cosmos_275
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2015
I'm looking into getting a CNC lathe this spring. I'm looking for some advice, first CNC lathe. Part of me wants to pick up a 25 or 32mm swiss used and get busy learning, but I think it might be wise for that to be my second lathe. Something with a little less setup and more versatile might be better. I make my own products and do job shop work. One part I make is an Al cylinder, bored out and a slot down the side longitudinally. I'm not exactly sure what all a lathe would need to do that in one go: I'm not sure if live tooling is enough or if you'd have to have a Y axis. Running secondary ops on the mill might be preferred if it keeps me from needing a CAM package. Same with subspindle, I love the idea of doing backside ops, but if it forces a new software package, maybe not.
Budget is probably 50-100k but I need to talk to my banker. My Speedio is almost paid off, but 2020 was slow, so I'm not sure how much he'll want to lend me. I don't feel great about going over 100, staying closer to 50 would be nice.
My current CAM doesn't do lathe. I would prefer something onboard so I don't have to invest in a new CAM package (fusion is not happening). I've read on here that Okuma and Mazak have good onboard programming.
So, I'm going to be looking into the base models of Okuma, Mazak, Doosan, and Takisawa (Yamazen is good here). I don't want a Haas. I'm also not interested in a semi-manual machine like Prototrac. Adding a bar feeder down the road would be great. I imagine they can all do that. I don't know what prices are yet. I believe the entry level Takisawa is around 60k. I'm hoping the other entry level models are around there?
Advice is appreciated.
Budget is probably 50-100k but I need to talk to my banker. My Speedio is almost paid off, but 2020 was slow, so I'm not sure how much he'll want to lend me. I don't feel great about going over 100, staying closer to 50 would be nice.
My current CAM doesn't do lathe. I would prefer something onboard so I don't have to invest in a new CAM package (fusion is not happening). I've read on here that Okuma and Mazak have good onboard programming.
So, I'm going to be looking into the base models of Okuma, Mazak, Doosan, and Takisawa (Yamazen is good here). I don't want a Haas. I'm also not interested in a semi-manual machine like Prototrac. Adding a bar feeder down the road would be great. I imagine they can all do that. I don't know what prices are yet. I believe the entry level Takisawa is around 60k. I'm hoping the other entry level models are around there?
Advice is appreciated.