Opinion of Yama Seiki turning centers?

We might have to invest in a dedicated turning center when the ancient Ikegai currently used in that application bites the dust. The convenient thing about the old Ike is it's a chucker. No tailstock. The operations are strictly endworking on bars hand-loaded into the chuck from the front. The Yama Seiki CLS1500/2000 is offered in a chucker configuration. It seems physically equivalent to our Hyundai Wias (same Oi-TC or TD control) except that the X axis rapids are 1100 IPM instead of 1400.

Generally speaking I try to keep the equipment as much alike as possible in case we have to switch out tooling or a job. My issue with Hyundai Wia is they fired the dealer who sold me the last two machines. Their nearest dealer now is Salt Lake City which is uneconomically far away for service calls. Denver is 4 hours down I-25 and I can live with that. Also I happen to LIKE the guy Hyundai cut loose, because of how well he treated us. Try to get somebody at Hyundai on the phone and they might call back the next day--but Dan Jend is somebody I know I can count on and in business that means a lot. And he sells Yama Seiki, which I have never used.

So, anybody have any observations to share about those machines?

I don't own one. But the shop next to mine bought one last year(An otherwise all Hurco shop).

I'll have to look at the model, but it's got a sub, and live tooling all over the turret. He runs some wild parts on it. Lot's of milling with different stainless grades, Titanium, and a couple other fun materials.

I do remember a tech out to his shop for a week or two in the beginning though. Machine was a demo machine for Brooks(Pretty much new), and they took care of what ever issue he had.