We have a lot of WTO live tool holders somewhere around 35 or 40, and we have had pretty good experiences with them. We also have about 30 Eppinger holders for our Doosan machines. We have a few WTO holders north of 400 hours. We have a few Heimatech holders and a few MD Tooling holders(we just got and have not run yet, but MD made more affordable geared up tools for Doosan machines- for some reason the other brand geared up BMT-55's are not very affordable.
In our experience the WTO's are higher quality than Eppinger in terms of rigidity and cutting quality. The Eppinger tools can't really be driven as hard because the collet nuts will loosen and allow the tools to come out [maybe the nuts have a more coarse thread]. We teflon tape Eppinger nuts for that reason which is a pain in the ass. That may not be a problem if you use the preciflex system, but those accessories aren't really cost effective, and sometimes don't have enough reach to get to centerlines anyway.
If you compare std 1:1 tools from Eppinger and WTO, the WTO tools cut a little better. If you compare 3:1's from Heimatech to WTO 3:1s , I believe the WTO's cut a little better and we've had good experiences with their non coolant through 3:1 tools.
Operators dislike Eppinger because they don't have a one hand wrench, and WTO does have a one hand wrench. WTO tool changes are faster than Eppinger if you run standard nuts. A couple of our guys cut themselves pretty decently changing tools on Eppingers, and I have not seen anyone cut changing tools with WTO.
In our experience the WTO's are higher quality than Eppinger in terms of rigidity and cutting quality. The Eppinger tools can't really be driven as hard because the collet nuts will loosen and allow the tools to come out [maybe the nuts have a more coarse thread]. We teflon tape Eppinger nuts for that reason which is a pain in the ass. That may not be a problem if you use the preciflex system, but those accessories aren't really cost effective, and sometimes don't have enough reach to get to centerlines anyway.
If you compare std 1:1 tools from Eppinger and WTO, the WTO tools cut a little better. If you compare 3:1's from Heimatech to WTO 3:1s , I believe the WTO's cut a little better and we've had good experiences with their non coolant through 3:1 tools.
Operators dislike Eppinger because they don't have a one hand wrench, and WTO does have a one hand wrench. WTO tool changes are faster than Eppinger if you run standard nuts. A couple of our guys cut themselves pretty decently changing tools on Eppingers, and I have not seen anyone cut changing tools with WTO.
