Citizen Cincom R04-VI

The Citizen Cincom R04-VI is a small-diameter sliding-headstock lathe for work up to 4 mm dia., with 40 mm of machining length on a fixed guide bushing or 30 mm on a rotary guide bushing. Both spindles turn at max. 20,000 rpm. It is the larger of Citizen's two R-series micro lathes; the other, the Cincom R01-VI, stops at 1 mm dia. and 20 mm of length.

The guide bushing choice is a real trade on this machine. The fixed bushing gives the full 40 mm, the rotary bushing 10 mm less. A rotary bushing turns with the bar and is generally chosen when bar straightness or tolerance would make a fixed bushing bind; on the R04-VI that comes at the cost of a quarter of the length, so long pins are better planned for the fixed setup.

At 4 mm dia. there is room for real features at both ends. The main spindle is listed for 3 mm dia. drilling and M3 threading with tap or die. On the back spindle the part is held in a chuck of up to 4 mm dia. with up to 10 mm protruding, and the back machining figures are again 3 mm dia. drilling and M3 tapping. Gang rotary tools add cross work to 2 mm dia. and M2 at max. 8,000 rpm. The spindle bore is 10 mm dia.

Power is modest throughout. The spindle and back spindle motors are each 0.5/0.75 kW, the tool spindle 0.1 kW and the coolant pump 0.06 kW, for a 3.4 kVA requirement and 1.6 kVA average under load. 17 tools can be mounted, with 8 mm Sq. turning tools and 15.875 mm dia. sleeves, and X1 rapids at 30 m/min. The machine weighs 1,100 kg with a centre height of 1,000 mm.