I had a minor crash on saturday and now my minimill has a lot of vibration in the spindle. this was a pretty minor crash it pulled a part out of the vice with a 1/2 endmill and threw it. now it seems the spindle is out of balance. I just checked to see if the spindle is square to the table and it is dead on (less than .0001). It seems to vibrate the most with a 1 inch end mill in the spindle.
I noticed that when I took the tool holder out it was jammed kinda tight and it popped pretty hard when it came out. could the drawbar be messed up? and not pulling hard enough? thanks for any help
Mike

Does your tool holder runout? We once had chips jam up in the taper and it was enough to make the machine vibrate because the holder was running out. I think it is unlikely a crash involving a 1/2" cutter will have done serious damage; I have sheared a 5/8" carbide off flush with the holder without any after effects other than a serious case of embarassment.

thanks Geof,
I'll check it out tomorrow and see if there is anything jammed in there. I didn't think that this crash was anything major other than scaring the crap out of myself. I have seen far worse crashes that did nothing more than make a lot of noise. This couldn't have damaged the taper could it? Because the machine was super smooth before this and now it has the vibration. when I took the tool out of the spindle it "banged" pretty loud and pounded the tool out. and this is not the holder that took the hit either.

Call your Haas repair guy. Firstly you will save a lot of time to diagnose the problem. Secondly you will save money by them having everything that is needed right with them. Tell them what happened and what you expierience and they will come prepaired.


And no, I am not one of these guys from Haas!