Citizen Miyano RL-01

The Citizen Miyano RL-01 is a very small fixed-headstock CNC lathe for workpieces up to 10 mm in diameter and 50 mm long. A 0.4 kW inverter motor drives the spindle over a 360 - 6,000 rpm range, and work is held in a pull-type collet chuck as standard, with a 3-inch pneumatic diaphragm chuck offered as an option.

Everything about the machine is scaled to that envelope. The machine body weighs 700 kg, stands 1,430 mm high and needs 1,210 mm×985 mm of floor, and the spindle centre sits 1,050 mm above the floor, a comfortable working height for loading small parts by hand. Front drilling goes to 5 mm in diameter and front tapping to M5.

Tools are carried on a horizontal linear turret with 4 tools mounted as standard. Turning tools have 10 mm square shanks and drills fit a 16 mm diameter shank. The slide travels 170 mm in X and 80 mm in Z; the long X stroke is what moves the tools on the linear layout past the spindle, while the short Z stroke matches the 50 mm part length.

The 0.4 kW motor is the figure to weigh up. On diameters of 10 mm and below it is enough for finishing and light roughing, and 6,000 rpm keeps surface speed reasonable on small work, but it rules out heavy stock removal. The RL-01 suits a cell making small precision turned parts in quantity rather than a general-purpose lathe.