[.xXACEXx.]

Our shop is considering the purchase of a Hwacheon Cutex 240 cnc turning center.It will be replacing another machine (another brand) that has been giving us some trouble,

So... i was wondering if anyone has had any good ,bad or just plain ugly things to say about this particular machine ? Any advice about the Hwacheon machine tool line in patricular? thanks for any help

[Gitman]

Hello,

I have a Hwacheon HiTech 200B with a 10 inch chuck. It's a good machine, not Japanese quality, but definately better than Haas. Things I wish it had are thru tool coolant, more travel in the x, and more overall power. The tool block doesn't direct the coolant spray for id boring very well, leading to cutter heat and wear. The limited x travel prevents using larger boring bars from cutter bore bottoms at x=0. That sucks if you have something deep to finish with no thru bore. And lastly, I've actually stalled the spindle getting too heavy in chromoly. Kinda disappointing, like .15 deep at .02/rev. It's no brute, but it will cut aluminum or plastic all day and night long. Great motion control with the fanuc controller. I hate the fanuc interface, too many buttons to push, but you get used to that.

regards,
gitman

[.xXACEXx.]

thanks gitman.

i was begining to wonder how many of those hwacheon machines are out there as i had not saw any reply's .so thanks for the reply,either they were working so well every one was busy making parts on them,or they were not working well at all ...and everyone was working on fixing the machines

do you have any other cnc lathes for comparison ? or have you ran other cnc lathes that you can compair it to?

anyone else have any experience with hwacheon machines in general?

thanks

[Gitman]

The Hwacheon is my first lathe in my shop. I've run Mazak and Mori's when I worked for a large company. The Japanese lathe are real production machines. Rigid, stable, power to spare. They can handle any material and the heavy cuts. Unfortunately, I was on a limited budget, and could not afford these makes. I do a lot of 6061, so the Hwacheom works great for that. Good repeatability, cuts it all day long. If I did more chromo or tougher alloys, i'd be hating it because of the light cuts and slow feeds I would need to use. It all comes down to how you plan to run it, what materials you plan to run, and what you expect as acceptable output.

[shibi]

Just noticed this thread ... a little late but I figured a late reply is better than nothing.

We've had a Hwacheon CUTEX 160 in our shop since July 08. Great machine, built well (even the sheet metal work is heavy duty) but like Gitman mentioned, it's nowhere close to the quality of the Japanese machines (this is primarily seen in the main metal castings), but overall it's better built than a HAAS SL10/SL20 (I've used both of those). Compared to our Fanuc Robodrills the difference in the quality of the castings is night and day. Our primary concern is the overall size of the machine since we have limited space in the shop, otherwise would have gone with the CUTEX 240.

Our Hwacheon holds about 5 micron (0.005mm/0.0002") and is repeatable to that level. We do heavy cuts in both SS and and Cr-Mo with no issues. The lathe is used to run thousands of small to mid sized components for the stuff that comes off our VMC's.

The only work that has been needed on the machine is about 2" rubber seal pulling out of the back way cover about a month after delivery. The entire way cover seal was replaced under warranty.

-S

[.xXACEXx.]

we got the machine ,have not used it alot so far , it seems to work fine ,one of the few problems we have noticed is when we run graphics as the machine goes home (after end of program),in graphics.it actually runs to the center of the chuck face like that was its home position not the machine home (upper right corner,or x+,z+)we tried to get it fixed...but havent got any where ,

we havent tried alot to get it fixed..as it runs fine.but you always have that in the back of your mind."will it only run into the chuck in graphics,or will it ACTUALLY run in to the chuck "

[shibi]

we got the machine ,have not used it alot so far , it seems to work fine ,one of the few problems we have noticed is when we run graphics as the machine goes home (after end of program),in graphics.it actually runs to the center of the chuck face like that was its home position not the machine home (upper right corner,or x+,z+)we tried to get it fixed...but havent got any where ,

we havent tried alot to get it fixed..as it runs fine.but you always have that in the back of your mind."will it only run into the chuck in graphics,or will it ACTUALLY run in to the chuck "

I can see how that would worry you. I don't have the same problem on my 160.

How are your work offsets set up? Perhaps it's picking up the work offsets incorrectly and therefore displaying them incorrectly in the graphic page.

I usually run my graphics previews (or while running the program and tracing the toolpath on the screen) in the Manual Guide i screen -- works a lot better IMO.

What options did you get with the machine - perhaps we can compare notes.

[.xXACEXx.]

to be honest it has been a month or so since i have even ran anything on it..work load is low right now..so im on another machine,but i watch graphics in MGi also.it seems a lil more user friendly to me

but if memory serves me right (and it very seldom does)

g28 u0wo; sends the machine home at its refrence point ,i usually dont send the machine home to do a tool change..just move out to a clearance point (BUT YOU HAVE TO HAVE ALL YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW ,OR YOU CAN SMACK STUFF AROUND ) any way when i get to the end of a program (in graphics mode) the tool goes to the center of the chuck face...all other tool changes (the ones i do away from the chuck and part are shown just fine,as it will show the tool going (+) plus direction in x,z to where i told it to go even while in graphics

hmm the guy that set it up said he set g54 at the center of the chuck face at least i think so any way (gosh i have a terrible memory ) so i wonder if he set a parameter wrong so that when drawing tool path (only) ,it picks up the wrong fixture offset and goes to the chuck instead of home..i have not messed with the parameters any....easy to screw something up there....

maybe ill get a chance to mess with it some tommorrow,as right now i cant even remember what control it has maybe a fanuc oitc ? (<---not sure on that, just guessing)