Anyone have one? I thought there was someone who was buying one, can't seem to locate the thread...
So if you have a home CNC machine, post up some detail please :)
This is the one I get to play with at work, and if I had the room in a garage, I would have one like it at home:
;D
(http://docs.google.com/viewer?pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxtaXR0ZWxzdGFkdGN8Z3g6MTIyYzhkNTUwMTdjNGJiNQ&docid=a9f6f7b7bb6efeb4d35e088157282d4f%7C27f42b3b96d8f570f943b6bbda457cc0&a=bi&pagenumber=1&w=800)
mitt
Quote from: mitt on February 04, 2010, 03:20:07 PM
This is the one I get to play with at work, and if I had the room in a garage, I would have one like it at home:
;D
(http://docs.google.com/viewer?pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxtaXR0ZWxzdGFkdGN8Z3g6MTIyYzhkNTUwMTdjNGJiNQ&docid=a9f6f7b7bb6efeb4d35e088157282d4f%7C27f42b3b96d8f570f943b6bbda457cc0&a=bi&pagenumber=1&w=800)
mitt
Pic don't work. Even copy and pasted...
Quote from: NAKID on February 04, 2010, 03:54:17 PM
Pic don't work. Even copy and pasted...
hmm - it is a pdf converted to images using google document viewer
how bout this
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxtaXR0ZWxzdGFkdGN8Z3g6MTIyYzhkNTUwMTdjNGJiNQ (http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxtaXR0ZWxzdGFkdGN8Z3g6MTIyYzhkNTUwMTdjNGJiNQ)
Yup, that works. Nice!
My condolences that it's a Haas.
Quote from: Monsterlover on February 05, 2010, 03:57:04 PM
My condolences that it's a Haas.
what else can you buy like that for 25k and made in US?
mitt
Quote from: Monsterlover on February 05, 2010, 03:57:04 PM
My condolences that it's a Haas.
Having run or repaired a number of different CNCs.
I like Haas.
All the limit switches are the same, same mounting holes, same plug on the end of the cable, same plug pin out, the only differance is cable length. So I used to carry 1 limit switch with the longest cable in my tool box. In a pinch it would work anywhere.
The Operator pendant is the same, once you learn one Haas you've learned them all. And unlike Fadal you don't have to memorize a bunch of two letter codes.
The transmmision is robust, I only every remember changing one.
Most of the Haas's I dealt with were at CoorsTek, diamond tooling in ceramic parts, 7k to 10k spindle speeds all day long, the swarf is basicly lapping compond, about the worst conditions you can put a CNC in. In fact if you look in most machine tool owners manuals, the warranty is voided if used to machine ceramics. Haas's actually held up well.
Yea, we have 5 haas centers at work between 2 and 15 years old, from the little one I showed to VF5s. They seem to hold up pretty well. The oldest one just had a transmission go out a couple weeks ago, but that is after 15 years of everyday use. It only took 1 guy about 7 hours to replace the transmission and motor assembly - it was pretty cool to watch.
mitt
Quote from: mitt on February 06, 2010, 04:11:22 AM
what else can you buy like that for 25k and made in US?
mitt
I understand the attractiveness based on the price point.
For the money, it's hard to beat.
Also, they're not made in the US, just assembled here.
Im just biased against the brand.
I've programmed-operated-setup-fixed mills and lathes over the years and out of all the machines I've worked with the Haas was the one that always broke.
Now that Im in distribution, I have a lot of customers that use Haas machines, as well as other brands. Haas are still what breaks the most.
I have a good customer with 2 EC300 horizontals. Both machines are fairly new, and were bought new. Both have 12,000 rpm spindles, through spindle coolant and "high pressure" coolant (that means like 300 psi)
One machine limits the spindle to 10,000 rpm when the TSC is on. The other is limited to *7,000* rpm! Seems that the rotary coupling Haas used they feel only is ok up to those rpms. That right there is costing a ton of money because we can't run the tools to their potential.
One of these mills, at random, changes the work shift z-.03 and scraps a whole tombstone of parts. Haas service has been there like 10 times and replaced everything. They don't know what to do about it.
As it turns out, one of the facemills they had in there was designated as a "heavy tool" and that was the cause. Now they have to run a probe cycle to check and see if the work shift is within +/-.005 before it let's the cycle go.
Again, more time and cost. They have a number of cumulative dollars lost due to the machine being down/scrapping parts etc and it's a big one.
I have a sneaking feeling that some of these machines are made well, and others not so much.
And, just so I'm not 100% bagging on them, there are things I do like about them.
I will say that I like the control. Easy to edit programs and easy to write quickie programs right at the control. Also, as sno_duc mentioned, one Haas is the same as the rest. If you can program/setup/operate one, you can do it on all of them.
I also like the programmable coolant nozzle. That's a cool thing that I haven't seen on any other machine yet.
