sl-30 turret alignment

[bowhunter]

had a part come out of the chuck and it knocked the turret off center, anyone know whats involved in realigning it. the service guy from haas told me they don't have tapered pins like some other lathes out there its just bolted on. anyone know how to do it or any more info i'd appreciate the help

[Geof]

I had the turret on a HL1 realigned and all I recall the tech doing was loosening the bolts round the center of the turret and just tapping it with a plastic hammer. It seemed these bolts had enough clearance and that the turret was only gripped by friction, no shear pins or anything.

One time we knocked a turret out of alignment during a tool change and that time we got a Turret Settle error and it would not lock correctly. This time the tech went in under all the covers and re-aligned the connector between the servo motor and the worm that rotates the turret. Apparently the servo indexes a certain number of counts and stops and then the turret locks by pulling back into a dog clutch. If the drive connection slips then the servo does not bring the dogs into alignment. At this time he also did the alignment from the front bolts.

[bowhunter]

the bolts that he loosened on the turret was it the bolts on the raised hub of the turret which appear to be about 3/8 bolts or was it the 1/2 bolts that would be in the recessed part of the face of the turret?

[Geof]

the bolts that he loosened on the turret was it the bolts on the raised hub of the turret which appear to be about 3/8 bolts or was it the 1/2 bolts that would be in the recessed part of the face of the turret?

I did not notice exactly. On the HL I think there is one bolt in a brass bushing and I think it was this circle of bolts. This may not be there on the SLs. I will not be at the machine until later tomorrow to have a look.

[WOLOG]

Bowhunter,

How bad is the turret out of alignment? Did you check it with a coaxial indicator? I have aligned mine quite a few times. Let me know how bad it is and I will walk you through it.

[MarkT]

I personally have never worked with Haas lathes, however I have aligned numerous turrets from other lathe manufacturers;

1.) Check and align the headstock ( if needed). Depending on the magnatude of what occurred, the head stock may be misaligned, this is common during crashes. Since you will be aligning the turret to the spindle, this has to be aligned first! In order to do this, mount a set of through hard jaws/ or collets (whichever is your set up) . You will need a rigid piece of aluminum ( appr. 2.5-3 in. dia and 14-16 inches long. The more raw stock you can stand out of the chuck collet, without fear of deflecting while taking a very light cut, the better! Skim cut the O.D. to clean taking as light a depth of cut as possible. Measure the taper of your cut, from end to end in "Z". Determine what the "cant" of the headstock is by the direction of the taper. This could vary from machine to machine depending on how the machine is manufactured. But it can only go one of two pivot directions, so if you go the wrong way the first time, consider it a learning investment.
Loosen the bolts which secure the head to the bed, typically most manufacturers I have seen have jacking bolts there also ( not sure if Haas does) if they don't, its rubber mallet time!
As with any process of this nature, resecuring the bolts can always throw you off! and usually will! Repeat as needed. Typically I strive for .0005 or less taper over 12" ( this to some degree depends upon the condition and accuracy of your machine to begin with) The important thing is to remember that the head needs to be aligned in order to accurately align the turret.

2.)If Haas does not used shear or tapered pins, then aligning the turret should be somewhat easier. Typically I mount a coaxial indicator into the ALIGNED spindle via chuck or collet. There are a couple of directions your turret can be "out". The first thing I check is how bad the turret is "cocked". You do not need a coax for this, simply use a dial or test indicator on a mag base. Check the alignment from top to bottom of the turret ( indicator reading and oriented on the face of the turret which faces the spindle) while jogging the machine in "X" axis. To fix this you will have to loosen the bolts which mount the turret assembly to the carriage. Again, if no jacking screws, mallet time!
Next I check the radial (rotational) alignment, this requires the coax and jogging the machine close to where we still presume X0.0000 to be ( we will get into that in a minute). At that point I will loosen the bolts that hold the turret to the turret assembly and begin tramming the radial (rotational) in. Typically, I check here in the 3:00 o'clock and 9:00 o'clock positions. (12:00 o'clock being oriented towards the top of the machine) If you hit hard enough that you had clutch slippage in the "X" axis, you will notice here that you can not effectively tram. in the rotational, without doing the axial (X axis) at the same time. Axial can be tricky, the indicator readings will be 12:00 and 6:00 o'clock IF you have a vertical bed, if it is a 45 degree slant bed your readings will be in the 10:30 and 4:30 o'clock position, for a 30 degree slant bed 11:00 and 5:00 o'clock position..so forth and so on. Axial and rotational typically maintain a relationship to one another , so do not be alarmed if getting these two indicated in requres mutiple attempts at both. Here I try to always achieve >.001 and all variation to fall UNDER center!
3.) Finally, in the event you di have the clucthc slippage or a similar scenario in "X" axis, once you are back into a mechanically aligned state, you will have to align the control with the mechanical. Typically there is a X axis grid shift parameter, this varies from control to control as to where it is located so you may have to contact Haas. You will have to modify this in order for the control to know that the turret is mechanically aligned to where the control presumes the center of the spindle is.
Also, because I like to work from one side to the other, if the tailstock was involved in the incident I align it to the headstock last. You would do this using the taper method as you had on the headstock, except you will need to drive the part with a center and you will need to "jack" the tailstock as you did the headstock.
Hope this helps!
Best of Luck!

