Haas HL-1 a good starter machine?

[dsmdude]

Hello, we are in the market for a good basic cnc lathe. This will be our first cnc chip machine purchase. Is a 1996 Haas HL-1 a good machine to start out with? We need the machine for basic lathe operations and speeds are not important. The capacities of the machine are large enough for all projects we would use it for. Ease of use and reliability are most important. The machine was used as a training machine at a technical college and has low hours. They are asking $19,500. I was going to offer them $18k. Thanks in advance for all help!

[Geof]

Start offering at $16,500.

I bought a 1995 HL1 back in June 1999. Within a couple of months the X axis amplifier needed repaired at a cost of about $450. About ten months ago we had to replace the Z servo motor.

That is it for repairs!!!

The machine has done tens of thousands of parts in production work. I can look at the Feed Cutting time if you like but it is in the many thousands of hour. It will hold +/-0.0005 without even trying and if you want to baby it and watch thermal expansion you can get pretty close to +/-0.0002.

I would say $19,500 is a good asking price. Where is it, maybe I should get it as a spare at that price.

Just joking; I spent my machine budget this year.

[dsmdude]

Thanks for the advice! Picked up the HL-1 for $17k and got them to rig it on the trailer as well. Can't wait to run this! Question- are you running a bar feeder or puller on your machine? Any recomendations?

[Geof]

I built a barfeed that works air over fluid with the fluid being coolant; capacity is 1-3/4" dia by almost 7 feet. When we want to run 2" dia we take the barfeed tube out and use a puller.