Opinions on Kia SKT 15 lathes

I am the assistant manager of the machine shop at my local makerspace and we finally have the budget for an inexpensive ($3000) CNC lathe. I know that those can be terrifying words, but I’ve already been looking for a while and have seen some pretty good deals pass us by. But I just found an appetizing ‘95 Kia SKT 15 for $2500. The only problem is that I know absolutely nothing about Kia CNCs, and was hoping that someone who does could give me their opinions on them. It’s spent its whole life turning plastic and supposedly has been properly maintained. The pictures show a Mitsubishi controller, but everything I’ve seen online says it should be Fanuc...not sure about the drives. It’s not being sold with a chuck but has a collet closer and some tool holders, and does not have any active alarms. I’d appreciate any input on these in general or specific things to check if I go look at it. Thanks!


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I can't say anything about the machine, but the Mitsu control is decent. Typically they will have a few features as standard that one would have to buy as options with a Fanuc control. Most likely it will have Mitsu drive for the axes and spindle. I've never seen a Mitsu control of that vintage not using Mitsu drives. I have the mill version of that control on my Mori Seiki. In the 20+ years of it's life it has never had a failure of any kind other than memory batteries from sitting in storage for ~9 years.

The quality of Kia's integration of the control to the machine is a big unknown.

I've had several SKT-15, SKT-21, and SKT-21LMS and they are solid machines. Something has to be wrong with that machines simply because its too cheap. The Collet Chuck is worth nearly as much as they are asking for the machine. And the tool blocks I know run upwards of $300 a pop. The problem with Kia is the support and those damn manuals it comes with. May as well mothball em till you learn to read Korean. The machines are picky with G84 cycles. Sometimes it seems to make several rotations before it figures out where it is but that's not a deal killer.

If you get it there are several of us on here that have had them and lots of post already that address the common problems you should be OK. For $2500 if the thing could turn the spindle on and had axis motion it would already be on the truck getting ready for a paint job.

I have a kt 21Kia with the yasnac control. other than 1 quirky problem I had ( seemed like no 1 could figure it out, but I was able to and all good after that) it's been a amazing little machine. mine holds tenths all day long. been a great lathe !!

Thank you so much for the info... as soon as I saw the ad I got a good feeling about it, so hopefully this turns out to be the sweet deal that it appears to be and not a 9000lb boat anchor. And just a few hours ago I got word that one of our members knows a rigger who possibly is willing to move it for next to nothing, if not for free! That would be huge for us since the machine is 75 miles away... I’m about to set up a time to go look at it (the guy said it’s under power and that I can test run it), so hopefully everything checks out. Is there anything in specific that I should look at, such as runout/axial play in the spindle? I’m already planning on looking through everything as thoroughly as I can and also will have an inspection camera if necessary


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For that price you could part it out and get your money back if it falls apart. If it fires up and the axis all move, the turret rotates and the spindle runs grab it. You can learn on the fly.

You could take a test indicator and a drop piece of round bar to check for taper and maybe sweep the turret but even those are just minor things. Obviously just listen for things out of the ordinary and feel for vibrations. Aside from that ask the guy if he has replaced the hydraulic return line for the tailstock. If not you better find some anorexic junkie to fish that bastard through the casting. All three of mine cracked and made a hell of a mess so now I tell everyone to replace that thin crappy aquarium hose with some good tubing before using it.