I went the other day to the opening of the XYZ showroom in Huddersfield to have a look in real life at the RLX1630 and the RLX355 lathe.
Although I have bought numerous CNC machines in my working life, they were all big industrial machines and I was never hands on any way. So, the CNC step for my workshop now that I’m retired is a new learning challenge, which is what I want. I don’t need one, I want one!
On my wish list I have the desire to move from my trusty and very capable Colchester Student to a CNC lathe. I’m after something I can use as a manual machine (comfort blanket that I can still make stuff) program interactively at the machine for quick and easy jobs and one that will also take CAD For the more sophisticated complex stuff that is hard / very time consuming to make manually.
The XYZ Proto Trak interface appears to be very easy to get along with, and after talking with the apps engineer who programmed the machine and made a part for me to my quick spec seemed very easy. In fact, it seemed to meet all of my bucket list requirements.
I’ve talked to HAAS about their TL-1 tool room lathe, and again, their interface seems to be very similar in its capability / ease of use when I had a demo. Nice machines I thought.
The XYZ runs on traditional ways, where as the HAAS uses linear rails. According to XYZ the ways offer greater rigidity than linear rails due to more surface contact than, and are more expensive to produce. They use Turcite to reduce wear stated machines are still accurate with little wear after 20 years of production 8 hours / 5 days And so far they have never needed to replace the Turcite on machines in the UK??. Anyone any views?
Now, this is a hobby machine…..so secondhand it will be……unless I win the lottery!
Anyone any industrial (or hobby) experience of XYZ machines, HAAS or any other tool room size lathes that I should be considering? I’m interested in how reliable they are, accuracy, wear, things to look out for when buying one secondhand.
Although I have bought numerous CNC machines in my working life, they were all big industrial machines and I was never hands on any way. So, the CNC step for my workshop now that I’m retired is a new learning challenge, which is what I want. I don’t need one, I want one!
On my wish list I have the desire to move from my trusty and very capable Colchester Student to a CNC lathe. I’m after something I can use as a manual machine (comfort blanket that I can still make stuff) program interactively at the machine for quick and easy jobs and one that will also take CAD For the more sophisticated complex stuff that is hard / very time consuming to make manually.
The XYZ Proto Trak interface appears to be very easy to get along with, and after talking with the apps engineer who programmed the machine and made a part for me to my quick spec seemed very easy. In fact, it seemed to meet all of my bucket list requirements.
I’ve talked to HAAS about their TL-1 tool room lathe, and again, their interface seems to be very similar in its capability / ease of use when I had a demo. Nice machines I thought.
The XYZ runs on traditional ways, where as the HAAS uses linear rails. According to XYZ the ways offer greater rigidity than linear rails due to more surface contact than, and are more expensive to produce. They use Turcite to reduce wear stated machines are still accurate with little wear after 20 years of production 8 hours / 5 days And so far they have never needed to replace the Turcite on machines in the UK??. Anyone any views?
Now, this is a hobby machine…..so secondhand it will be……unless I win the lottery!
Anyone any industrial (or hobby) experience of XYZ machines, HAAS or any other tool room size lathes that I should be considering? I’m interested in how reliable they are, accuracy, wear, things to look out for when buying one secondhand.
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