Originally Posted by jderou  Geof, how long have you had your machine?
A Haas guy was in here recently and he briefly mentioned they stopped making the HL's because they had problems with them... |
I find it difficult to understand some of the claims people make.
Rant following; not aimed at you but at Haas business relationships.
First was the "Haas guy" really a
Haas guy or was he from a 'Haas Factory Outlet'? To my knowledge the only relationship between Haas Factory Outlets and Haas Automation is that the Outlet has a dealer agreement. Have a look at the business card you get from a 'Haas guy' who is with a Haas Factory Outlet and you will probably see on it in little print
a division of or[/I] subsidiary of[/I] followed by some other company name. This is what I have seen and I have seen it on advertisements by different Haas Factory Outlets.
So a 'Haas Guy' from a Haas Factory Outlet is not really a
Haas guy and I suspect many of them do not know s**t from c**y. Some people characterize them as jumped-up used car salesmen but I would never apply that description.
So be a bit sceptical of anything said by your Haas Guy.
Rant ended.
Haas may have had problems with the HL machines but I have no way of knowing.
Our HL1 BB is a 1997 machine which I bought in 2001, brand new unused from the Haas showroom floor. Other than one turret crash into the chuck, thanfully fairly slow, which required a turret realignment I cannot recall any service calls on this machine. It has over 10,000 hrs Power On Time, over 1300 hours Spindle Run Time and over half a million tool changes.
We also have a 1995 HL1 bought used in 1999. A few weeks after getting it the X axis servo amp went out and repairing it was around $400. A good as I can remember we have never had another service call on this machine. I don't have the operating hours on this because somebody zeroed them all and I don't know how to get into DEBUG to see the permanent records. It has certainly done as much or more time the the Big Bore.
So I am quite satisified with the performance of our machines.