Mori Seiki Training SL2500
Category : Mori Seiki
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Mori Seiki SL2500 I worked on these machines when they were new circa 2006, yes that’s how long I’ve been doing this stuff.
These machines can be real work horses and they are very affordable now. Yes a new one would be great, but if you are like me a new one of these is worth more than your family home.
The control is Misubishi MSG 805 very similar to Fanuc except maybe easier to edit. Oh and there are quite a few extra functions.
Mori Seiki Training SL 2500
Anyway this one was loads of fun. It’s got a Y axis a sub spindle and driven tools . Both spindles can become a C axis which means you can mill both ends of your part, nice.
Like all the machines I work on you start with a few niggling things like knowing what order it wants you to press the bloody buttons.
Like the one above you have to hold this button in whenever you want to move the machine around with the doors open, you also need the key switch in RELEASE position.
The “INTERLOCK RELEASED” light above will flash as long as you satisfy both conditions.
Mori Seiki Training
The button above is to open the door. This key switch is to restrict editing. With it fully left what can you do? Basically fuckall.
You can’t even use the overriders the only thing you can do is cycle start. It’s ideal if you want your grandma to operate the machine or in fact anyone over 90. Go ahead it’s completely safe.
So if you have a grandma with no Mori Seiki Training at all off you go.
Fully right and you can edit, the other two are when you want to run in MDI or program.
Do people actually fuck with these keys? Personally I’d rather just access all areas and at all times than to have to keep moving a key. Not to mention being punished every time I try and do something with the sodding thing in the wrong position.
Mori Seiki Training
Train people properly is the answer.
Now I know someone who can give Mori Seiki Training.
Manually running the spindle is a bit unusual on this machine but I did kind of grow to like it.
Avocados & Mori Seiki Training
A bit like avocados. I remember as a teenager I worked as a waiter in a posh restaurant and they had them on the menu. Now unless the chip shop did em coated in batter then I would never have heard of them.
The first person to order one from me got a traditional Dutch alcoholic beverage made from eggs, sugar, and brandy from me.
Advocat that is. I remember my grandmother having it at Christmas. She would scrape her empty glass with her index finger and lick it so as not to waste a drop of the precious liquid.
Anyway first time I tasted an avocado I thought it tasted a bit weird. It’s kind of not what you expect. Anyway I carried on eating them mainly to impress my superiority on my working class friends. Guess what, I woke up one day, I remember it as if it were yesterday, liking them, and I’ve never been the same.
Switch to a manual mode then press the direction you want. As you increase the percentage it will be a percentage of maximum speed (4000) so 10% gives you 400 rpm. For the arithmetically challenged just read off the speed on the screen. No one is judging you it’s OK. We already knew you were stupid.
B axis, Y axis, where the fuck are the buttons.
So random on this Mori Seiki. Why the fuck don’t Mori Seiki ask me where to put these buttons? For a small fee I’ll advise.
Right at the top of the control is the B axis.
Mori Seiki Training
Now when I grow up and I make CNC machines, guess what, my revolutionary idea is.
To put all the axis buttons together you know like, in the same place. How cool would that be.
Sub-Spindle Mori Seiki Training
Programming the sub-spindle is awkward as your Z is now in the plus direction when you machine the part.
Beware it’s easy to get this wrong. It’s the same on most machines so don’t moan you need to suck it up and learn to live with it. Stop moaning it’s getting boring.
The part pickup from the sub spindle is relatively easy. My tip on this is to add loads of comments to the code especially for all those M codes. That way when it crashes at least you’ll know why.
MDI
Now you might think this is a fuss about nothing but one of my absolute old man rage type things is when you want to quickly change tools in MDI and you have to put in a fuckin EOB (end of block) or you get an alarm.
When I’m training people they often say “why is that”. My usual retort is “don’t ask me, you prick. I didn’t make this pile of shit you just bought at auction cos your boss is too mean to buy a new one”
Guess what on this Mori Seiki you don’t need to.
T0101, input, cycle start and it works. Well done Mrs Mitsubishi. Saved me milliseconds. Not to mention wearing out the semi colon key.
Compound Y Axis Mmmmm
Can never get my head around these. Because the bed is slanted when you move Y the X moves to compensate. Nothing to worry about there, well maybe not.
Ah what about when you need to clock in the rotary tools to get em bang on centre. This frustrated the holy shit out of me because when you move Y the fuckin X moves and when you use the measure function it gets it all wrong.
Now if you think I’m going to tell you some clever way to do this on this Mori Seiki SL 2500 Lathe, well you’re on a rocker because I don’t know.
You need someone clever for that kind of Mori Seiki Training.
I managed to get them correct but if I had to do it again I’d probably google it and then find this article. I recon in the manual it will say “frig about till you get it right”.
Mori Seiki Lathe Reference Return
You also need to reference the Y axis when X is away from zero return. Don’t forget to do the B Axis too.
People often ask me about the C axis but you don’t need to reference this until you connect it then you program G28 H0, H being incremental for C. Same on all lathes with a C axis.
Tool Measurement
This has a tool arm that pops out and one of those annoying ones that you have to plug in at the rear.
The annoying one is for measuring the tools on the sub spindle. Before measuring these make sure you press the spindle 2 button
The offset will automatically go to 16 more than the tool for example T0101 will become T0117. Guess what I made a video.
