What's new
What's new

Just bought a Mori Seiki SL3H

KnoLimitz

Aluminum
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Location
Seattle, WA
Hey Guys! I need some help as I am completely new to the Mori Seiki world, I would love to learn about these machines as I have been told they are amazingly high quality and accurate machines. The Machine is a SL3H, can anyone tell me what the "H" signifies? Also It has a Yasnac Control I would love to know if any one can tell me about the control? Is it good, and can I send programs to it via rs 232?Control.jpg
thanks in advance for any help, Im super excited to learn about these machines!
 
Hey Guys! I need some help as I am completely new to the Mori Seiki world, I would love to learn about these machines as I have been told they are amazingly high quality and accurate machines. The Machine is a SL3H, can anyone tell me what the "H" signifies? Also It has a Yasnac Control I would love to know if any one can tell me about the control? Is it good, and can I send programs to it via rs 232?View attachment 168758
thanks in advance for any help, Im super excited to learn about these machines!

I can't help you on the meaning of the "H" in the nomenclature but my machinist friend has the very same model. He bought it about 3 years ago and it needed some assistance to get going. I helped him out with my electrical knowledge. There are numerous relays in the controls of these machines and we discovered that more than 25% of them were stuck shut. This prevented proper orientation of the tool holder unit. Once the relays were cleaned and working, we discovered that one of the amplifier units was bad.

We removed that and sent it to a place in Illinois that specializes in repairing them. It's been good ever since.

As far as I know, the Yasnac unit is very good. He converts his drawings into "G" code and uploads them into the Mori through it's port, which could be RS232, but I'm not sure about that.

He had difficulties with the 10" chuck that was fitted on the machine when he got it. The 10" size interfered with tool fitment. Then we looked at the manual and discovered that it originally had an 8" chuck which we sourced in the Bay area from a machine seller.

I hear nothing but good things from him on this machine. He has an ongoing contract with a company that uses many aluminum pipe fittings and the Mori produces them very nicely once you load the bar feeder with the appropriate stock.

We also replaced the fans in the amplifier box. One of them had failed and this led to an over-temp shut down on a few occasions on hot days. Two new fans and the problem was cured.

We also had the light inside of the machine go dead and I traced this to loss of continuity in the wire powering the light. Since the wire was inside the frame of the machine, we abandoned it and installed a new light with outside power. Problem fixed.

He bought the Mori to replace a Mazak, which had a control system that he loved (Mazatrol) but he was unable to get any support from Mazak. Every time he called, they sent a man from the Bay area (90 miles one way) and he had to pay for the trip plus work time and the guy couldn't seem to fix the problems. He spent most of his time on the telephone with his office. Several amplifiers failed on the Mazak and no cause was ever found, so out went the Mazak.

All in all, from what I've seen and heard from my friend, the Mori seems to be an excellent machine. I don't know whether you have the manual, but I certainly recommend one. It enabled us to fix several of the problems we encountered and it is very comprehensive.

Good luck!
 
I can't help you on the meaning of the "H" in the nomenclature but my machinist friend has the very same model. He bought it about 3 years ago and it needed some assistance to get going. I helped him out with my electrical knowledge. There are numerous relays in the controls of these machines an we discovered that more than 25% of them were stuck shut. This prevented proper orientation of the tool holder unit. Once the relays were cleaned and working, we discovered that one of the amplifier units was bad.

We removed that and sent it to a place in Illinois that specializes in repairing them. It's been good ever since.

As far as I know, the Yasnac unit is very good. He converts his drawings into "G" code and uploads them into the Mori through it's port, which could be RS232, but I'm not sure about that.

He had difficulties with the 10" chuck that was fitted on the machine when he got it. The 10" size interfered with tool fitment. Then we looked at the manual and discovered that it originally had an 8" chuck which we sourced in the Bay area from a machine seller.

I hear nothing but good things from him on this machine. He has an ongoing contract with a company that uses many aluminum pipe fittings and the Mori produces them out very nicely once you load the bar feeder with the appropriate stock.

We also replaced the fans in the amplifier box. One of them had failed and this led to an over-temp shut down on a few occasions on hot days. Two new fans and the problem was cured.

We also had the light inside of the machine go dead and I traced this to loss of continuity in the wire powering the light. Since the wire was inside the frame of the machine, we abandoned it and installed a new light with outside power. Problem fixed.

He bought the Mori to replace a Mazak, which had a control system that he loved (Mazatrol) but he was unable to get any support from Mazak. Every time he called, they sent a man from the Bay area (90 miles one way) and he had to pay for the trip plus work time and the guy couldn't seem to fix the problems. He spent most of his time on the telephone with his office. Several amplifiers failed on the Mazak and no cause was ever found, so out went the Mazak.

