Okuma Conversational Control

We're shopping around for a CNC lathe and after looking at quite a few different brands seem to be leaning towards Okuma at the moment.

Anyone using or able to comment on the Okuma "Advanced One-Touch IGF" conversational control?

Pros?

Cons?

Right now we're programming our old Mori Seiki SL-5 with PC-FAPT and the person doing it would likely be the guy running a new machine. Any chance the transition from using FAPT to the Okuma control would go smoothly?

Oh, and FWIW, long time no see!

Reply to
Black Dragon
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Nobody else is saying anything, so here comes my uninformed knowledge of Okuma IGF. I have only watched as another guy used it at a shop I was in 16 years ago. He wrote most of the lathe programs on it, with a small number of programs coming from the programmer, who mostly did mill programs. He loved it, and when a new Okuma was brought in without it he asked why didn't they spend the extra to get such a useful tool. That's all I know about Okuma IGF without staying at a Holiday Inn.

Later,

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie Gary

Mazak (Mazatrol) is another one you might want to look at if you are intersted in conversational, they're pretty common so it should be easy fo find an operator that's already familiar--could shorten the learning curve a bit...

Reply to
PrecisionmachinisT

We looked at Mazak, Mori Seiki, and Okuma and have settled on Okuma. Last week anyway, things could change by the time the Okuma sales people come back to the shop on Thursday. Oh yeah, and we had Haas in long enough to laugh at them.

Personally, I'm a fan of the Mazak since I'm using a 2 month old Nexus

510C. They ordered another one of those too, but lead times are way out for Kentucky built Mazaks (the second Nexus won't be delivered until mid February 2012, nor would a lathe be) and we're in much greater need of a lathe than a mill at the moment.

The Okumas appear to be good machines and the controls as user friendly as they look on paper according to feedback I've gotten elsewhere.

Reply to
Black Dragon

From my limited Okuma lathe experience, I'd say you make a good choice on the machine tool. The control? hell its only a control. Ive used dozens & more than I'd like to forget about. Get used to it & love it! It is the only way to make that machine dance. The Okuma's I ran a few years back were late model P100 controls running +-.0002" 24/5 production. Some with sub spindles & dual carousels for simultaneous cutting & live tooling. Even the old (3yr) Captain was still a work horse. So all in in all you aint gonna beat an Okuma with a Haas,Hurco, Dawoo ect. Maybe a Mori would? IMO, now days, I would seriously consider a Y axis with live tooling. Man the job possibilities & time savings are huge! (learning curve too!)

Reply to
cncmillgil

I'm no fan of Mazak either, it's just that probably there's more people out there familiar with the Mazatrol as opposed to Okuma's conversational

--on the other hand, Okumas generally seem to be more sturdily built at least in my opinion.

Reply to
PrecisionmachinisT

Black Dragon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.alt.net:

One of my customers has several Okumas. I think all of them have IGF, not sure what "Advanced one-touch" means. I'll ask him when I see him, maybe tonight.

I know that when the company was started, the owner knew nothing about machining, much less anything about programming, and bought a new Okuma because of the IGF. Pretty much taught himself how to write programs using the IGF. Still using some of the same programs 23 years later.

Reply to
Alphonso

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