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.