wolfenstien
Aluminum
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2009
- Location
- Maine
Good Evening Gents,
This past weekend I took a trip to look at a CNC lathe. I've hemmed and hawed at a lot of cnc mills and lathes, but the price was right so I put down some money and assuming she fires up and runs as expected I'll be pulling this machine home. I've never owned a true cnc machine. I've built a cnc router in college. And I picked up a Bridgeport Boss CNC mill awhile back. Both machines run Mach3. The Boss has actually made a few parts and seems to work ok. Kinda disappointed with the Mach3 control but I digress this thread is about the new (to me) lathe. I expect the age of the lathe is somewhere around 1980 (a good 10 years older than me
)
Supposedly the machine has manuals, but they were in the back cabinet and the door was against a post and couldn't be opened so I currently don't have any literature on the machine. It is a Hitachi Seiki 3NE-300. 10 Hp lathe with hydraulic tailstock, 12 position turret and a small 6" hydraulic chuck. Shop owner was to busy with end of the year work to get to the machine, but wrote me out a bill of sale guaranteeing full power up with opportunity for an inspection prior to Jan 31st. Worked out well for me. I gotta get a space cleaned out for it and run power over etc. My biggest concern is the 5T control.
Luckily I have a friend at work who seems to remember using a 5T way back when and is willing to come over and start walking me through it when its ready. I got so excited when I came home the first thing I did was pick up an ADR BTR (Behind the tape reader) on ebay. Paid a little less than $150 for the BTR card so I think that was a good deal. From what I have read it should make the control much more usable. I'm thinking I'll try onecnc/cnclink for the softward side.
Most of what I am looking for out of this thread is what to expect from the control. I have read that the 5T doesn't read decimal points in dimensions. Is this correct? I was also wondering if anyone had an idea of which canned cycles will and wont work. Will G71 work? I really don't know much about programming a lathe, but the before mentioned friend from work is a bit of a guru in my opinion. He tolerates me bugging him during lunch breaks about simple programs and is a wealth of knowledge and seems quite willing to disperse that knowledge. Figured I would try to tap you guys as well though.
There are about 1/2 dozen threads on here with 5T controls, but they don't get to in depth. Sounds like DOCCNC has some dvds on them, but they look a little expensive for the home shop startup guy.
Anyway. Any input on either the machine or the control is much appreciated. I find a astonishing shortage of info online for the Hitachi Seiki machines. Thank you all.
This past weekend I took a trip to look at a CNC lathe. I've hemmed and hawed at a lot of cnc mills and lathes, but the price was right so I put down some money and assuming she fires up and runs as expected I'll be pulling this machine home. I've never owned a true cnc machine. I've built a cnc router in college. And I picked up a Bridgeport Boss CNC mill awhile back. Both machines run Mach3. The Boss has actually made a few parts and seems to work ok. Kinda disappointed with the Mach3 control but I digress this thread is about the new (to me) lathe. I expect the age of the lathe is somewhere around 1980 (a good 10 years older than me
)Supposedly the machine has manuals, but they were in the back cabinet and the door was against a post and couldn't be opened so I currently don't have any literature on the machine. It is a Hitachi Seiki 3NE-300. 10 Hp lathe with hydraulic tailstock, 12 position turret and a small 6" hydraulic chuck. Shop owner was to busy with end of the year work to get to the machine, but wrote me out a bill of sale guaranteeing full power up with opportunity for an inspection prior to Jan 31st. Worked out well for me. I gotta get a space cleaned out for it and run power over etc. My biggest concern is the 5T control.
Luckily I have a friend at work who seems to remember using a 5T way back when and is willing to come over and start walking me through it when its ready. I got so excited when I came home the first thing I did was pick up an ADR BTR (Behind the tape reader) on ebay. Paid a little less than $150 for the BTR card so I think that was a good deal. From what I have read it should make the control much more usable. I'm thinking I'll try onecnc/cnclink for the softward side.
Most of what I am looking for out of this thread is what to expect from the control. I have read that the 5T doesn't read decimal points in dimensions. Is this correct? I was also wondering if anyone had an idea of which canned cycles will and wont work. Will G71 work? I really don't know much about programming a lathe, but the before mentioned friend from work is a bit of a guru in my opinion. He tolerates me bugging him during lunch breaks about simple programs and is a wealth of knowledge and seems quite willing to disperse that knowledge. Figured I would try to tap you guys as well though.
There are about 1/2 dozen threads on here with 5T controls, but they don't get to in depth. Sounds like DOCCNC has some dvds on them, but they look a little expensive for the home shop startup guy.
Anyway. Any input on either the machine or the control is much appreciated. I find a astonishing shortage of info online for the Hitachi Seiki machines. Thank you all.
