Well I got a new(used) mill today

[superman]

I have wanted a haas for awhile now and have been looking for about a year and seriously looking for 6ish months.
This popped up for a pretty solid deal and i had to pull the trigger. I know alot of you may not know what some of this stuff is and that is ok.

2014 Haas Super Mini Mill
10K RPM spindle
10 tool umbrella tool changer
Haas Wips
4th axis with tailstock
tool holders
haas pcool
Next gen controller with about 6,500 hours on it.

I still have a ton to learn about this machine, but next hurdle is getting power to it.

[superman]

DocsMachine

[Alexndl]

Glad to see it made the trip and that you where able to unload it with no issue!

Compare to your previous cnc what are the improvement?
Longer travel, tool changer and 4th axis?

[superman]

Me too.
Much more rigid, 4th axis, tool changer, built in chip bin, the wireless probing and tool setter are pretty big too. The other machine had them, but i could not automate it as both used the same port. I had broken a few probe tips by simply not having the thing plugged in. Both actually have the same spindle speed, but the haas has significantly more torque. I want to say it also has rigid tapping. the work area is larger, but the area it can machine isn't much bigger in x and y.

The way the haas works is you can get options on the machine or you can pay to have them unlocked later. So i have to wait to see what has been unlocked. 4th is done, macros are done and i want to say rigid tapping maybe a few others. each one of those is not a cheap option. One of the reason i splurged for this machine vs going with something older or more used.

[Ecapnation]

Make sure to check the "t pins" in the tool changer... They are the pins that unlock the collet swing arm.

They wear in some early haas's.... Wear caused the tool changer to launch collets.

My 13 year old vf3 has been through a set already

[superman]

will do, thank you!

[DocsMachine]

DocsMachine

-You called?

Right off the top, I hate you, you know that, right?



Two things I'd suggest: One, get some decent garage floor paint, paint that corner, and let it cure as long as you can before setting the machine back down on it. If not paint, some sort of sealer or concrete hardener- you WILL end up with a "blast radius" of coolant and oil stains around it.

Ask me how I know. 🙄

And two, you will periodically need to get in back of the machine. I'm only passingly familiar with most Haas, but isn't there a hydraulic pump and filter back there? Plus access to the controls enclosure?

If you have your own pallet jack, you can get away with edging it up towards the wall, but if not, you'll want it spaced out enough you can get back there. (I had to put my two machines in the middle of a garage bay- it wasn't so important on the Omniturn, but the Trak mill must have free and open access to the control enclosure and servo drives.)

Oh, and check the backup battery. Again, I don't know if that late a model Haas has such a thing, but losing the parameters due to the battery failing can be catastrophic. I don't know what Haas charges for a copy of your machine- might be little or nothing, but I've heard tales of other machines where a set of parameters from the factory can run into the thousands.

I believe you can also save them to a key or disc- on some older machines, I've heard of guys scrolling through the display and manually writing them down.

Doc.

[superman]

I have heard that from a few people. haha

Ya i would love to coat the floor with something, but not sure if that will happen now.

I have about one superman width shoulder to shoulder between the wall and the machine on both sides. Yep there pump and air regulator, electrical goodies etc.

So glad i ended up buying the pallet jack. It made moving stuff around soo much easier.

I was smart enough to have them back up the parameters and email them to me before they pulled the machine off power. I was worried about that since i know the machine will likely be off power for a monthish.

[superman]

They forgot to send the manuals and other docs with it, but mailed them separately. I found the quote for the machine and all the specs/options.

[DocsMachine]

Ya i would love to coat the floor with something, but not sure if that will happen now.

-That's one of my biggest regrets. My "shop" is basically a big 2-car garage with a side room. The garage concrete has been "sealed" (albeit decades ago) but the side room is unsealed and untreated. On the garage side, if I get some floor-dry on spills quick enough, it doesn't stain. But in the side room, anywhere I don't have the rubber work mats is slowly darkening.

I refurbished the entire room when I first moved in, and could have painted or epoxied easily. Never really thought about it back then, and later, when I did, I had too many machines in there to easily move.

