CNC Brand Profiles

Nakamura-Tome: The Lathe Company That Added Turrets Instead of Tonnage

Nakamura-Tome started in 1949 with one turning center and a drilling machine in Kanazawa. Seventy-seven years later it still builds turning machines, but the ones in its current catalog can carry two spindles and three turrets. It grew by putting more tools on the lathe rather than building bigger lathes, and that choice shapes what to look for when you buy one used.

Put it next to Johnford, which also started on lathes and went the other way, into bridge mills and a portal machining center roughly 89 feet long. Two builders, one starting point, opposite directions. What follows is how Nakamura-Tome got from one lathe to three turrets, how to read the model names, and what to check before you buy one.

Nakamura-Tome at a Glance

1949: One Turning Center and a Drilling Machine

Tomeo Nakamura founded Nakamura-Tome Iron Works with his wife in Kanazawa in 1949. By the company's own account it started with one turning center and one drilling machine. By 1956 it had moved to a bigger factory and grown to about 60 people, and in December 1960 it incorporated as Nakamura-Tome Precision Industry Co., Ltd., with Tomeo Nakamura as president.

Its first announced product came in 1962: a hydraulic groove turning center. The following year the factory moved to the location the company still occupies.

1965: The Turret Arrives

In June 1965 the company introduced a hydraulic automatic turret lathe. A turret lathe carries several tools on an indexing head so one setup can run a sequence of operations, and the idea carries straight through to the CNC turret on a modern turning center. We covered why that jump mattered in the turret lathe and the jump from one tool to many.

Nakamura-Tome's NT-5 automatic turret lathe was certified as an Ishikawa Manufacturing Industry Heritage in October 2011. For a company whose whole catalog is now organized by how many turrets a machine carries, that is a fitting machine to have certified as heritage.

1971 to 1985: Exports, NC, and a Service Network Abroad

The company began exporting to the United States and Australia in 1971. In June 1972 it announced an automatic lens grinding machine, which received an award from the Medium and Small Business Research Institute, the start of a glass processing business it still runs alongside its machine tools.

Its first NC turning center, the ATM-4M, was unveiled at JIMTOF in Osaka in October 1974. A year later, in October 1975, it opened overseas service stations in Chicago, Los Angeles and Hamburg. An American shop could buy a Nakamura-Tome and get it serviced in the United States by the mid 1970s.

In April 1982 it introduced the TMC-5LAM, which the company describes as a CNC integrated center combining machining and turning. The Emperor of Japan visited the factory in May 1983, and in 1985 the company announced its FA series for labor-saving automation.

1988: Two Spindles, Two Turrets

In April 1988 Nakamura-Tome completed the TW-20, a twin-spindle, twin-turret CNC turning center built for simultaneous machining. The same year, Kenichi Nakamura became president and Tomeo Nakamura became chairman.

The layout is the key to the brand. Two spindles face each other. The part is machined on the first, handed across to the second, and machined on its other end, so it can come off the machine finished on both sides. Two turrets mean two tools can cut at once. The company's current product copy describes the result plainly: simultaneous cutting with upper and lower tools on left and right opposed spindles for balanced processes and faster cycle times.

That is the same argument we made about output per operator in the answer to the labor shortage has two spindles. Nakamura-Tome was building that machine in 1988.

Johnford answered the question of what to do after the lathe by making the machine bigger. Nakamura-Tome answered it by putting more tools on the same lathe. Thirty-eight years after the TW-20, its catalog is still organized around that answer.

2000: Then It Added a Milling Spindle

In May 2000 the company introduced the STW-40, which it called a Super Multi-Tasking Machine: twin spindles and twin turrets, plus a tool spindle and an automatic tool changer. The same combination, turning spindles working alongside a milling spindle with its own tool magazine, defines today's JX, MX and NTRX families.

The current NTRX-300, for example, lists a B-axis swiveling range of 225 degrees and a 40-tool magazine, with 60, 80 and 120 tools optional. It is the kind of machine we described in Done In One: raw stock in, finished part out, without a second setup on a second machine.

Still in Ishikawa

The company earned ISO 9001 in 1994 and ISO 14001 in 1998. Kenichi Nakamura was appointed chairman of the Japan Machine Tool Builders' Association in 2005. Assembly Plant 11 was completed in 2006, a factory in Daegu, South Korea on a 19,000 square meter site in 2012, and Assembly Plant 12 with a large-scale processing plant equipped with 5-face machines in 2015.

Today the company is led by president Shogo Nakamura. Its profile lists 631 employees, net sales of 26.1 billion yen for fiscal 2023, and a head office site in Hakusan of 128,000 square meters with 46,000 square meters of floor space and more than 150 machines. In July 2025 it acquired the Nakamura-Tome business, including employees, from its German distributor Hommel GmbH, to sell and service directly in Europe.

The Other Business: Glass

Nakamura-Tome is not only a machine tool company. After the 1972 lens grinding machine it launched an LCD glass grinding system, the NCF-500, in 1993, and in 2010 a cover glass processing machine for smartphones, the NMPG-150. Its company profile still lists glass processing machines, including lens processing machines, as part of the business.

