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Any of you still running old Monarch CNC turning centers?

C

chipburner

Cast Iron
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Location
Bozeman Montana
My 1978 Monarch is my favorite lathe in the shop. It's got the old GE 1050 control that uses leading zeros. No decimal points. I love the vertical configuration of the carage and the duel turrets hold lots of tools. This 30 year old machine runs circles around some of my newer ones. The turrets are tucked in nice and close to the the carage for awesome rigidity. The carage is just a single huge hunk of iron with a dovetail way. This baby is rock friggin solid and has mega power. I can mow down 4140 like nobody's business. A 1/8" deep cut on a 12 inch diameter at .018 IPR feed at 1000sfm all day long no problem, zero chatter. Amazing.

You guys are lucky to be running such superior machinary.
 
What Model are you running?

It is not mentioned much here, but Monarch was a pioneer in NC/CNC turning.

Their last CNC lathe was the Ultra-Center and Predator. The Ultra-Center was one of the most advance turning centers of the early 1990's with automatic turret changers. Monarch shipped about 80 of these modular turning centers.

The Predator was Monarch answer the lower cost import lathes and was made in 4 models. Monarch built roughly 200 of these lathes between 1994 to 1997. The Predator proved to be very durable for its cost.

I would also like to hear more from those that own or run/ran Monarch NC/CNC lathes.

John
 
Does your TC1A have power rototary tooling (PRT)?

The Metalist and TC1's were Monarch's biggest sellers starting the mid-70's and through the 80's. The were relilable metal removing beasts!

If your control ever start giving your trouble, I am sure it would be less expensive to put a new control and drives on this machine than it would to buy some flimsy new iron. Something to think about when the time comes.

John
 
Doesn't have live tooling.

Lucky for me my dad has a phd in electrical engineering. He can diagnos and fix anything electrical. Overall this 30 year old monarch has been just as reliable as my newer machines.

Like I said, it's my favorite lathe in the shop.
 
does anyone still have a Monarch TC1 running, I have two with Allen Bradley controls and would love to have another
 
I see them pop up for action now and then, and Metalist which are slightly smaller. It seems people hold on to these workhorses.
 
I don't know the details of all the financial stuff. I know they got liquidated and all the machines and such got sold, and are no longer manufacturing there, But they are still doing tech support and board repairs and selling parts from that address. I think their current machines are built in Spain.

I was told by someone near by that they were keeping their manufacturing ops operating on state/local government money contributed due to jobs created, that sort of thing, but that's third hand and sketchily described. I bought 2 machines that were in their plant, and that's what the dealer told me. Since then they have given me the best tech support I've ever received from a machine manufacturer, and that's for 20+ yr. old machines. My impression from phone calls is that the tech and parts depts are pretty busy.
 
Hey guys I am looking for some manuals for a Monarch TC1A actually the control manuals General Numeric GN3TF control manuals are B-54204E operator manual and B-54203E connection manual. Fanuc sells them but they want 95 days to receive . If anyone has them to sell or knows of anyone that has some please let me know .

Thanks,
 
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