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DMG Lathes (pros and cons)?


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Hi there,

 

My last workplace had a CTX 420 which IMHO was a great machine. It held tolerances well. We had the Siemens shopturn controller on it which is very powerful for on machine programming. It was used as a production machine mostly, kitted out with barfeeder etc. and proved to be reliable and consistent. The turret was a bit prone to being knocked out of alignment if it were 'crashed'.

 

We also had a CTX beta 1250 for the last 6 months that I was there. We had a few issues with that, but we bought it as an ex demo model so it had been moved ALOT and been worked alot. Overall it was a nice machine though...dual spindles again with the siemens shopturn control which was great for programming on the controller.

 

What sort of machine are you looking at getting? Is there anything in particular that you would like to know about the lathes? Overall I would say that DMG generally make very nice machines.

 

HTH brendan

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Honestly, just looking at that control scares the cr@p out of me; if you have some experience with Siemens controls then you have a leg up. I have no experience with DMG machines, and didn't even know that they offered a lathe. Personally I feel that Okuma makes the finest turning machines in the world and that Nakamura-Tome is the only other company that I would even ask to quote a lathe project. That being said, I have experience with DMG and both Okuma and Nakamura are very well supported in my geographic area.

 

C

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Chrism

 

"Please be honset and unbiased."

 

Honestly, just looking at that control scares the cr@p out of me;

 

That's because you are biased towards Okuma.

 

You can get a Siemens, Heidenhain or Mapps controller on a CTX 310 and 510 eco

Or a CTX with Fanuc, Siemens or Heidenhain.

 

What does Okuma come with? Okuma

 

He could by 3 CTX eco's for the price of an Okuma. Yes Okuma's are great machines, but not everyone needs to by a Porche to drive to the corner shop.

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not sure where everything is getting made now with the mori seiki merge???? The CTX beta that we had appeared to be an italian build?? or at least partly. It had GRAZIANO painted all over it and the handbook was in italian mostly...turns out that german machines are never really german machines. I suspect that since the merger this will become truer and truer with DMG machines...

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Eco's can be bought from either Famot or Shanghi same parts in both machines, different controllers offered.

CTX is made in Germany The GRAZIANO factory that was in Italy is now in Germany and the GRAZIANO site is now a HSC centre.

All Mori's are made in Japan

 

I have no experience with DMG machines, and didn't even know that they offered a lathe.
Honestly, just looking at that control scares the cr@p out of me

 

Makes no sence, how could you have seen a DMG lathe's controller then?

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Good to know! Thanks for the info David! One thing that i forgot to mention in my assessment earlier is that the support for DMG machines in Australia is fairly limited. There were a few very knowledgeable guys in the country, but they were quite often tied up. I can't comment on where you are, but that was just the case in Aus...like i said before tho, love the DMG machines!

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Makes no sense, how could you have seen a DMG lathe's controller then?

 

You may not be aware that your company has a website, on which there are digital images of your machine tools, including the machine about which the original poster inquired. As I was unaware that DMG offered a lathe, I was interested to see what the machine was, so I used this "world wide web" contraption to check it out.

 

We hold .0003 total tolerance all day, every day, in 4340 at 38Rc in Okuma lathes; you are damned right that I am biased, and with good reason.

 

C

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You can get a Siemens, Heidenhain or Mapps controller on a CTX 310 and 510 ecoOr a CTX with Fanuc, Siemens or Heidenhain.What does Okuma come with? Okuma

 

When you make the best control you only need to offer one kind. tongue.gif

 

Seriously though, my first choice obviously would be OSP control but after that it would be Siemens all the way. They make very good control systems. Third choice for control would be Fanuc. JM2C

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Brendan, I am based in Melbourne, Australia.

David, I probably should've looked at your location...i did not mean any offence to the company. We were located in a fairly small town in NSW about 400km north of sydney. Whenever we talked to DMG we would only get onto 2 main technicians. They were very knowledgeable and could had great over the phone service, but when it came to them coming onsite to fix a machine we would sometimes have to wait a few weeks which was frustrating for us. They must've just been servicing a large area themselves. Anyway, they have both been terminated after the merger which leaves me concerned as I know how good they were with the german machines.

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I have been very happy with my CTX 410 lathe for the past 6 years. I have had no major problems in all that time although I need to mention that I don't get much lathe work so it only runs about one week out of every month. When I go over to my buddies shop across town I'm always amazed at how slow his Haas lathes seem, the CTX's spindle ramps up and down much faster and tool change speed is quicker. I have the Heidenhain control on mine. Here is a link to the history of Gildemeister, the "G" in DMG; http://www.dmg.com/internet/v3/nav.nsf/v3.jsp/us,group,history?opendocument&print=1

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I've worked with Siemens controllers, Mitsubishi controllers, Fanuc controllers, Okuma controllers, and Heidenhain controllers.

 

My opinion, for what it is worth.. Seimens controllers are horrible. It was a few years ago that I used one, so maybe they've changed. But having drill cycle lines looking like DRILL81,3,0,1,2,0,0,1,0,0,2,200 was ugly. Hopefully that has changed. They do seem to be getting popular.

 

Out of all the controllers, I prefer Okumas first.

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Mick, What did you think of the Heidenhain Lathe control? How do you rate it with the others? I really like the control myself but it's also the only lathe control I've ever used. :)

 

Ah, I've only used a Heidenhain mill control. It wasn't bad, but having used Okuma and Fanuc controls a lot before the Heidenhain, I preferred the Okuma, just from a personal usability view.

 

Heidenhain certainly has a following, and from what I have been told, they are very good for writing basic manual programmes.

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I've worked with Siemens controllers, Mitsubishi controllers, Fanuc controllers, Okuma controllers, and Heidenhain controllers.

 

My opinion, for what it is worth.. Seimens controllers are horrible. It was a few years ago that I used one, so maybe they've changed. But having drill cycle lines looking like DRILL81,3,0,1,2,0,0,1,0,0,2,200 was ugly. Hopefully that has changed. They do seem to be getting popular.

 

Out of all the controllers, I prefer Okumas first.

 

Siemens shopturn is fantastic. Siemens ISO dialekt I don't like.

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