[jw12]

Hello to everyone we are looking at buying a 2004 Captain L470 1250
and wondering if anyone knows anything about these. We have a
1996 Cadet V4020 and a 1998 Crown 1060 we bought new and love them
they are great machines we were just wondering about the Captain if
anyone can help we would appreciate it.

[straggleweed]

my 2008 l470m has been a nightmare from day one.. ive talked about it in several earlier posts all of the information is there... others seem to like theirs though.. i guess its just luck of the draw.

good luck with your purchase if you decide to get it!

[littlerob]

I personally really like the one I run. I am new to the control but it seems very capable. The machine itself seems very rigid but some people are in disagreement. It has only been about a month for me, so maybe I am totally off.

Nice surface finish with the live tools. The only complaint I have so far is the acceleration and deceleration of the chuck, take too long. Making tool changes a little slower than I would like.

That said, this machine has never been crashed, And the guy who ran it before had max spindle speed at 700 for all his programs. So we'll see what happens when it is worked for a while.

The company I work for also had real trouble finding someone who could run it in a job shop, and not for production. That is something to be considered.

Robert

[jw12]

Does your 2008 model crash or do you have other troubles

[jw12]

littlerob what year is your machine and what control

[littlerob]

littlerob what year is your machine and what control

2006 and it is P200.

If you look through the threads in here you will see straggleweeds complaints. Valid IMO

[jw12]

Do you have any trouble out of your P200 control

[littlerob]

Not at all. The 100 was a little frustrating because it was a kind of slow from mode to mode, ie AUTO to EDIT to TOOLDATA, but the 200 seems like they worked all of that out.

Robert

[jw12]

Have you used a E100 control thats what is on the machine were looking at

[littlerob]

Yeah, it is the same thing I was talking about in the previous post. It functions just fine, the complaint I have is too many steps to accomplish a task. Go to auto mode, wait, push display change, wait, push program select, wait, push OK, wait, push close, wait. That is all, but like I said they are both very capable controls. I just don't want to wait, even though it literally is like 1 second. I am just used to the 7000 no waiting it goes as fast as your fingers. Now looking back at this post it is really a very small detail. Just a personal frustration. :violin:

Robert

[jw12]

I read the old post that straggleweed wrote littlerob do you have any trouble with the your machine being to lightweight or not sturdy enough or not enough power or is this just on the newer model captains

[littlerob]

I read the old post that straggleweed wrote littlerob do you have any trouble with the your machine being to lightweight or not sturdy enough or not enough power or is this just on the newer model captains

I haven't had any issues yet, and I work the thing. .25 DOC 600 SFM .02 FPR. It is fine and stays within tenths all day.

[jw12]

Thanks alot for the information it was real helpful

[straggleweed]

nope never been crashed *Knock on wood*
nope no issues with the control except for sometimes while it is running the display freezes up ( the numbers just sit still and the program doesn't look like its advancing) but even while the display is frozen the machine still moves and does everything it is suppose to do. Ive discovered that one of my issues is that the cap screws that hold the turret mount down to the cross slide keep backing out causing my diameters to be all over the place. its been about a month now since the service guy tightened them down so its about time to do it again. every morning my first part or 2 will be about .005 over sized on the critical bore then it goes back to normal with out changing an offset, after that it stays with in about .002 the rest of the day. (this machine does mainly ID work). all of my old issues still exist too.

my new issue with it is that ive got a SKUNK (shunk) front actuated pnumatic chuck and it was new with the machine just over a year ago and it needs to be rebuilt. there is a valve on the front of the chuck that keeps sticking and i have to clean it out about once a week due to build up that is leaking past some internal seals. (this is that what skunk guy said anyways). when it sticks really bad my parts will start to push back.. this issue has just started recently so it doesnt have anything to do with the diameter size issue since that has been going on since new.

this machine has put a bad taste in my mouth and ill never buy another okuma... ive got a mazak since then that does the same work and it has been flawless

Like i said in my first post mine could just be a lemon i dont know, but others do seem happy with their captains, the one that i have just sucks.
My personal opinion is Mazak all the way.. but im sure there are people out there that have had a mazak lemon who knows... i think its all just luck of the draw almost the same thing as when a person goes to buy a new car.

[jw12]

Thanks for the reply back straggleweed we have had good luck out of our okumas
but the captain might not be as good as the crown we have.

[Goldorak]

Thanks for the reply back straggleweed we have had good luck out of our okumas
but the captain might not be as good as the crown we have.

you can' compare a crown with a captain , the crown is realy one of the best machine on the market

we got a L1420 and this lathe is unstoppable even with .375DOC in titanium it dosen't slowed down and hold .0002 tolerence without a problem


we also got a Captain L700MW, it's a good machine too but noting to compare with the Crown , even our Cadet LNC8 is more rigid than the captain

but well tuned, the captain is capable to give you a relatively good productivity and can easily hold .0002 to .0005 tolerances

we also got an eurotech elite 4 axis lathe , he is way faster than the captain , about 15% faster for the same part , but holding .001 tolerance it's a PITA

[jw12]

you can' compare a crown with a captain , the crown is realy one of the best machine on the market

yeah our crown is unbelievable it just keeps going and going it will take some abuse.
you say the captain wont take the abuse a crown will or be as sturdy.

[Goldorak]

yeah our crown is unbelievable it just keeps going and going it will take some abuse.
you say the captain wont take the abuse a crown will or be as sturdy.

Captain is a good machine but very fragile , simply break an insert and you can misalign the holder , the VDI turret is very fast but also very fragile , you can't run it at full speed with some M-tool attachment , the holders are too heavy for the speed of the turret and the encoder tend to loose the angular position

but even at 50% it's freaking fast

i fond a little video that shows how fast the turret spin ant it's not even at 100%
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWPSqB99fV4&feature=related"]YouTube - Okuma Captain CNC[/ame]

on our Crown i have absolutely no fear taking a .375DOC and .02 IPR pass in some pretty hard material like 4340, but close the door before hitting the green button

[jw12]

How do you turn the turret speed down is it in the parameters

[Goldorak]

in parameter page 28 no 5 (turret index speed)

it's on a p200 control