It matters to a machine buyer only as context: this is a company that has spent decades building machines for precise material removal, whether the material is steel bar or glass.

The Lineup in Shop Language

Nakamura-Tome organizes its current machine tool catalog by layout, and every Nakamura-Tome lathe in it falls into one of these families. Here is what each one actually is.

How to Read a Nakamura-Tome Model Name

The letters tell you the layout. Before you look at any number, the family letters tell you how many turrets the machine has and whether it carries a milling spindle. An SC is a single-turret lathe. A WT is two turrets on opposed spindles. An NTY3 is three turrets. An NTRX has a tool spindle and a magazine. Those are very different machines, and the letters are a quick way to sort a listing.

An L means a longer distance between the spindles. Every L and non-L pair on the current catalog bears it out.

A II marks a later model carrying an earlier name. The current catalog lists an SC-200II; the 2010 machine in our inventory is an SC-200 without the II. When a listing leaves the II off, confirm which one you are looking at.

The number is not the turning diameter. This is the trap. On the current catalog the SC-300II turns up to 360 mm in diameter, while the smaller-numbered SC-200II turns up to 390 mm. The WT-100 and WT-150II share the same 190 mm maximum turning diameter. A bigger number does not guarantee a bigger part. Read the specification sheet.

The Ladder, by Turret Count

Published figures from Nakamura-Tome's current product pages.

The pattern is worth noticing. Adding turrets does not make the part bigger. The three-turret NTY3-250 turns a smaller maximum diameter than the single-turret SC-200II. What the extra turrets buy is more tools cutting at once and fewer setups, which is the whole point of the brand.

How the Machines Are Built

Nakamura-Tome's product copy gives specific construction details model by model rather than a general claim. The SC-200II is described as a high-rigidity slant bed with box-way slides. The NTRX-300's slides are described as a vertical column structure mounted on a high-rigidity horizontal machine bed with a low center of gravity. The TW-30 uses a non-lift, servo-driven turret, and its right spindle takes the part in a direct transfer controlled by servo motor torque.

The WT-150II lists up to 26 kW of cutting power available for turning shaft work with the two spindles synchronized, combining its 15/11 kW left and 11/7.5 kW right spindle motors, with two 5.5/3.7 kW milling motors and up to 48 tools.

Controls

Nakamura-Tome markets an operating interface called NT smartX on current machines such as the WT-150II. On the used market, what matters is the control underneath, and it varies by machine and year. The two Nakamura-Tome machines in our inventory both run Fanuc: the 2015 NTRX-300 has a Fanuc 31i-B5, and the 2010 SC-200 has a Fanuc 21iTB. Identify the exact control on any machine you are considering, because on a machine coordinating two spindles and several turrets, the control generation matters a great deal.

U.S. Presence and Support

Nakamura-Tome began exporting to the United States in 1971 and opened its own service stations in Chicago and Los Angeles in 1975. Today its machines are sold in the United States through Methods Machine Tools. In a July 2014 announcement, Methods was described as the exclusive U.S. importer of Nakamura-Tome multitasking machines for more than thirty years, and that year it took over direct representation in Northern California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

In Our Inventory

Two Nakamura-Tome machines are in Resell CNC inventory as this is written: a single-turret lathe and a B-axis multitasking machine, the simplest and most complex layouts in the catalog.

Inventory changes, so check the brand page for what is on the floor today.

What to Check When Buying a Used Nakamura-Tome

Decode the layout first. On any used Nakamura-Tome lathe, the family letters tell you the turret count and whether there is a milling spindle. Price a WT against WTs, not against an SC.

Check both spindles and the handoff. On a twin-spindle machine the transfer from the first spindle to the second is the heart of the process. Run a part through the transfer and confirm both spindles run true and the handoff is repeatable.

Check every turret, not just one. Index each turret through every station, check live tool drives on each, and confirm the Y-axis travel on every turret that has one. On an NTY3 that means three turrets, not one.

On B-axis and ATC machines, check the head and the magazine. Swing the B-axis through its full range, run the tool changer through every pocket, and ask for tool spindle hours if the control records them.

Look for collision history. Two spindles and several turrets share a small working envelope, so check for crash marks on the turrets, chucks and sheet metal, and ask directly whether the machine has had a crash.

Confirm the model and the length. Check for the II and the L. A machine with an L has a longer distance between spindles, and the II marks a later model.

Then the usual list: control generation and whether it is still supported, ballscrew backlash, way condition, bar feeder interface if you run bar work, and the parts catcher and tool presetter if they are part of the deal.

Resell CNC Take

A Nakamura-Tome is bought for what it removes from the process: the second setup, the second machine, the operator walking parts between them. Read the family letters before the number, remember that a higher number is not always a bigger part, and spend your inspection time on the second spindle and every turret, because that is where the machine earns its price. A company that has spent seventy-seven years on the lathe knows where to put the tools.

Frequently Asked Questions