Mark T.
www.cnccustomservices.com

[PBMW]

I just realigned my SL10. (Don't ask)
get in to the parameters and turn on the invisible axis. That will allow you to rotate the turret. MDI an M42 to send the turret forward. rotate the turret till it is right and send the turret back in. Nopt take off the top cover of the turret and loosen the coupler to the a axis motor. Home the machine and retighten the coupler.
Button it up an dmake chips.
I did mine in about 30 min.

[billystein]

the tech that did ours had one of those phase II coax indicators. it is the knock off of the blake coax. about $90.
he swears it is the best way to reset the turret. make sure you reset the parameter for the f1 key to set the vdi holder holes.
billy

[Michael82]

I have an SL-30T the live tooling does not work because the turret does not line up right. The drive for the live tooling does not line up with the drive on the back of the tool holder . So it will not let the tool slide in to place. I need the instructions to line the turret up on an SL-30T.

THANKS,
Michael Brocato

[mkmk123]

Yea I just did it last week on my tl-25. Its not hard. Take the face plate off the turret. Behing that you will see a ring of bolts. Just loosen them throw a indicator on the spindle and indicate in a holder. Do not use the holes on the turret they are egg shaped for vdi tooling so thats why you have to use a tool holder. Best would be a vdi holder. Then just get it on center using a pipe on the turret and begin to tightet bolts. Tighten the bolts in a x pattern so your not fighting yourself when tightening. Let me know how you do.

[Michael82]

When I change tools the driver on the tool holder side (left side) does not line up with the driver on the turret side (right side) . It is off about a 1/16"from center to center. Is that the problem. Well I know that is a problem but why does the drivers teeth do not line up with the other side,and is there another problem that could be causing this.


There are more problems with this machine,this one of course and while we are talking about live tooling,the aluminium housing that has three bolts in the front of it and the driver spins inside of it. If I unbolt the housing and give it a "s" command it will turn on and the whole housing spins with it of course. When I bolt it down and give it the same command it will alarm out with a #124 alarm. How do I get the housing off and does it have bearings inside of it or seals? Can you give me an idea whats involed with taking this off and fixing it.

[APP]

When I change tools the driver on the tool holder side (left side) does not line up with the driver on the turret side (right side) . It is off about a 1/16"from center to center. Is that the problem. Well I know that is a problem but why does the drivers teeth do not line up with the other side,and is there another problem that could be causing this.


There are more problems with this machine,this one of course and while we are talking about live tooling,the aluminium housing that has three bolts in the front of it and the driver spins inside of it. If I unbolt the housing and give it a "s" command it will turn on and the whole housing spins with it of course. When I bolt it down and give it the same command it will alarm out with a #124 alarm. How do I get the housing off and does it have bearings inside of it or seals? Can you give me an idea whats involed with taking this off and fixing it.

The aluminum housing is a sixteenth or so larger than the crown drive inside of it. There are no seals or bearings. There should be no contact. The bearing for that spindle is in the large upright aluminum part that has the drive belt in it. The round aluminum housing that is spinning traps the bearing in a counterbore.

My guess is that there is something trapped between the crown drive and the housing. You can't get the housing off without removing the whole drive. Luckily it is very simple.

Remove the coolant line.
Take the drive motor cover off (it is the cover on top of this drive assembly....it has 20 or so bolts holding it in place).
Unplug both connectors going to the drive motor.
Take off 3/8 thick cover on the back of the drive arm. It has two flatheads holding it on.
Unbolt the 4 bolts holding the motor on, and take it off (you have to kind of twist the pulley out of the belt).
The drive arm will now just be hanging on two 3/8 pins, wiggle it off (dont start this with a live tool in the turret, or you cant get the drive arm off).
Take the round housing off and figure out what is hanging up.