Best Lathe Option

[goldhntr]

The company I work for is considering a CNC lathe. I am the sole machinist in the shop and the company's focus is R&D. It is my opinion that a lathe with a 6in chuck capacity with a relatively hight RPM (think mostly aluminum) and live tooling is what we would need. The Haas ST-10 fits our requirements and cost. Is there any others that we might consider or is this the best bang for the buck. Keep in mind that this is a R&D shop. Ease of use is more the issue than high volume.

[GoetzInd]

Doosan lynx w/ live tooling. We've had a couple doosans and theyve been solid machines.

 

Mike

[Sticky]

It would be hard to beat a Mazak for your application. Mazatrol is the best setup control I have come across.

[SKIR68]

6 inch chuck is pretty small...depends how big your parts usually are. Something with conversational programming would be great for R&D.

[BenK]

How does the price of a Doosan compare to something like a Haas? Just wondering where they fall in for price.

[GoetzInd]

Might be a little bit more but the doosan is a far better machine imo.

 

Mike

[goldhntr]

I am grateful for the continued input. Here is some info to answer some of the comments. 6" chuck is more than large enough. I have been here 8 years and have yet to turn anything over 4". most parts are less that 1.0" dia. How important do you think a Y axis is?

[GoetzInd]

How important do you think a Y axis is?

 

Very if you plan on dropping parts complete. Milling is very limited if you don't have it. Thats gonna add big bucks to the machine though. And at that point Id get a sub spindle too.

 

Mike

[Sticky]

I am grateful for the continued input. Here is some info to answer some of the comments. 6" chuck is more than large enough. I have been here 8 years and have yet to turn anything over 4". most parts are less that 1.0" dia. How important do you think a Y axis is?

 

 

That really depends on what kind of milling you tend to do. If your milling is truly limited to milling a couple hexs, some slots, drill and tap some holes then Y axis isn't going to do much for you, but if you do off center radial drilling or pocketing then it is of course mandatory. If you never go above 4" (neither do I) go with the 6" chuck. My Mazak has a 6" main that goes to 6k rpm and a 5" sub spindle that does 6K as well, talk about nice for small parts, particularly if you are doing 1" sized parts.

[goldhntr]

That really depends on what kind of milling you tend to do. If your milling is truly limited to milling a couple hexs, some slots, drill and tap some holes then Y axis isn't going to do much for you, but if you do off center radial drilling or pocketing then it is of course mandatory. If you never go above 4" (neither do I) go with the 6" chuck. My Mazak has a 6" main that goes to 6k rpm and a 5" sub spindle that does 6K as well, talk about nice for small parts, particularly if you are doing 1" sized parts.

 

I think it unlikely that I would do any off center radial drilling and I think the only pocketing would be on the face. I am being led to believe that face pocketing can be handed without a "Y" axis. The Mazak looks really enticing, but I think I am going have trouble pitching it given it's price tag.

 

I am just starting the search process and I was initially thinking that this could be done for under 100K. So far the only machine that meets this is the HAAS ST-10. Any opinions?

[Sticky]

I think it unlikely that I would do any off center radial drilling and I think the only pocketing would be on the face. I am being led to believe that face pocketing can be handed without a "Y" axis. The Mazak looks really enticing, but I think I am going have trouble pitching it given it's price tag.

 

I am just starting the search process and I was initially thinking that this could be done for under 100K. So far the only machine that meets this is the HAAS ST-10. Any opinions?

 

Yeah axial pocketing can be handled with the C axis only. I'm not up to speed on new turning center pricing, so I can't help you there. I think my mid 90's sqt10ms with sub spindle, live tooling, chip conveyor, tool setter and gantry loader was around 50k. I can get a lot of parts "done in one", fairly quickly with all those features.

[#Rekd™]

Check out DMG CTX 310 Eco with a C-Axis.

[DavidB]

Check out DMG CTX 310 Eco with a C-Axis.

 

+1

 

I actually just finished two days training a customer on this machine and I was impressed.

This machined had a MAPPS controller on it so it works just like a Mori on the controller side.

C axis, live tooling every second turret position, in machine measuring of tolls, and a programable tailstock for a very good price.

 

No biased. LOL

[#Rekd™]

+1

 

I actually just finished two days training a customer on this machine and I was impressed.

This machined had a MAPPS controller on it so it works just like a Mori on the controller side.

C axis, live tooling every second turret position, in machine measuring of tolls, and a programable tailstock for a very good price.

 

No biased. LOL

 

Ours will have the "Siemens 810D with Shop Turn" controller.

[Newbeeee™]

Ours will have the "Siemens 810D with Shop Turn" controller.

 

I asume you liked the shopturn demo then

[#Rekd™]

I asume you liked the shopturn demo then

 

Yes it looked great, the Mori control was not listed as an option. I would have still gone with the Siemens any ways.

[LancoUSA]

I was at a shop running a Mazak cnc lathe with live tooling. It had an 8" chuck with live tooling and "Y" axis. I didn't think we needed it at first, But it ended up really helping out a lot. Also, we ended up getting a demo machine for way less than new. with factory warranty. It was at Hendrick motorsports as part of Mazak's sponsorship. I liked the machine a Lot. It was envolved to program at times though.

[goldhntr]

This has been very helpful. Keep em' coming

[Pilot Plant Supervisor]

I am very happy with our Haas machines. I have been around several controls in 20+ years of machining, and to me, the Haas control is the best. I've been using Haas for almost 6 years, and I still find things that the control will do that I wasn't aware of. I think the recent re-design was great. Our machines are older and there are some things I don't like, but they have been addressed with the re-design. For the money, I don't think one can do any better.

[goldhntr]

I am still searching. We have just passed the first hurdle towards purchasing the lathe. I have recently received a quote from Hyundai. The price is intriguing. Right in the same range as the HAAS ST-10. It uses VDI-30 instead of VDI-40 (HAAS uses this). I am concerned about the size of the VDI-40 tooling on a small lathe. Any comments?

[Sticky]

Our lathe uses Mazaks version of VDI40, haven't run into any space issues yet, I'll take extra mass when I can.

[Mike@Dive Lab]

we have a st-20Y with the VDI turret. For our application I'm glad I went with the VDI. With the VDI turret and the tailstock on the ST20-Y there is X travel limitations when using boring bars. With our ST-20Y you can't get to X 0 with boring bars much bigger than around .750 min bore with standard holders. If you have to face the back of a bore to X0 there are clearance issues. With the hybrid or BOT turret this won't be an issue. The average size part for us is about 1.-1.5" dia. We prototype and do small production runs of 50-200 parts at a time. We only cut brass,316ss and plastics. I really like being able to threadmill those small holes in 316ss. Overall I'm happy with the lathe. If your looking at a tailstock in a ST-10 I think it gets pretty tight.