[cncsdr]

Have 20000 and want to get first cnc lathe choices mainly seem to be hitachi seiki, haas , mazak, daewoo of course all mid 1990's models will be doing 30,000 piece powdwered metal secondary work any thoughts are apprieciated thanks.

[hoghead]

Hitachi Seiki,
Good machine, unfortunately they are out of business so if it breaks you are out of luck getting it fixed. That’s not really true, you can still get them fixed but if you need parts it can be a problem. We still repair them but most of the time we have to custom make repair parts and it gets expensive. Mori Seiki took over the line. If you find a new enough Hitachi it might still be supported. Best to be safe and check with Mori before buying.

Haas,
Not the best machine ever built but a great value! I recommend a Haas unless you’re machining really tough material (Stainless, Incanol) or trying to hold very tight tolerances. Parts and service are available and not to expensive.

Mazak,
Good machine, I would worry that if you were to find one in the same price range as the others that it would be really worn out. If a Mazak was in good condition it should sell for a lot more money.

Daewoo,
Probably the worst built machine of the ones you’ve listed. I wouldn’t buy one but I have customers that have them and like them. Because of the quality of the machine you will probably get the newest and best looking machine for your money but not the best machine.

What ever machine you do buy try to buy one with a Fanuc control. Any Fanuc control that has a CRT (monitor). Some of the early Fanuc’s didn’t have a monitor and they are useless. All the others with a monitor can still be repaired and parts are available. Fanuc is far and away the most popular control on the market. You should be able to find people to run them, program them and repair them. If you buy the HAAS you will have a HAAS control on it.

There are a lot of different options on CNC lathes, live tooling, programmable or power tail stock, the ability to thread, power or manual chuck, bar feeder. The list goes on and on. Do your home work and think about what you need to make your product.
Way condition is a good indication of how much use the machine has seen. The lower saddle ways close to the chuck are always worn the most, you might have to remove a way cover but it is worth the effort. I’m not sure if you know what a box way machine is but you need to. Most of the used machines you will be looking at in this price range will be 10 to 20 years old. Quite a few machines from this era used box type ways with Turcite bonded to them. Turcite if you don’t know is brass impregnated nylon that is bonded to one part of the machine and rubs against the metal on the other part when the machine moves. This Turcite is bonded using a special epoxy. The epoxy that is used has a life of between 20 and 25 years so if the machine you buy has Turcite and it is 20 years old you will be looking for another machine in the next 5 years (the cost to replace Turcite correctly is between $12,000.00 and $25,000.00). It is usually not worth replacing Turcite on this type of machine.
On the other hand a machine with linear ways is not as stiff as the box way machine but it is capable of doing 80 percent of the production work out there. If linear ways wear out they are easy and a lot less expensive to replace. Also linear ways don’t have a shelf life.

I hope this helps