Thread: My Lathe Died.....Sad....Sad day.....

My Mori died on me the other day.....so sad. Mori-Seiki SL-1 Yasnac 2000B control. Had a brief power outtage....I mean, split second kinda thing and the machine went into alarm. Had a tech come in today and he informed me the Thyristor's are shot, at least three of them out of five.....Boo-hoo. It was an awesome machine and even the tech was blown away by how clean it was all over....called it a "Cherry Machine"! Anyways.....did some researching after talking with Yaskawa who basically want me to mortgage my house for a retrofit, and have come to the conclusion it is just not worth repairing. What should I do? Ebay it as is for parts? Strip it down and sell off the good parts individually? I have a mint 3 Jaw chuck with over a dozen sets of jaws, 5c collet adapter, at least a dozen tool holders maybe more. Man, oh man, I am soooo sad...that thing made some awesome parts and I was really getting good at making progams in a heart beat (thanks to Heinz Putz's DVD's)and watching it spit out quality part after part after part. Well, guess it's back to beating the bushes for another Cnc lathe. Anyone in the New England area with a need for some parts, drop me a line. Also looking for a nice small lathe about the same size as the SL-1, but this time with a Fanuc control...(hated that single line Yasnac!) so it won't be such a PITA to program. Ok, gonna go drown my sorrows in beer or six!

Best Regards,
Russ

First things first, contact your power company and tell them they are going to pay for your replacement or you're going to sue them.

This happened to me before and did $8500 damage and a week of downtime to an 8 year old HMC. Their response was that the outage was a "Standard Grid Switching Procedure" and that they wouldn't cover my claim. This same "standard" procedure blew up a handful of transformers on my street, and they didn't pay me my money until I threatened legal action to get at their service records and prove that they damaged my equipment AND their equipment.

Do you have the service manual? I have a allen bradley 150hp dc servo drive with some big thyristors in it, if you can see which type you need.

Man I hate seeing solid old machines put out to pasture. Have you talked to some of the 3rd party Yasnac parts suppliers like:

http://www.cnclocator.com/yasnac.htm

http://www.cncelectronics.com/yasnac.htm

http://www.cncparts.com/

Paul T.

Thyristors should be replaceable...

Thyristors can be had from http://www.mcmelectronics.com/
I've purchased them there before, made to order.
Give them a call,,,, All is not lost
HTH's
Dave

Hey there.

We sold that SL-1 back in the day. Was a great machine. The gear box on it was very heavy!

For a machine about that size, we have the Hwacheon Cutex-240. Nice machine. Very fast as well. Fanuc control equiped.

http://www.hwacheon.com/pdf/CUTEX240.pdf

If you prefer box ways, we also have a nice Hwacheon HiTech-200.

http://www.hwacheon.com/pdf/HT200.pdf

Both are on our show room floor in Sudbury. Shoot me an email and we can arange a visit to Methods so you can see whats new.

smciver@methodsmachine.com

Thanks, and sorry about the old work horse.

Scott
MMT

Golly, sorry about your old reliable and unrepairable machine...I'll sell you a new or used one with heartfelt sympathy...man, the vultures don't waste any time...I'm sure Seymoure has an "in" with Haas, so forget about a Fanuc control-it's useless and retarded.

Price rebuilts for your machine, it may be worth it. Confidence and comfortability are under-considered.

Good luck.

Vultures?

I see myself as a bit more than a vulture. I also advertise on this page as well to support this comunity.

Besides, my father sold that old Mori to begin with.

Sorry that you take offence to providing someone with options.

Scott
MMT

I assume the thyristors are in the spindle drive itself? The Mori proly has a DC spindle drive...

I really think if it is the spindle drive, or servo drives, they should be repairable.

Remove the bad drive, send it to a reputable repair shop, reinstall, and make some more cash!

They sure don't build cnc machines like they used to.

Its probably worth looking for a good repair place. There may even be a someone somewhere with a dead machine that still has components you could use. Internet is great for finding these things.

Thanks for the leads guys.....already sent off some emails in hopes of finding some parts.

