[new_user]

Hello everybody !

I am looking for advice on purchasing a small CNC lathe to turn small precision parts. These parts are relatively small ( 1-15mm dia, <25mm length ),material is either SS or grade 5 Ti. ( See pic. for example ) Tolerance should be better than 5 um. I guess it should have live tool(s) as well. Secondary chuck would be a nice, but I could live with manually flipping the parts between machining steps. My budget is around 80k, got CAM already. Any suggestion is greatly appreciated !


Thanks in advance !

[russormrod]

Production?


Russ

[wizard]

My first thought for low volume would be a lathe from Fadec Engineering or Tormach. The problem is neither of these lathes is out of beta yet. The bigger problem though is that the part apparently has some features that imply something more sophisticated than simple turning is required. As such you will likely require a far more expensive machine.

In any event without some idea how many are to be made or really a better drawing, I don't think you will get helpful information. Honestly I looked at the part and thought it was a something for injection molding. Too bad the material is stainless or titanium.

[hanermo]

HAAS ST10Y
Probably the cheapest best option by far.
Cheapest real lathe with live tooling, for sure.

You can bodger a live tooling into a Thormach or something, but the controls are not set up for it, its unsupported, and the sw is not tested.
Very far from production quality, and the sw issue is important.
It will be cheap, though.

I am building something like that, but its far from ready for production.

[russormrod]

Used Eurotech.


Russ

[DSpeck]

Check out an Omniturn lathe. It's a gang-tool lathe, which can be had with a C-axis and live tooling. It has a 5C spindle, so bars up to 1.062" diameter will fit through the spindle hole. I ran an old one (1998 vintage), and it will hold .0005" tolerance on diameter to this day. I ran stainless and titanium on it for a project, and both worked and cut fine on it. The more modern control box of a new machine will be more pleasant to use than the older style from that era, too...

They start at $35K with the C-axis, so you can tool up easily under your budget.

Not a shill, just a satisfied user...