Info on 1991 Makino A55

[Bob W.]

I just purchased a 1991 Makino A55 subject to inspection and I have a few questions. I have only run newer Haas machines (2005 and later) and that is the limit of my experience from a control perspective. This machine has relatively low hours and comes with a 12k spindle, 1000 psi TSC, linear scales, 60 TC, and a Fanuc 0M control. It also has ~6k of run hours. Here are my questions...

 

1. What sort of speed and accuracy should I expect from this machine compared to my Haas? How about rigidity, assuming the inspection looks good?

2. Are there known issues with these machines I need to look out for?

3. I often run programs that are 5+Mb in size. Will this run smoothly via DNC? Are there memory upgrades options for these older machines?

4. What is the best way to go about learning this control?

5. How well could I expect this to do at surfacing compared to my Haas machines? How about roughing?

 

This kind of came out of left field and I jumped on it. I have no experience with any Fanuc control or even horizontals for that matter. I will also be adding a newer Mori horizontal later this month and I figured this would compliment it well. Thanks for any info or advice.

 

Bob

[TheePres]

I am not familiar with Makino machine, but I do know that the fanuc 0M control without AICC will be useless for surfacing and HSM.

[Joe788]

Bob, this should be a great machine for prepping blanks, or machining simple prismatic parts. If the stuff you wanna do looks anything like the pictures you posted before in the gallery though, you're gonna be extraordinarily underwhelmed at the performance of the control.

[Bob W.]

Is it a matter of the controls power, or speed? Could it surface effectively if the feed was slowed down? I don't really have those expectations for this machine but it would be nice if it could do it in a pinch, even if it did take longer. How about roughing work on molds?

[RaiderX]

IMHO very nice piece of equipment. fyi the spindles can be a little fragile in my experience this machine likes light fast cuts. more towards alum. the Fanuc control is capable but not nearly as intuative as Haas.

 

Doug

[Clarence L Cook]

I have a 1995 Saeilo Mach 3A Horizontal with the Fanuc OMC control. I also have five Haas verticals. Some things that I have noticed with my control are the following.

 

- You are limited to 128K.

- I only have six work offsets.

- I have a type A offset page, therefore you must add some value to D for your cutter comp. In my case I add 20 because it has only 20 tools in the ATC.

- The way my control is set up, the machine has a very bad case of corner rounding when changing directions. I did a test in some aluminum and a .200" boss was reduced to .165" by going at only 80 ipm. At 20 imp it was very close to the required diameter. I mainly use the machine for stainless and titanum parts and the lower feed rate is not a problem. But, this is something that I would like to resolve, because I am thinking it might only be some parameters are not set up correctly.

- My horizontal is night and day more rigid that any of may Haas verticals.

- I have run programs via DNC but if memory serves, I am limited to only 9600 baud for transfer speed.

- I can't speak directly has to the best way to learn the control. I started using the Fanuc controls in the mid 90s with our first Haas in 2001. I am self taught on these controls (Haas, Fanuc 6M, 6T, OM, OT, 11M). The biggest difference that I have noticed is that the Haas control has features in it to make life less complicated for the operator. You need to know more to run a Fanuc control.

 

Now that I know my machines current limitations (physically and mentally on my part), I have still been able to do all the things that I need to do. I am still pushing out the envelop on my machine.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Clarence

[GoetzInd]

fyi the spindles can be a little fragile

 

I've had good luck on the A51's. (Newer version of the A55). Super solid/accurate machine. Wish every machine in the shop was a makino. As for the OM control I don't have any experience. The oldest here is a Pro 3 (18i).

 

Mike