Quote from: Monsterlover on February 06, 2010, 05:31:05 AM
One of these mills, at random, changes the work shift z-.03 and scraps a whole tombstone of parts. Haas service has been there like 10 times and replaced everything. They don't know what to do about it.
As it turns out, one of the facemills they had in there was designated as a "heavy tool" and that was the cause. Now they have to run a probe cycle to check and see if the work shift is within +/-.005 before it let's the cycle go.
Seen that before.
Another one to store for future reference. We had one VF 3 that acted weird. Turn out to be electrical noise on the ground, drilled a hole in the concrete, drove a 8' ground rod, added the ground rod to the grounding circuit, and the mystery problems went away.
Interesting.
ground gremlins abound :)
build your own.
http://www.instructables.com/id/20-CNC-Machine/?images#images (http://www.instructables.com/id/20-CNC-Machine/?images#images)
Quote from: Monsterlover on February 06, 2010, 05:31:05 AM
I've programmed-operated-setup-fixed mills and lathes over the years and out of all the machines I've worked on the Haas was the one that always broke.
I see a trend ;D
[laugh]
I knew that would come up sooner or later.
I have broken a few machines, yes.
These Haas machines in question failed on their own with no help from me.
;D
QuoteThese Haas machines in question failed on their own with no help from me.
You had your fingers crossed when you typed that, i just know you did! [laugh]
The most spectacluar machine failure I've ever seen was a LeBlonde 12x12 lathe.
I got tasked with doing a post mortem, the machine was totaled ( bent the ways, headstock partial ripped off the ways )
The coupling between the spindle and the speed encoder failed. When the computer saw the speed feedback slowing it tried to maintain spindle speed. There was a 18" 3 jaw chuck with large aluminium pie jaws mounted on the spindle. At some point 10,000 rpm?? one the jaws came off (barely missing the machinist), this cause a huge imbalance at very high rpm, and she tore herself apart.
Quote from: sno_duc on February 07, 2010, 07:13:13 AM
The most spectacluar machine failure I've ever seen was a LeBlonde 12x12 lathe.
I got tasked with doing a post mortem, the machine was totaled ( bent the ways, headstock partial ripped off the ways )
The coupling between the spindle and the speed encoder failed. When the computer saw the speed feedback slowing it tried to maintain spindle speed. There was a 18" 3 jaw chuck with large aluminium pie jaws mounted on the spindle. At some point 10,000 rpm?? one the jaws came off (barely missing the machinist), this cause a huge imbalance at very high rpm, and she tore herself apart.
I've seen two similar cases.
The first was a Mazak quick turn sl-20 running 13/16 x 12' bar stock. The speed sensor failed and all hell broke loose. Somehow a 4' section of the bar came out of the feeder as the spindle maxed out. It beat the entire machine to pieces. there were parts landing over 50' away. Luckily i was standing pretty close to the operator and managed to shove him out of harms way. :o
The other was a Mitsubishi MTC-10 chucker. They used a scale on the slides with a backup encoder for when the scale got damaged. The machine couldn't read the scale correctly and rapid traversed into the chuck. It was turning at about 4k. Completely destroyed the turret, chuck, spindle and broke the main and the x and z axis slide castings.
I've seen plenty of other crashes as well, but they were caused by operator or programming errors.
Ever run a Bullard vertical boring machine. I was introduced to Bullards on a medium sized one 96" diameter chuck. The feed levers were also the rapid traverse, in for feed out for rapid. Any how the journeyman assigned to check me out on the machine, brought the tool down close to the work and then grapped rapid down (oops). A 2" square inserted carbide lathe bit got sheared off, with 200 hp and a massive chuck, it never slowed down (of course 75rpm was top speed, IIRC 1 or 2 rpm was low gear)
Quote from: sno_duc on February 07, 2010, 08:13:18 AM
Ever run a Bullard vertical boring machine. I was introduced to Bullards on a medium sized one 96" diameter chuck. The feed levers were also the rapid traverse, in for feed out for rapid. Any how the journeyman assigned to check me out on the machine, brought the tool down close to the work and then grapped rapid down (oops). A 2" square inserted carbide lathe bit got sheared off, with 200 hp and a massive chuck, it never slowed down (of course 75rpm was top speed, IIRC 1 or 2 rpm was low gear)
The fab shop I worked at had two Bullard VTLs....small ones...4' tables
They would make some chips.
Quote from: sno_duc on February 07, 2010, 08:13:18 AM
Ever run a Bullard vertical boring machine. I was introduced to Bullards on a medium sized one 96" diameter chuck. The feed levers were also the rapid traverse, in for feed out for rapid. Any how the journeyman assigned to check me out on the machine, brought the tool down close to the work and then grapped rapid down (oops). A 2" square inserted carbide lathe bit got sheared off, with 200 hp and a massive chuck, it never slowed down (of course 75rpm was top speed, IIRC 1 or 2 rpm was low gear)
I used to run one to make the molds at the old shop.
It was old when my dad started off as a machinist.