Makino A51

[CAM-mando]

To those using them, how do you like them? What kind of parts are you machining?

[cobra95kev]

They had one at the last place I worked. We machined alot of small aluminum aircraft parts on them. If you buy or build a tombstone for one make it smaller than 10" all of the way around because when you put a vise on their you wont have much room to machine from the side of the parts. I would look at buying one of those small vise towers for it so it leaves more room for machining space.

 

Good luck,

it is a fast machine.

[CAM-mando]

Thanks

 

Yeah I would prefer a 500mm table and CAT 50, but most of our parts are relatively small and our other mills are all CAT40 spindles.

[Guest]

that machine and a techni-grip tomb stone would be a fine combination.

have run an a55 and is a very sweet machine.

 

doug

[Mic]

If you want a CAT50 machine with a 500mm table you should have a look at Matsuura's H.Plus-500. Very nice and rigid machine.

 

http://www.matsuura.co.jp/english/products...s.shtm#hplus500

[Montana Bear]

The first company i worked at had an A55 . Where i'm at now we have a 12 pallet cell system with an A61 cat 40 and A71 cat 50 plug in. Both are tooled up to run any pallet into whichever machine is available using a macro at the beginning of the program that determins what offsets to use. But in the big picture the 55 had a spindle that could take a beating and keep on cutting but thr 61 /71 spidels don't seem to hold up as well . all in all good machines.

[specv]

we dumped our a51 because it was too small, it was a very rigid machine though. we did 304SS with it and also ductile iron. now we have a a61 and a81

[JAMES GABEL]

If the machine has a pro5 control on it you can't go wrong. That control with the technology you will want another one.

[DavidB]

If your doind Al parts nothing beats a Makino

[JAMES GABEL]

Nobody beats Makino service.

[Rick Henrickson 65]

A71 with pro 5 love makinos!

 

techni grip for sure!

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

---

...Nobody beats Makino service....

---

I've heard QUITE the opposite, from LONG TIME customer's too.

[SIG]

We are thinking about an a51 as well.

100% 6061 aluminum surfacing.

We use a doosan 8000rpm Oi control to make these parts now but the orders keep getting larger.

How much faster would an a51 be?

The parts take 12hrs now all surfacing.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Higher RPM = faster feedrate, faster control = better Block Processing Time.

 

How much faster? Depends on how you program and how hard you're willing to push the machine.

[SIG]

Are we talking twice the speed?

[mold100]

SIG it wouldnt surprise me.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I would not be surprised by twice either. One of our customers had a Horizontal from a lesser MTB. Bought a high end Horizontal... Cycle time before - 4 Hours 38 minutes... Cycle Time after - 1 hour 52 minutes. No lie, no exaggeration.

[kccadcam]

We have two 20000 RPM A55e's with 27 pallets strictly for high speed machining of Aluminum.

 

We also have two High torque A82's with 16 pallets

for all hard metal machining. (Alloys, Stainless, Titanium)

 

All I can say is,, these are Awesome Machines!!

Plunge roughing Titanium is incredible to watch.

 

I used to run Matsuura's for many years,, Makino's are faster, more reliable, and more accurate from what I've seen.

The new Pro5 touch screen control is very cool....

[SIG]

Thanks for your respected opinion.