Tsugami M08YS Experience?

I'm looking at having one of these on my floor to replace a very old Mori and to relieve some pressure off our aging Mazak SQT-18MSY which we run a lot of smaller parts on (kind of a waste of the work envelope). Other than the lack of a really good conversational (FANUC Manual Guide i only, no other overlay) are there any other pitfalls to this machine I'm not seeing? Price seems crazy good ($130k).

We have some other options but this one stuck out.

I don't know how Tsugami is setting up their controls now, but they used to cut some serious corners on their control spec to save a few bucks. I'd be going over the control spec with a fine tooth comb to be sure they have selected the correct control and options for best operability of the machine.

I recall one of their sub-spindle machines which should have used a dual path control (Fanuc 16TT in this case) was only equipped with a single path control and the sub-spindle was treated as a PMC axis. This meant that the subspindle had minimal program synchronizing ability to the main spindle and there were no overrides for the subspindle operations. First run programs were kind of "cheek clenching" experiences.

Double check that for accuracy but I heard its a chinese made machine, and uses their own special live tooling, so maybe other live tool brands won't fit? (that's what it sounded like anyway)

Check also Hwacheon, they're running a pretty decent promo down in the US right now and had quite a few Y machines.
Probably also worth checking what the Nakamura AS-200LMYS goes for in the US. Only +/-41mm of Y isn't quite like the +/-50+mm most others offer but otherwise seems nice and compact.

Yeah controller on the M08SY is a 0i-TD in the literature but the quote listed it as an -F so the salesman is double checking that. I noted that the literature does not seem to allow for synch during pass-off, so thanks for giving me more insight into that.

I'm only $10k away from a nice older floor model Okuma Genos L-300MYW from the same dealer but the biggest differences mechanically look to be the lower main spindle speed and drive (4500 and direct on the Tsugami, 3500rpm and belt Okuma). We only cut 3xx stainless and 10xx steel on these things (for the most part) and honestly parts complexity is very low so I'm not sure we'd lose cycle time? The Okuma also had 10hp/30min. on their live tools. Hell, that's my home shop VMC! LOL Until we get climate control up in the shop I also like the reputation of the Okuma thermal comp. The shop owners' past business had some pretty crazy cutting validation tests and Okuma worked with them to get it dialed so I feel pretty good about that.

I think the salesman told me that Tsugami makes machines in China for the domestic market there but everything else is Japanese.

Thanks for the feedback I'll take a close look at that stuff as I dig into all the specs. I've also got some Takisawas on the radar but the TCYs are just too far out of the price range of justifying the live tooling and sub spindle since the majority of work on this thing won't need it. The TCC-1100 would actually be a great fit if we decide to nix the idea of crossing over capability with the Mazak.

In machine purchases, you get what you pay for most of the time. When you see a builder with an outwardly good sounding feature set at a price well below similar machines you really need to look hard at it.

Things like control features/options are a fabulous way for a builder/dealer to cut costs and hit a price point. When the buyer gets the machine and discovers that it has minimum memory, too few offset registers, no canned cycles, no Macro B, and so on. The seller will quote adding those and make a healthy profit when you are forced to buy them and pay the field installed price.

Looks like the 0i-TF does have Dual Path. I've got an applications engineer calling me back about subspindle overrides and a few other things like data server. There are a few other add ons that will probably kick the price up to match that Okuma like the signal lights, half index, etc.