[hoganj]

Thinking about buying a 1983 Mori Seiki SL-B Turning Center for a High School Machine Shop that I teach in. Seems to be in nice condition and seller would take 10,000 for it. Thinking maybe about a Centroid retrofit maybe in the future for it. here is the machine.

Mori Seiki SL 2BH SL2 SL 2 Fanuc CNC Turning Center Lathe One Owner Nice Video | eBay

Good idea? Bad idea? Any suggestions or thoughts are appreciated. If not this I have a budget of $25,000 anybody have anything to sell. Looking for a production based turning center. We are a working machine shop, not just theory.

[underthetire]

About 4K too high IMO.

[hoganj]

About 4K too high IMO.

Just checking, did you look at the link?

[underthetire]

Yes. Looks to be clean, but it's also amazing what a re-paint will do.

So lets break it down..
Old control, 3T is a rare bird now. Retrofit would be another 5K++ to do one on the cheap side.
Machines been repainted to hide cosmetic damage
No info on squareness, no video showing any axis motion or backlash
No real safety interlocks, and it's going to be required, especially in a school.
Your taking all the safety liability writing PLC/ladder for the new control retrofit for a school.

I'd bet you could get something like this in the <15K range really easy

CNC Turning Centers: Used 1997 Okuma Cadet LNC-8 Chucker

I just passed on a 1988 Okuma LB15 for 1,800 that needed only minor repairs.

Spend more, hit up tooling guys in your area and see if they will kick down some tooling.

[hoganj]

Excelent points,thats what I am after. Actually I am very interested in an okuma like that. Most similar to what you showed me the dealers are asking $25,000 or more for that. Just having a hard time finding something within my budget.

[BlueChip]

Just something to think about ... from an old "mori man".

Older Mori's have the X axis flipped from normal ... meaning that X- is above centerline and X+ is below centerline. This is different than the norm ... and even today new Mori's are not this way ... so even they abandoned this concept.

If this is going in a high school ... I think teaching this might be confusing for the students ... not to mention it's not the norm in the "real world".

Just FYI and something to think about.

Check out the Real World machine shop / CNC software at :
Kentech Inc. - Real World Machine Shop and CNC Software

[underthetire]

Just something to think about ... from an old "mori man".

Older Mori's have the X axis flipped from normal ... meaning that X- is above centerline and X+ is below centerline. This is different than the norm ... and even today new Mori's are not this way ... so even they abandoned this concept.

If this is going in a high school ... I think teaching this might be confusing for the students ... not to mention it's not the norm in the "real world".

Just FYI and something to think about.

Check out the Real World machine shop / CNC software at :
Kentech Inc. - Real World Machine Shop and CNC Software

True, however the dealers all had ( I still have) the procedure to reverse the X axis.