[1ctoolfool]

I'm new to HAAS, Just entering the market and would like some basic questions answered. I use a VFE and feel comfortable with the mill control but I'm very inexperienced with lathes.... whole other world.

Whats the basic difference between the GT and SL series lathes? I see base price and no tailstock option on the GT. 8 vs 12 station turret?

I need a general purpose lathe almost all one-offs.... very occasionally short runs and I am leaning towards a toolroom TL-1. How well will this machine work with the optional 4 station turret and can you just leave the turret on for general use? Is it a fully auto turret? For the same money I could get a top of the line manual quick change with lots of holders.... Does it have full threading capabilities?

What are the problems/limitations of a toolroom vs. a "full cnc" enclosed lathe?

Does anyone know anything about the new HLV toolroom lathe and what the starting price is? Saw an ad in the latest MANF. magazine and this lathe looks really attractive for what I want to do, but can't find any info. 95% of my need is small o.d. prefer 5C collets. Right now I get everything I need out of a S.B. heavy 10 with DRO.

Would like to stay under 25K is this possible?

Thanks for advice.... Joe V.

[WayneHill]

What are the problems/limitations of a toolroom vs. a "full cnc" enclosed lathe?

Enclosed lathe can have lots of coolant on part. Longer tool life. More precision with cooler parts.

[ZachB]

My two cents

The TL four station turret is fully automatic. You can buy the rigid tapping option. It comes with threading capabilities for single pointing built in. You can upgrade the spindle to 3500 rpm (only from the factory) but in order to do that you have to buy the enlosure package first which will obviously contain your chips and coolant inside. Thats a nice upgrade if your interested in keeping your shop clean. But this is your best choice for one offs and versatility.

The GT series, Gang Tool machines seem pretty nice for large scale production, the tool change times are faster than turret style lathes. Set up times take longer though in many cases. But these GT machines have an optional bolt on turret which gives you the flexibility of quicker setups and cost effective production. So my opinion of the Gt's is that there great for small parts with large scale to mid size production numbers.

A couple days ago we received our TL-1 with the turret and enclosure option, we still need to get the shipping oil off it, but heres a look at one.

[PBMW]

I have an SL10 and do a lot of prototyping as well as production.
If you put a turret lathe on your floor...you will have more work for it as opposed to just proto work.
I bought mine, and it's been three weeks backlogged since I bought it.
Besides the turret lathe has the faster cycle times and spindle.
The only thing a tool room lathe has going for it is the price.
Nice lathe...don't get me wrong. But it will not make you as much money and this business is all about return on investment.
Jim

[MojosMachine]

I am not familiar with GT series. The TL would be fine in a job shop atmosphere. I own an SL20 and have had it for 8 months. I am not that happy with. I have had trouble with he machine itself. Techs have been out several times to work on it. We run a lot of differnt parts. The chip auger is for the birds, opt for the convayer. The parts catcher has given us a lot of problems. The whole idea was to load it up and let it run by itself but I have to have someone keeping an eye on it for so it wont crash into the parts catcher. The machine is just too light duty for me. I can list other reasons for not liking it but the are the main ones. I wish I has spent the $65k on a different lathe. We have Hyundia with a Seimens control and it just flat rocks. The only problem is the they were bought out by Kia and now they are not the same machine but I love the one I have and have liked it since day one. I have run a lot of different machines through the years and the SL20 is at the bottom of my list. At this time when time comes for another new machine, I dont know what I will buy but I wont be an SL20. Just my $.02 worth.

[Geof]

.....The parts catcher has given us a lot of problems. The whole idea was to load it up and let it run by itself but I have to have someone keeping an eye on it for so it wont crash into the parts catcher.....

Are you finding that the parts catcher does not drop out of the way quickly enough? I have two SL10s and this was a problem. What I discovered is that the air supply to the parts catcher goes through a very tiny hole and I think the idea is that this stops the catcher coming up with a big bang when it is turned on. It also means its drops out of the way slowly and if there is any water or oil in the air it doesn't drop at all.

I drilled the hole out to about 1/16" and now the catcher comes up and down very fast. The turret doesn't crash into it any more but what does happen is the pin that the air cylinder fastens to cracks out of the sheet metal after a few months and we have to weld it back in.

I also made extensions to the catcher so it would catch little parts more reliably. These are just corrugated plastic so if they hit anything they just tear off.

[MojosMachine]

The biggest problem I am having with the catcher is that when it hits the door, the door sometimes doesnt open all the way so the parts catcher is not all the way up so the way covers on the turret hit the catcher and bends the screws holding it then we have to stop and fix the thing so we can keep running. I think overall the whole machine is cheaply built. I tried to put my collet setup from my Hyundia on it which by the way I spicificly asked about the chuck mount and I was told that it was and A2-6 spindle nose with the same kitagawa chuck as the Hyundia. Well when I started to put the collet on the draw tube was a 60mm x 1.5 thread and the collet was a 60 x 2. I looked in the Kitagawa book that came with the SL20 and its said that it was a 60 x 2.0 thread. Why they would change it I dont know. The bolts holding the chuck on use a 10mm allen wrench just like the Hyundia but the bolts are 1/2-13. Now that really dont make sense. It prob cost more the buy the bolts than it would have been to tap the spindle 12mm. Just some random things that I noticed about the construction of the machine.