Im looking to get a swiss and really like the JSL-32AB. I'm a beginning machinist (3 years now in the biz) and am looking to start a company. it will make exclusively one part in mass production. I wont be running or programming it, ill leave that up to a more experienced machinist if needed, but i need to get this part figured out.

What has been your guys experience with this machine? im clueless with high-end machines, all i know is haas and fanuc. crap good or awesome? and what price range am i looking at for a new swiss with these capabilities? thanks in advance

I don't like to rip on competitive machines, but since this has the brand awareness of the "Shanghai Rabbit" I will fire away.
It sounds as if you are new to this, per your admission. To really get the mist from your dollar, you need to really look at the big names: Citizen, Star and Tsugami. The reason? they will have the best technology, teh fastest cycle times, best accessories. The next is also the most important: the service and support offered by these builders will seriously dwarf anything these bottom tier swiss-wannabes can purport. All three build a low-cost model taht will be warrantied well and serviced by their support teams.
So many CNC Importers are trying to get into the "Swiss Turn" game and having a product to sell in order to make money. They pick up things like Jinn Fa which probably has less than 5 units ever sold in the USA. What about parts, service and anybody that remotely speaks english to help you when you need it. Trust me, stick to teh big three and make your decision based on how the support of teh dealer stacks up and works best with you and you won't go wrong.

thank you exactly what info i was looking for. next question... someone told me that it is hard to machine a part in a swiss under 40 seconds. the part im looking to make has only 5 holes drilled and tapped, no profiling or lathe work. i just want indexing capabilities and auto-bar feeding. can this be done in under 15 seconds if the part is incredibly simple or is there some loading restrictions?

If you could tell us more about the part I might be able offer some advise. Are the tapped holes on the X or Z axis, what size tapped holes and how big is the part. We have some shafts that we have 30 sec cycle times on a star SV-32 but that is just turning and no live tooling. When you add live tooling time goes up.

Carl

here is a jpg of my part. it is about .215" tall and will range in length from 2.5" to 4.5". taped holes along the shaft are usually 2=56 and the hole at the end is a 4-40. but i would like to do the end hole in a sub-spindle after it has been cut off from the main spindle. thanks

Wow. I really don't see that part being done in 15 seconds. I've seen plenty of parts done in 15 or so seconds but they were all turned only and/or the one hole was on the sub spindle. It's those tapped holes that are going to kill your time.

Yeah I agree on that is going to take more than 15 sec unless you spend a lot of money on something that works more than one tool on the same side. I think I saw on another post that you plan on using an extrusion for the profile. This isn't going to be a standard profile so plan on expensive collets/guide bushings not to mention that an automatic loading bar feeder might have problems with that particular profile. I run just round stock so that is just my personal take.

Carl

well i have the collets and bar feeder suppliers lined up for the extrusion if i can iron out the swiss thing. what kind of time frame am i look at then? i just saw how fast the swiss machines can run and figured i might have found a faster way to make it. right now there are 7 steps to make this. i want to reduce it to one or two and the swiss holds the answer if i can make it fast enough. maybe if i left the tapping for the second process? seems like that is the hold up... correct?

I would guess that the part may take a little less than a minute but I can't say for sure. Tapping the part after it is out is going to be a pain in the ass. It's better to have the machine do everything for you so you don't have to do it later. If it were me I wouldn't worry about the cycle time unless you have a daily quota to meet. The nice thing about the swiss is that you don't have to babysit them that much so if you need more time just let it run all night.

Carl