[EricMFG]

Hi All,

I’m currently employed at a job shop call ERW Inc. In Putnam CT, (the nicest shop I ever worked in). We work with a lot of different materials from plastics, aluminum, mild to harden steel, stainless steel, Inconel, Hastelloy, and C-276. We are looking to purchase a new machine and looking at the Okuma Genos M460-VE. Has anyone on here used one? I was looking to get some user feedback on the controls, quality, after sales support and functionality. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks In advance,
Eric

[Manuman]

I have been a machinist for 25 year and ran ever control under the sun. The Okama controls are one of the most cumbersome controls out there and if you are trying to run a probe, good luck. Depending on your territory, service is little to be desired. I would ask your rep for a customer list.

[Algirdas]

Check the machine specification if it's enough for stainless and other hard materials. We have some clients in area, who are working on 560 with stainless. 460 is really good for aluminum, plastic and so on.

[fordav11]

I have been a machinist for 25 year and ran ever control under the sun. The Okama controls are one of the most cumbersome controls out there and if you are trying to run a probe, good luck. Depending on your territory, service is little to be desired. I would ask your rep for a customer list.

there would be hardcore Okuma guys here that would disagree but having also worked and programmed every control on the market and having around 26 years CNC experience I have to agree that Okuma controls are over-complicated and under-tested and some particular models have below average machine build and/or design problems (as stated by many people in several posts on this forum). We have several Okumas and they are always breaking down and having issues (they are fairly new too). If you check on this forum you will see Macturn/Multus etc have well documented known faults that have not really been addressed on later models. As far as I know the only reason the company went with Okuma was the service. Our local Okuma people are very prompt and do a great job but when you sell machines that are unreliable you have to have good service or you don't sell machines. That still doesn't make a compelling reason to buy Okuma in my opinion.

[Manuman]

When ever I was buying a machine the first thing I look at is construction of machine, then the company that backs it and then the learning curve . I have taken guys from mazak and put them on a G code machine and they are lost as a duck. The same is true from Okuma to a fanuc based machine. Haas to some degree is the same but not to bad. I think the biggest error machine builders did was make them street friendly. You don't really need to know what you are doing to really run it. Quick and simple often refer to limited and simplistic. Like the rest of society we have dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Far to many young machinist call themselves machinist and really don't understand what really is going on. Which brings me to my final answer, I will always stand behind Mori and the Ellison Technologies team. They are the only full service cradle to grave company . And I can promise you, any of your operators that run a Mori, will look down on almost every other machine in the shop.

[EricMFG]

We have 6 Fanuc Robodrills, 7 Totally rebuilt Prototraks, and 2 Mazak lathes and a Haas. As far as proprietary controls it's hard finding people that can run and program them in our case Mazatrol. I'm a mill and late guy and know basic G code and some conversational controls. I must say Mazatrol is nice and with shop floor programming and back ground programming I can program the next job while parts are being made and even back plot the new program while parts are being made. If you make a mistake Mazatrol even lets you know where in the program.


I did notice all the new entry level Japanese machines are bolt together castings with linear guide ways, pretty much how Haas builds their machines. The Okuma has what looks like large looking casting, but I'm pretty sure it's all air in the middle. I would rather a one piece solid casting with full box ways.

Here is one of my choices it’s a Quaser machine that I know little about and it has Fanuc OMD style controls. Check it out let me know what you think? QUASER MACHINE TOOLS, INC.


A few years back I had a large Yang VMC with Fanuc 6 OMD controls. The OMD was the bare minimum to run a machine and it had very little running memory. The controls were very clunky to say the least. The machine would get stuck doing a tool change. I would have to enter a tool change manually get the tool changer back to tool one, then I would have to enable PWE mode go into the parameters tell the control what tool it was on and what tool was next and last. Most of the time the pot numbers never matched what tool the machine thought it had in the spindle, it was an umbrella style tool changer so had to load tools threw the spindle anyways. The OMD controls wouldn't let me copy paste the tool height into the tool offset page, and you couldn't just simply courser over a tool height and CAN the tool offsets to delete them. I did notice the Quaser machine has Fanuc MD controls wonder if it's like the OMD that I was complaining about above, the bare minimum to run the machine?

[Manuman]

You might want to check out Mori's CAPS programming system. More canned options then Mazatrol, less key strokes per program, background edit, and post out in G code to optimize the program. Also keep in mind that Mori has a standard 2 year warranty and a 10 year/ 24 parts ship guaranty.

[underthetire]

I'd look at the new mori nvx myself. May be priced higher, but will love those materials, especially if you go 50 taper.

[Manuman]

I would agree with Underthetire the NVX is in a class by itself. Value and pay back far out weights the cost.

[EricMFG]

Far as what the sales person said the DMG has Mitsubishi controls not sure if that's the CAPS? We were looking at the DMG 635 V ecoline. A sales person from Toyota is stopping by tomorrow and OKK sent some brochures. Anyone have experience with Toyota or OKK?

Here is the thing with DMG factory service personal are out of Chicago and service calls are answered out of Chicago as well, keep in mind the time difference. If something really goes wrong with the machine we have to fly someone here and put them up in a hotel. If he doesn't have the right parts now we have to wait until they are shipped to us.


When we started talking about machines my first pick was a Kitamura Mycenter 3ix but they start at 240,000 or Mutsuura I'm sure are the same price as the Kitamura. I guess both Kitamura and Mutsuura offer a twain made entry level but the Kitamura starts at 140,000. Our criteria originally was we need a machine to 30" inches on the X axis, Cat 40 tooling, chip conveyor, and spindle threw coolant. After adding the options to the Kitamura the price jumped to somewhere around 180,000 for the entry level and 280,000 plus for the Japanese Kitamura. Kitamura is my favorite machine by far, as you might be able to tell. I have a 1992 Mycenter 1, Full 4 axis. I owned the machine for 5 years now and it runs every day without one problem never breaks down, full massive box ways and one piece casting, big castings around the spindle, 13,000 rpm spindle.

Okuma came in with an offer that is hard to pass up. A 40" X axis travels for the same price as a 30". Okuma is coming to us with a control to show us how it works and training. Okuma offered us three days of training and free training visits up to a year. I'm sure a lot of the perks offered are from the dealer.