In your case, I'd at least consider trying to find some sort of sealer that you can mop on, around the machines, to at least minimize staining.

That griping out of the way, we need a "first chips" video.

(I know you're still sorting out power and all that.

Doc.

[superman]

I will have to see if i can do something, even if it isn't some kind of mat.
absolutely will be some kind of first chips video. I did have my gopro running for some of the delivery. I suck at editing, but i may try and put something together. Found out my stepdad knows an electrician local that deals with 3 phase stuff so that should be a win.

[DocsMachine]

One of my neighbors is a retired IEBW electrician, and has been extremely helpful over the years in wiring up my machines.

You were going with an American Rotary, right?

Doc.

[superman]

Ya I wish I had an electrician neighbor about now. Lol
Yep planning to go American rotary. I need to give them a call.

[desertT1]

This is pretty exciting for sure. One of my favorite YT channels does a lot of projects on a smaller Haas CNC. Post videos if you can. Setup, bloopers, fab, whatever. Are you going to have it doing production of something, or just on demand stuff? I gotta get back to my X2 CNC and see what I can use that for, after doing the belt drive conversion I have sitting there. Shattered plastic spindle gears and all that.

[superman]

Which channel? I will be sure to post some stuff for sure.

A little bit of both. I tend to cut alot of feednecks and have done about 100 in the last 4ish years manually on a bridgeport. I have the program and tooling setup, but my tormach did not play nice. It needs a firmware update or something because it has a mind of its own.

On the short list is feedneck mods, t slot milling, mag rails, cocker bodies, phantom roller triggers, Trilogy mini and ram mount removal. I have more in my head, but those are the ones to start.

[desertT1]

https://youtube.com/@JohnSL?si=S9fAjun-5AKVD8a6

This is the channel. He does a lot of back and forth between Fusion360 and CNC, and also has several videos on little injection mold projects he does. I think they are well done. A little dry at times, but very informative.

[superman]

Ya i follow John. He does some cool stuff, but i agree it is dry.

[DocsMachine]

Supes: A rotary converter is pretty easy, really, to hook up, and an American is a pretty good bit of kit.

I think I mentioned earlier to make sure you get one "CNC rated". I forget what, exactly, they called it, but you get one where the generated leg is closely balanced to the two 'native' legs.

And, going along with that, generally speaking, the controller will be tapping single phase off the three phase. You need to make sure the controller/computer uses the two native legs, not the generated leg.

Doc.

[superman]

Yep, im tracking. I know they have cnc rated phase converters. The plan is to have someone licensed do the wiring on the cnc to ensure that if something does happen i am not out a controller. They did send down the manuals, I haven't found the wiring instructions yet, but i did learn some about the probe, tool setter. unfortunately they use a similar setup style to the old predator/virtue board with blinking lights and sequences. Hopefully they are already setup.

Also i have been doing some digging on the 4th axis as that really intrigues me. Looks like i can use the 4th, but not simultaneously with out paying the add on for fusion. I will likely do that once i get my feet under me.

[DocsMachine]

Yep, that's the thing these days. The machine came with the software tor the 4th axis already installed, but the original owner had to pay to have it enabled. Then you have to pay to have that feature enabled in F360 so you can use it.

That's the way the world works now.

Unfortunately, my little Trak mill can't use a true 4th axis. It can, and I have, an indexer, but I have yet to use it in the CNC.

Doc.

[superman]

Well i got a little time to do some investigating today. Finally dug into the last box that had a pump and hoses. Turns out they included a Keller TKO-14 Tramp oil separator. Still trying to figure where all the hoses go, but something cool to mess with.

Tormach is pending so that should help with the electrical funds. Supposedly being picked up on Saturday.

[superman]

Minor update. I did get the phase converter in. I have some work stuff i need to focus on the next couple weeks then hopefully week of xmas i can get some wiring done and get some play time.

[DocsMachine]

Woohoo!

(Pretty sure I said that before, but it bore repeating. )

Doc.

[superman]

Finally met the electrician at the house. Got a parts list together, went today to pick some stuff up and order what i couldn't get. hoping to have parts in hand Tuesday and power by friday. We shall see if that is the case though.