All in all, from what I've seen and heard from my friend, the Mori seems to be an excellent machine. I don't know whether you have the manual, but I certainly recommend one. It enabled us to fix several of the problems we encountered and it is very comprehensive.

Good luck!

Thanks So much for the reply, sounds like I'm investing in learning a good machine! I will get a manual, and get to learning how this machine works. I have a haas VF2 and a old 1940 Monarch 10EE lathe, I love all these machines, they all do very good for me, Im ready to get going on the CNC Lathe band wagon and I always wanted to get a Mori Seiki.
 
Hello,

I thinks the "H" means high speed. Does your SL3H go to 4000 RPM? Nice. My SL2B only goes to 2000.

I have the Yasnak control. I'm told it's weird, but it's all I know so I thinks it's fine.

I wouldn't say old Mori's are categorically accurate. Mine isn't particularly. It drifts with temp and runtime (cuts big the first few parts, then settles in). I know my turret is out of alignment. Maybe yours is better.

Regards.

Mike
 
In my opinion if you have everything working properly then you'll have a good machine. That is a good control! Very similar to the Fanuc. I think you'll be happy with it.

Brent
 
I've gotten used to the Yasnac, but it's sure odd. The program list is under the alarm page. You can't see the program and the position at the same time. The tool radius compensation is just stupid.

But it will make good parts.
 
Hello,

I thinks the "H" means high speed. Does your SL3H go to 4000 RPM? Nice. My SL2B only goes to 2000.

I have the Yasnak control. I'm told it's weird, but it's all I know so I thinks it's fine.

I wouldn't say old Mori's are categorically accurate. Mine isn't particularly. It drifts with temp and runtime (cuts big the first few parts, then settles in). I know my turret is out of alignment. Maybe yours is better.

Regards.

Mike

Thanks Mike! I haven't got the machine yet, but when I do I will be interested to see what the RPM is on this machine, hope its 4000 lol. Anyone have manuals for these machines? I guess I will really need one. Im sure I will learn how this machine behaves on accuracy when I get to using it.
 
If I need a chuck where do I look for that, and what do I search for guys?

I would expect your lathe to have a standard A-series spindle, A2-6 or A2-8, so you can get a standard power chuck. They aren't cheap though! You might spend as much on a new power chuck with drawtube and et cetera's as you did for your lathe.

Regards.

Mike
 
I would expect your lathe to have a standard A-series spindle, A2-6 or A2-8, so you can get a standard power chuck. They aren't cheap though! You might spend as much on a new power chuck with drawtube and et cetera's as you did for your lathe.

Regards.

Mike

Right, chucks aren't cheap. As mentioned, my friend had to get an 8" chuck. We located a near-new used unit for less then $1K. They are something like $3K new! That required a special drawtube adapter to mount it. He machined one. his machine has the large spindle through holder so he needed a 75mm x 3 threaded unit.

He still has the 10" chuck if anyone wants one. LOL
 
Thanks Newman! Can anyone confirm what the control is on this machine? I posted the pic at the top of this thread, all the research I have done points to it Being a yasnac LX1 whould that be right??
 
Thanks Newman! Can anyone confirm what the control is on this machine? I posted the pic at the top of this thread, all the research I have done points to it Being a yasnac LX1 whould that be right??

I'm pretty sure that it is the Yasnac LX1. I don't have a complete picture of my friend's unit but I've used it and worked on it quite a bit and it appears identical.They have an older style green cathode display. It's not as pretty as the Mazatrol display but it does the job.

By the way, you will need a big fork lift to get that baby into your shop. We believe that the Mori weighs about 9,500#.

I tried to get some pictures back when he started using the machine, but the darned shop cat kept getting in the way. LOL.

Mori%20Seiki%20May%202012%20008_zpsmp8gladn.jpg



Mori%20Seiki%20May%202012%20003_zpsqgmws6og.jpg


Oh, and here's a picture of what happens to a Mori Seiki when you rotate the chuck in the wrong direction. I found this picture on Google.


6881444692_fb52975c5e_c_zpshivhhadh.jpg
 
I'm pretty sure that it is the Yasnac LX1. I don't have a complete picture of my friend's unit but I've used it and worked on it quite a bit and it appears identical.They have an older style green cathode display. It's not as pretty as the Mazatrol display but it does the job.

By the way, you will need a big fork lift to get that baby into your shop. We believe that the Mori weighs about 9,500#.

I tried to get some pictures back when he started using the machine, but the darned shop cat kept getting in the way. LOL.

