Hello,
I am a long time reader of this forum but this is my first post. I would appreciate some help with an ongoing issue with one of my machines. I have had this Hitachi Seiki HT-20 for about 4 years. It has an old Fanuc 3T control (with FAPT turn!), and I believe it was built in about 1987 based on dates on some of the parts. The name plate does not have a date on it. This machine is old, but it holds tenths! And it just keeps working, but there is one weird quirk that I have never seen on another machine. When you call a tool, T0101 just say, the turret changes to tool 1, and at the same time THE MACHINE MOVES X AND Z so that the new tool is at the same position as the previous tool.
This is extremely problematic. For one thing, you basically cannot do a tool change at home position, because the machine will often try to move in positive X or Z witch causes an over travel alarm. So you have to move to a "safe" tool change position (by basically guessing) and hope you don't crash. For example, I just set up a job with one drill that is sticking out about 6" from the turret. So the machine rapids about 6" in Z+ when you call the tool, AT THE SAME TIME as the turret is indexing. Very scary.
I assume that there is a parameter that can change this. Maybe some customers wanted to save time on tool changes and had them turn this parameter on? All the other lathes I have run, you send the machine home in X and Z before every tool change for safety, the turret indexes and you go along with your program. Hopefully someone has some knowledge of this, I really like this machine except for this feature.
Thank you,
Neil
I am a long time reader of this forum but this is my first post. I would appreciate some help with an ongoing issue with one of my machines. I have had this Hitachi Seiki HT-20 for about 4 years. It has an old Fanuc 3T control (with FAPT turn!), and I believe it was built in about 1987 based on dates on some of the parts. The name plate does not have a date on it. This machine is old, but it holds tenths! And it just keeps working, but there is one weird quirk that I have never seen on another machine. When you call a tool, T0101 just say, the turret changes to tool 1, and at the same time THE MACHINE MOVES X AND Z so that the new tool is at the same position as the previous tool.
This is extremely problematic. For one thing, you basically cannot do a tool change at home position, because the machine will often try to move in positive X or Z witch causes an over travel alarm. So you have to move to a "safe" tool change position (by basically guessing) and hope you don't crash. For example, I just set up a job with one drill that is sticking out about 6" from the turret. So the machine rapids about 6" in Z+ when you call the tool, AT THE SAME TIME as the turret is indexing. Very scary.
I assume that there is a parameter that can change this. Maybe some customers wanted to save time on tool changes and had them turn this parameter on? All the other lathes I have run, you send the machine home in X and Z before every tool change for safety, the turret indexes and you go along with your program. Hopefully someone has some knowledge of this, I really like this machine except for this feature.
Thank you,
Neil