No vultures in here......I appreciate the leads, and in fact even asked in my thread about anyone in my area with a used Cnc lathe comparable to the Mori in size.

cnctoolcat.....the drive is DC, and yes the thyristors are in the spindle drive. I am going to check into getting it repaired.....any leads on good place for that?

Cost is not the only concern in getting this machine back in running condition. Despite it being in pristine condition it is after all 29 years old with a control that is basically hammer and chisel compared to virtually everything else out there....single line readout...no cutter compensation....no RS232.

However.....it makes absolutely beautiful parts from first to last without any compensation throughout the run. So do I spent a couple grand and fix it up, and hope nothing else goes on it for awhile, or do I cut my losses(actually there aren't any....paid $2,500 for the machine and it has made at least ten times that since I started it up last November) and put it towards a newer machine. Not sure what to do....too many unknowns right now. I guess I'll wait for an estimate to get it repaired....already over $800.00 just getting it diagnosed!!.....before making any big decisions. I have two other Cnc lathes so I can at least off load the backlog onto those machines, but DAMN....I miss that machine!

metlhed......love my Haas VMC control.....a Haas lathe does sound nice, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of love for them in here.

Best Regards,
Russ

The "vulture" comment was tongue-in-cheek. That's the problem with the typed communication...can't see facial expressions or detect vocal inflections. I did not want to offend anyone, or knock Haas. I've been in the situation of trying to save an old reliable machine vs. buying a new or used one. I was just trying to make the point that sometimes it pays to fix the old one that people know than going thru the learning curve. That is all.

Also, it is a comfort to know that I have somewhere to inquire about machine sales and get valid info without the bulls#!t.

"We sold that SL-1 back in the day. Was a great machine. The gear box on it was very heavy!"

Gear box on an SL-1? Wow, Wrustle oughta hold on to it purely as a collector's item. It's very rare, apparently, as I've never seen a gearbox on any SL-1 I've worked on.

The spindle drive is DC, thyristors are available, as others have noted. Yaskawa stuff is good, but they are proud of their products, and often priced accordingly. You might consider some of the motor drive manufacturers on the market today. There are retrofit digital DC drives offered that can replace the original, and still use the existing tach. This is cheaper that having Yaskawa fix it, and in the long run, should be more reliable.

metaltech.....no gearbox on that puppy, you're right. However with the working condition of the machine I do consider it a collectors item, it really is that good.

My greatest concern though is still the control....it is afterall ANCIENT and there comes a time when you must consider investing several thousand dollars into something that may well cost you another several thousand just a few hours later due to the age of the components controlling it. I am really torn between repairing this machine or just putting the money towards a newer one. I really feel a retrofit is out of the question, due purely to the cost involved. I am still in the process right now of looking for a quick simple fix (wish it was just that easy), such as sending the entire drive out for repair. The problem is trying to find someplace trustworthy. Someone has mentioned an outfit in Texas, "Omega"....anyone heard of it? I will be contacting them today in hopes of finding a possible solution. Have to do something quick though.....off loading all the work onto my other two Cnc lathes has them getting pretty backed up. They are larger machines and just don't pop out parts as fast as the Mori. Oh well, 5:50am.....one hour of peace and quiet before all hell breaks loose again for another day!....Yahoo!

Best Regards,
Russ

wrustle ,
I feel your pain, its always a tough decision to keep throwing money at the old ones or not. I bought a Hardinge Super Slant- Super Precision (its Super [img]smile.gif[/img] )
It was making very precision parts...just rebuilt...but my whole plan was to change out the control but.....$$$$$$$$$ I think I would rather just buy new now. Got to love the new controls
Gary

Omega Board Repair seems to be reasonably competent.

I used to work for Omega EBR and yes they are good.
BUT they charge 75-80% of OEM pricing.

I would call MCM as previously mentioned, maybe $500 per brick (thyristor module)

Newer control is where you'll be heading soon anyway

Bummer when a good machine bites it

Part it out and put the coin towards a newer machine

Rod

You can still get those thyristors. Otherwise known as SCR's, etc. You just need to get the number off of them.

I just got 6 of them for a Fanuc 6T spindle drive. You have to go through a bunch of BS to get them, but it's possible.

They are really easy to change yourself.

If you want more info on how to locate the parts, etc, let me know.

Michael