40s with the Seicos control. Trying to set tools without the setter. Is it possible?

Thank you! Steve 937-545-9932

Cadogan · Jun 1, 2018

Hitachi Seiki support...

Empire Machine, Huntsville AL... The owner was an engineer with Hitachi Seiki in Japan when Mori Seiki bought them... He came to the US with Mori and later started his own company...

Absolutely fantastic guy... Very resonable rates...

I couldn't say enough good about these machines... They are built like tanks!!!

Lycos programming is a little tough but very powerful....

I had a CA65B... 16 live tools,,, sub spindle,,, full C on both spindles...

Retiring soon,,, looking for another one now...

Guest · Jan 29, 2019

Metal_Derb84 said:
I have the same questions but I’m looking at a 98 Mori Seiki SL250/1000 with the MSC-501 controller. Wondering if parts & service would be an issue for it? Near Charlotte, NC Any body have any experience with this lathe? Controller? It’s basically a fanuc controller right? Any info would be appreciated!

Start another thread since it is not the same machine as the one in the title of this thread.

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