I make no apologies for the quality of this video.
Why should I? You are not paying me you know.
Beware
It will jump to the correct position in the offset table. If you are in spindle 1 then it will go to T0101 which will be a big problem.
So select the correct spindle with these buttons.
It is great when the tool arm pops out, like in a Bond Movie where they have a secret room. I must admit when I first got to the machine I couldn’t remember where it was.
Kept thinking “where the fuck is this thing”. Then it just popped out completely unannounced. Well I did press the button but you know what I mean. Again you have to fulfil all the conditions before it will show it’s pretty face. In the 1990’s you could fulfil the criteria for a £300,000 mortgage quicker than you could fulfil the conditions to whip this thing out.
This arm is a bit like your cock you can’t just whip it out anywhere. Difference is you don’t get arrested for getting the tool arm of a Mori Seiki out in public.
This is tricky, it’s another one of those “let’s really piss off the operator” type things.
Mori Seiki Training
You must be at zero return in X and Z and there must be an R in the month. When I was a child they used to say that you couldn’t eat pork unless there was an R in the month. Strange, maybe it was because no one had a fridge, oh except for my mate, now they had shit loads of money, they even went to France for a holiday, oh and he wore Clarke’s shoes.
By the way the Y must also be at zero return too. Oh and the B axis.
Also on this Mori Seiki the door conditions have to be correct too, easiest is just close it.
Both front and rear work on the same principle.
Use this button to whip out the tool arm.
One Other Thing
Don’t move Y while the arm is out, it creates an absolute shit storm and you can’t move anything ever again.
Local Subroutine
This is a bit different to Fanuc.
M98 H1000 would jump to N1000 internally so you could dump this after the M30 in your program. Fanuc local sub routines.
Love it.
Turret Index Mori Seiki SL 2500
Select your tool and push here. Scorchingly fast and it’s a big heavy lump. Make sure tools are well clear or you will shit your white underpants. It’s fast. Oh and you can do it anywhere. I mean index the turret you fool not shitting yourself.
Don’t you think the logic is rather strange, you have all this safety stuff, “don’t do this don’t do that”
Index turret “no mate do wherever you please” feel free to smash your machine to bits, it’s all cool, just press here.
Driven Tools
You can have these in any station and there is a handy cover plate to protect the hole left when not in use.
Don’t forget to go to the setting screen to tell the machine what tool is where.
You don’t need to reverse tools or anything once you set this up.
Just cursor to your tool and press the button below. It means you don’t need to reverse tools as it works out from here when to reverse them. Mori Seiki have your back covered here.
Setting Screen
In this screen you can do loads of shit.
- Set chuck od or id holding. (That took some finding).
- Void proximity switches (useful). These are the switches that tell the machine if the chuck is open or closed.
- Set rotary tools as above.
- Order a takeaway Pizza.
Editing
Some good features here
- Find and replace.
- Copy program.
- Rename program.
- Copy sections of program to a clip board.
- TOP BOTTOM buttons to quickly navigate program.
- Search function.
- Find and replace.
- Line Edit (See explanation)
Mori Seiki SL2500 Background Edit
This is really good. You can edit two programs at once . Switch between the two to copy and paste.
Simply press this CHANGE button to switch from one program to another.
Line Edit
You know when you love something but you can’t quite see a use for it. Well this control has a button you press and it takes the whole of the line you are on and places it down in the buffer.
You can then do what you want with it, anyway I like it. You could maybe use it to quickly duplicate a line.
Synchronise Spindles, C Axis
M480 will synchronise both spindles in C and reference them ready for use. This is great if you want to do a static pickup to the sub spindle. It will time the C axis together. A very useful little feature.
DATA Card
All these machines had a PCMCIA data card slot so you can save all your programs you can even run programs straight from it.
Buy an adaptor so you can use compact flash. Watch that it is not too big on memory as the machine may not recognise it.
You can connect it to your network too but I’ve never fucked with this bit so I can’t advise. Watch this space I’ll update when I do.
CAPS
Now I’m going to be honest here, which I rarely am, especially where cash is involved. But I was going to ignore the CAPS system on this control
In actual fact it’s quite useful. Mainly because it has half decent graphics so if you have one I suggest you use it.
Press the CAPS button as above then press GRAPH CHECK button, then press NC LIST and you get a list of your programs. Just input one and you get to use the graphics.
Verdict
As you would expect from an old Mori Seiki this machine can still hold tight tolerance and it’s not dog slow like some old machines.
The control panel is complex and tricky to navigate but this is a jumbo jet not a shopping trolley so there’s a lot to control.
It’s hard to imagine how you could make this simple.
Why do I always get the shopping trolley with the dicky wheel?
Another Moan
Modern machines are always a pain the arse to operate due to health and safety. There is no way around this and despite my moans I would never consider compromising any of this.
This control has great editing including stuff like copy and paste. Similar age Fanuc controls don’t have half of this shit so it’s not bad.
I love some of the little touches like being able to see the old figure when you just changed your offset.
Graphics are good again for the age of this beast. The CAPS system? Well not sure on that one. If I get more time to play with that a bit more then I’ll let you know.
Programming is very much Fanuc but has a few nice extra touches that make it easier.
Lets End On a Happy Note
No EOB needed in MDI (love that one).
o
