Problem- TL 2 Spindle Motor Fan

[Peter Gibbs]

Hi Guys just a little note that may alert you to a possible problem with your new Tool Room Lathe I bought my TL 2 about 2 years ago and have been very happy with it until a few weeks ago I had an intermittent beep that would drive me nuts ….but aside from that it was great to use …

A couple of weeks ago it just gave up the ghost just would not fire up properly. The control pendant would light up you could hear the solenoids in the control cabinet cut in and the cooling fan in the electrical cabinet would cut in, but the spindle wouldn’t go

…so I open up the cabinet and found a circuit breaker deployed…turned it back on presto hit the FWD button on the spindle and as soon as it got warm ..about 15 seconds the breaker would drop out …..ok called the Service tech who arrived the same day ,…nice man 3 hrs later plus two hrs travel problem discovered , turned out to be spindle motor cooling fan …We disconnect the fan and all was working well …checked HAAS stock no fan that’s ok as I was only doing small jobs so the spindle never had the chance to get hot…....

A few weeks later with the help of the local machine tool repairman …he was a mate, we pulled out the fan ..I discovered that the fan could not rotate without difficulty as it was rubbing on the grill…on removing the rear grill from the fan I noticed that the paint on the grill had scratches which were consistent with the fan only ever having made just a few revolutions in its life. It is fitted with thermal overload which probably saved it for some time….and the eventually died.

I ordered a new fan which arrived as promised within a week from the USA …good service at $347 plus 10 % local tax…that’s ok…..When I went to install the new fan it was evident that there was something wrong as the fan would not turn …I put a straight edge across the fan ring to see if the blades were protruding no all was well…. then I put the straight edge across the face of the grill and it turned out that the plate was bent….it was apparent that when the plate was pressed it caused a convex shape to be formed in the grill plate and when it was bolted on it fouled the fan… So a couple of washers to pack the plate away from the fan and all was well

We Installed the fan replaced the all the covers turned it on all was well then a loud roar …..I hit the off button and said to my mate **** what was that noise he smiled and said just sounded like the fan turning on to me! Gingerly I turned it back on and sure enough it was the fan…..my reaction was because I had never heard the noise before… felt a little silly … So It seemed that my fan had never worked in the first place …Im $1000 out of pocket but it is fixed….Oh and the best thing is that the Beeping is gone …..

Out of curiosity I checked how many hours the spindle had done in over two years it was 55.5 hrs yes that fifty five and a half hours …so the reason for this note is that if you don’t have a great bloody roar form you spindle motor fan after its been running a short time check it out ….Cheers Peter