HAAS SL-40 Tailstock ?

[Jason B Stout]

When I use M21 in a program why does the tailstock retract from the part and then engage at the beginning of the program? I want it to stay put. I have also tried using G1 B-xxx F.1 but then the tailstock disengages during tool change.

[KenFoulks]

What is the Serial Number?
Are there any M22s in your program?
What is your tailstock pressure set to?
Does an M21 in MDI behave any differently?

[Jason B Stout]

Talked to the HAAS tech support today got it worked out. The part I'm currently working on is 13.00" diameter and 41" long.

[Excelmachine]

And the solution was what?

[Jason B Stout]

And the solution was what?

I know this sounds ignorant, the footswitch was tucked under the machine in the back. I didn't even know it had one. Since I started using it a few monthes ago I have been using a G1 B-XXX F.10 in the program. With the footswitch you just change the distance in settings, say .500 less than the distace between tailstock 0.000 and the face of the part. The tailstock stays engaged until you disengage it with the footswitch.

[Excelmachine]

Thanks for sharing that though. We all make simple mistakes occasionally. The reason why I had asked about your solution is that I had a very strange problem with our chuck at one time. I would hit the pedal to close it, it would close, than immediately open again. Jiggled all the wires, checked everthing with codes and parameters. Turned out that one of our maintenance guys was doing some work near by while I was at lunch and as he was walking past the machine while it wasn't running, dropped a big part near the machine. He didn't think anything of it but it turned out that the part fell on the wire to the footswitch and broke the wire inside. You couldn't really see the broken wire from the outside but as you worked your foot in and out of the footswtich, it opened and closed the broken wire.

Glad it worked out for you anyways and was a simple fix.