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Looking to Buy Milltronics 1740 (ML17?) Questions on Controls

UtahSmitty

Plastic
Joined
Jan 9, 2018
Location
Northern Utah, USA
I'm looking seriously at a Milltronics/Standard-Modern 1740 lathe for sale in a neighboring state. It has a Centurion 5 controller, and appears to be clean and in good condition.

I have a home hobby shop, and want something to turn parts that are time-consuming on a manual lathe such as compound tapers, radii, etc.

The owner says you can do manual machining with it, but I only see one handwheel, not 2 like on a Bridgeport EZ Path, etc.

I cannot find pictures on the net of a lathe that matches this exactly-- the ML17 is close, but the sliding cover is different, and has 2 handwheels on it. The pictures I've seen of the Centurion 5 control panel show a manual pulse generator on the lower left hand side, while this one has on/off switches. see pics

Also, I'm not sure how to mount a tool post to the cross slide... was this originally set up for a turret or something similar?

Can anyone identify this lathe more exactly, answer my questions, and give some information regarding its reliability, parts availability, etc.

Thanks,

Utah Smitty
 
That is not really a handwheel, it is a mpg (manual pulse generator), it is for jogging the axis in manual mode. Maybe he said manual machining meaning a 'teach' function? I am not sure. The control looks like other milltronics I have used, but I could not tell you the difference between models, sorry. Not sure about the tool post, it looks like it was purpose built for something. I would think it would be easy enough to mount an aloris or something similar...

I see you mentioned the mpg so I guess I am not seeing the handwheel you are talking about?
 
A shop I worked at a few years ago had a ML15 that I ran some. It is definitely not as friendly as a regular manual lathe for manual work. You can basically power feed in the two axis, and use the MPG to jog the cross slide in whatever direction you have selected.

Its not really intended for manual work, but if all you need to do is face off a part, cut a groove or do some simple turning, it is possible to do that without a program. As soon as you need to do any tapers, threads, radii or compound work, you need a program.

They're not bad little lathes, but they are for sure not a good machine for true turning center work. They're pretty easy to program, they are still in business so parts are available, and its not a physically big machine, so it will fit in your garage.

I don't rememeber how the toolpost was affixed to the lathe I ran. It was an Aloris CXA post. I do remember it being a pain in the ass to keep straight with the x axis, it would want to drift under heavy cuts and then the tool location would be wrong. I seem to recall those lathes having a turret option, but ours didn't have that.

What's the price? I wouldn't want to pay more than a few grand, for not much more than that you can find an old Mazak that will be 10x the machine.
 
Our first CNC lathe was a Milltronics ML20 with a Centurion 6 control. It sucked as a manual lathe so we never used it that way. It was lacking in power and rigidity and speed for a CNC so we eventually moved up to a used turning center, and wished we had started that way.
That machine had 2 handwheels, but it was still super awkward using them and peering around the shield to see the workpiece.

The ML20 was asian iron, and needed some remaching of the carriage and gibs from new. Milltronics used to be one of my favorite companies from a support standpoint, but they stopped all direct support and forced all owners to go through a dealer, so not so much now.

The control is decent but we didn't care for the conversational and CAMmed all the code for everything we did.
Ours had a Dorian turret which wsn't great. I believe you can mount a toolpost on that block on the crossslide.

If I wanted a machine like that again I'd wait to find a Prototrak.
 
Thanks for your reply. Some of the early ml17 I saw actually had a manual hand wheel on the carriage and another one for the cross slide. Others had two hand wheels which were probably just MPGs that controlled the movement on the axis. The one I'm looking at only has one hand wheel which is actually the mpg.
 
The MPG functions when you select MPG on the screen, and in that choice you will select the axis you want to move with the MPG. Not as "conventional" as two separate handwheels, but functional.
 
You'll have better luck searching for a milltronics T17.
I saw that advertised on CL a while ago.
Good thing it was across the country or I would have had to shuffle some iron.
 








 
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