vertical cnc mill do you use?

[keith mc.]

I am looking a purchasing another cnc mill and wonder what everybody is running? I currently have a cincinnati arrow 1000 with fanuc controlls the travel is 20*40. We are looking to machine mostly 2d details on the mill we are looking to buy. Was wondering if any body can give me input. The mill i looked at today was a Hyundai sptv-800 with seimans controls the travel is 30*18 . It was ridged and seemed to look like it would do but dont know enough about the brand. Am planing to look at a few others one being a Haas i have a budget i am staying withing of about 75k US $. Also would like to know how easy it is to learn seimans controlls i hear they use g codes not like Heidenheim. Thanks for any input you give me and look foward to see what the most used cnc machine is world wide?

[Guest]

your budget would get you a very nice haas.

just bought 3 more here and they have improved (never had any complaints on the old ones either).

very good bang for the buck IMHO

 

Doug

[Mito@DeeringBanjos]

we use a haas vf3 and a toolroom and a fadal 40-20. they all work well. i personaly realy like mazak.

[Matthew]

You could check out the First line of machines from Heinman Machinery in Mississauga. I have a smaller machine (12x24). I am very happy with it. Very little trouble, Fanuc control, box ways, and Heinman are great to deal with.

[Storkman]

OKK

[chris m]

Matsuura

Okuma

Okuma-Howa

Haas

 

Haas is certainly the most prevalent VMC in the USA; not even close.

 

At your budget, the Haas certainly fits right in

[heavychevy2155]

You could also look at the vm line from milltronics heard good things from them and what are options for the Haas alot is standard on the milltronics. Also if you sometimes machine oversized parts they can hang off the table some.

[race 10]

We just purchased 4 new Haas VF-2SS machines here. I dont know if you are familiar with the SS line of Hass Machines or not.They have a 1.6 sec. tool to tool side mount tool changer. They have a 1400ipm rapid rate and a 12000rpm direct drive spindle. The Haas controls are very user friendly. They come standard with high speed machining, so if you need to do 3D work on them they are very capable. That makes 5 VF-2SS machines for our company and we love them.

[Guest]

What VMC's?

 

Nothing in that price range

[race 10]

We Have a long list of different vertical machines. Some old OKK PCV-40's,PCV-50, Fadal(VMC 15,4020,6030)Mori Seiki(M300-A1,MV40B)Haas(VF-0,VF-E,VF-2,VF-2SS,Vf-3,VF-6,VF-9,VF-10,Mini Mill,Toolroom Mill)Mazak VTC-16. That is all I can think of off the top of my head. IMHO our Haas machines are the best verticals we have.

[htm01]

quote:

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The Haas controls are very user friendly. They come standard with high speed machining, so if you need to do 3D work on them they are very capable.

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be careful with the ss, it has a 12mm ballscrew and doesn't follow the toolpath at high feeds it blends it.we did a lot of test cavities with one and traded it for a vm.

[race 10]

Thanks for That infomation htm01. I will keep that in mind. I haven't ran much 3D work on them yet.

[b_daddy]

Okuma 4va,40va,50va,(2)60vae,MB56vb(love this machine)

 

Okuma's have always ran very well fo us.

[gcode]

quote:

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high feeds it blends it

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its the accuracy of Hass High Feed a function of the tolerance you set?

[htm01]

to get the high feed the ss rounds the tool path for a smoother motion,we did tests cutting the same cavity over and over with different feedrates and the faster you go the less it follows,over 40 ipm the path would not be the same.

the vm has a 6mm ballscrew and will follow better we got up to about 120ipm and it was pretty close.

[keith mc.]

sounds like everyone is happy with their Haas. I do like the fact that it is up front pricing and that all prices are made available to you with out any run around. I am going to look at the Haas vf2 on tuesday since monday is a holiday for us. I would still like to hearfrom others that have not responded. Have a good weekend and will check in later to see others responses.

[Kevangel]

Milltronics, they have a roller bearing pack option now for die mold milling that I am curious about. Advertised as a pretty much made in the usa brand , made in Minnesota. Worth lookin at, lota bang for the buck.Really changed in last 10 years. Lots of them in Dayton, ohio now as we have a really good dealer. I just looked at a big VM30,50 taper one. WOW, has it changed from my model VM24.

[heavychevy2155]

I am looking at the rw20 from milltronics, I compaired it to the Haas VF2, and the Milltronics was the better buy, and also a boxway machine. I need the box ways for cutting all the dang stainless we do. Also comes with the 16 tool atc arm, 6 coolant noozles, 8000 rpm, highspeed machining and more memory.

[RMagnusson]

We use a Mazak FJV-25. Im pretty new and this is the only machine I've ever used, but I like it. It was easy enough to learn from knowing nothing.

[Ocean Lacky™]

2 Mazak VTC300C's and a Takumi Sekei VT10A here. Have a new Sharp vertical bridge scheduled to be set up in the next few weeks, not sure how that's gonna turn out.

 

The Mazaks are great and the Takumi, while small, has been quite truoble free for the last 8 years or so.

[PGW Steve]

I've got 3 HAAS mills, and I love them. If it fits into your budget, option the VF2 as much as you can, look into the YT model and pair it up with a 10k spindle and a side mount tool changer. The price of our dollar now makes buying US machines fun. As far as not following a path correctly, there is a setting "max corner rounding--.025" or something. I haven't played with changing the settings to see what affect it had but flying into a 90 degree corner at 150ipm made a strange shape. Got it down to 75ipm for a true path. This is on a normal pitch ball machine. I have the HSM option on one machine and it workes fine on 3D stuff at 200ipm. If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to help.

[Chris Rizzo]

The SS machines are boat anchors. We got suckered into a vf2ss and after 6 months of battling haas it is going back to the factory. i could go on for quite a while about the state of haas these days, and my long-standing run around with the whole affair. We do however have an older Haas machine that is just fine though.

 

IMHO, the ss's belong at the end of a long chain on the ocean bottom, or maybe in a blacksmith's shop.

 

I just saw a $275,000 Makino V55 go for $90k at an auction, so there are deals to be found out there. Comparing a 90k used makino to a 90k new Haas is like comparing an f-16 to the Wright brothers contraptions.

 

I also just found out that Mori is discontinuing the Dura Center 5, and "blowing them out" at $105k. A FANTASTIC machine. That's with the 18i control. They are coming out with some new "budget" models that look pretty good for the money, but will only have the Oi controls and drives. Sounds like they will be available late summer, but then again I would'nt jump at a brand-new model machine.

[keith mc.]

Thanks for the heads up on the haas ss models.(boat anchors). i wiil consider looking at the mazak as well as used machiner dealers to see if there is any deal sout there. bussiness is a little slow so i should be able to find a deal. i have yet to check the milltronics web site. Once again thank you to all that responded to my question. I will post another in a few days to let you all know what i found and other info that i aquired

[Bob_Looney]

I looked long and hard 3 years ago. I bought Akira-Seiki (akira-seiki.com). I'm a one man show and can't afford to fix a cnc. I spent 60K on it. 10,ooo rpm, Mitsubishi M64 control, all options, spindle oil cooler and all. I had no problems and ran it hard as it would go in alum and steel. It held tenths all day long on interpolating bearing bores.

I sold it to a friend and bought a More NV5000 APC last year. If I had to spend 75K on a cnc I would do it again. Understand though that at less than 100k every cnc is a comodity machine and they won't last 10 years.