I am considering the purchase of a new ProtoTrak 1630HSSX lathe and wanted some opinions about these machines. We have small quantities to run and it would be nice to program at the machine. I also like the Traking wheels which seem to be a great feature for prototypes.
Please let me know if you have one, and what you like or dislike about it.
Thanks,
Mad-Hungarian
We have had one for over a year now.
Very accurate, very solid. I would say it cuts metal the same as a harrison400 or colchester 2500 manual machine to compare against.
We have had a couple of bad points.
1. The x axis guard fell off (it's a sliding guard that slides within another guard) which gauged up the turcite. It effectively added another oilway!
We modified it so it couldn't happen again, and xyz (UK Importer) said the factory would incorporate our mod on future builds.
2. Coolant leak from the swarf tray. We cured this by lengthening the return pipe that guides the coolant from the swarf tray back into the main tank, by attaching some rubber hose to the pipe. This stopped it from tracking back up and along the underside of the swarf tray and dripping on the floor.
On the whole we love the machine.
We looked at the Haas and colchester machines as well, before making our decision.
We didn't like the haas because it was way too low, and the apron handwheel was a joke. You have to be on your knees to turn it!
We didn't like the fanuc control, because it was nowhere as easy as the prototrak.
We bought a mill at the same time, and it is easy jumping from one to the other as the controls are virtually identical.
If you get one, you'll have no regrets.
Thanks for the e-mail! We have a Haas SL20 and it does a decent job on most items and material. Have you ever tried to hard turn on your ProtoTrak? We do alot of hard turning and I was wondering if the ProtoTrak could handle it.
We appreciate your input!
Regards,
Mad-Hungarian
Hi,
We haven't done hard turning ie cbn/pcd stuff, but have turned hard materials ie the shank of HSS cutters with no problems.
I wouldn't have thought it to be a problem, but get a demo on a machine to trial some components first.
One thing I would say is that our machine is a 1630, 8" chuck and 2500 rpm.
I just realised you are looking at the 6" chuck higher speed machine which i haven't seen.....
We are in the UK, and our machine is sold by XYZ Machine tools (owned by southwestern ind).
I have been told that the machine is shipped to the UK from usa, although i'm not 100% convinced.
The machine is definately a taiwanese carcus, and XYZ fit the ball screws and prototrak control.
The machine is made (by memory) by Whylie? They have a web site, I'll post the web address when I'm at work tomorrow.
Ours is 7.5HP, with 4 v belts for drive. The chuck can be stalled, as it is not a gear box or toothed belt.
The min rpm is 150, which I think could drop to 100 with no major issues, but the minimum programmable speed is 150 (unfortunately).
As an example of what it can do, we machine a 270mm dia 17/4ph stainless disk, facing off 4mm as a pre-op to the cnc mills.
We run at 80m/min surface speed, take 1mm depth of cut, feed at 0.25mm/rev using a sandvik rckt 12mm button tool. Press go, and walk away for 1/4 hour getting on with something else while it's cutting.
Also, we have a 'convensional' quick change tool post. We looked at a 4 station auto, but quickly decided against is becasue we couldn't then hold a 25mm dia boring bar to beast a hole with!
Remember, it is a very very fast machine for 1 offs/tooling, and low batch and second opping work.
It isn't a cnc production lathe.
http://www.microweily.com.tw/111.htm
Web address for the 1630 manufacturer
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