Mori%20Seiki%20May%202012%20008_zpsmp8gladn.jpg



Mori%20Seiki%20May%202012%20003_zpsqgmws6og.jpg


Oh, and here's a picture of what happens to a Mori Seiki when you rotate the chuck in the wrong direction. I found this picture on Google.


6881444692_fb52975c5e_c_zpshivhhadh.jpg

Hey Newman, would your friend with this machine be willing to talk to me over the ph to give be a run down on what I need to look for when setting it up?? Let me know what he may want from me, thanks!
 
Hey Newman, would your friend with this machine be willing to talk to me over the ph to give be a run down on what I need to look for when setting it up?? Let me know what he may want from me, thanks!

He's not the type to talk much. He is not on the Internet and usually works alone. I can seldom even get him on the phone.

If you need help, you are at the right place. There are many here who are very familiar with the Mori/Yasnac setup. Take a look at the CNC Forum at the top of this site. Between that department, the Search Function and Google, there is a world of information.

Additionally, there are two other sites I joined so that I could get some answers for my friend with regard to the Yasnac when he first got the Mori. There is and CNC Forum and the CNC Professional forum,

By the way, I think that the "L" in S3LH may stand for large spindle bore. The bore on his machine is over 2.5".
 
He's not the type to talk much. He is not on the Internet and usually works alone. I can seldom even get him on the phone.

If you need help, you are at the right place. There are many here who are very familiar with the Mori/Yasnac setup. Take a look at the CNC Forum at the top of this site. Between that department, the Search Function and Google, there is a world of information.

Additionally, there are two other sites I joined so that I could get some answers for my friend with regard to the Yasnac when he first got the Mori. There is and CNC Forum and the CNC Professional forum,

By the way, I think that the "L" in S3LH may stand for large spindle bore. The bore on his machine is over 2.5".


Man I hope my machine has a big bore spindle through hole. Ok thanks for all the help Newman, I will continue to dig around and see whats out there for help! I appreciate all the help you have given so far!
 
I thought SL stood for "slant lathe" as in slant bed lathe. 3 was the size of the lathe. H very well may stand for high speed? I've been wrong before and this may be the second time.:D

Brent
 
I thought SL stood for "slant lathe" as in slant bed lathe. 3 was the size of the lathe. H very well may stand for high speed? I've been wrong before and this may be the second time.:D

Brent

I'm fairly certain that the "H" stands for High Speed. I know that they made several different bore sizes and that caused a bit of trouble at first in locating a proper chuck. On the other hand, it saved some money since there are fewer of the large bore units and large bore chucks weren't flying off the shelves. LOL.

The "L" for large bore is just a guess on my part since there would have to be some way to designate large bore. The truth is lost in the mists of time since we are talking about machines from the 1980's.
 
I'm fairly certain that the "H" stands for High Speed. I know that they made several different bore sizes and that caused a bit of trouble at first in locating a proper chuck. On the other hand, it saved some money since there are fewer of the large bore units and large bore chucks weren't flying off the shelves. LOL.

The "L" for large bore is just a guess on my part since there would have to be some way to designate large bore. The truth is lost in the mists of time since we are talking about machines from the 1980's.
Lol!!! Yes machines from back in time, ha so old. But I can't say much about specifics as I have not received the machine yet, I'll try to post pics of the machine, at least the ones I have now.
 
Lol!!! Yes machines from back in time, ha so old. But I can't say much about specifics as I have not received the machine yet, I'll try to post pics of the machine, at least the ones I have now.


The first thing to do is to check for full movement in all axes. That was the issue that we encountered. As I mentioned earlier, this problem was traced to numerous stuck relays. They are easy to fix but they do need to be checked. Looking at the back of the machine, they are arranged in a rack on the right side door.

Once those were cleaned up and working, all was well again.

Hopefully, there will be a manual for the machine and a separate one for the Yasnac unit with the machine. If not, they can cost some big $$$.

I understand that the parent company for Yasnac is Yaskawa, so some research on the Internet may help out.

Good luck.
 
The first thing to do is to check for full movement in all axes. That was the issue that we encountered. As I mentioned earlier, this problem was traced to numerous stuck relays. They are easy to fix but they do need to be checked. Looking at the back of the machine, they are arranged in a rack on the right side door.

Once those were cleaned up and working, all was well again.

Hopefully, there will be a manual for the machine and a separate one for the Yasnac unit with the machine. If not, they can cost some big $$$.

I understand that the parent company for Yasnac is Yaskawa, so some research on the Internet may help out.

Good luck.

Thats great info Newman, thanks. As soon as I get it I will be playing around with that so see what is up with the machine in these respects, so thank you!
 








 
Back
Top