haas minimill

[cordeirot]

Does anyone have a a lube diagram for these machines,and how does it work?

[Haas__man]

No drawing unfortunately, but here's how it works.
You have a lube tank at the back of the machine, with a motor that runs a cam. As the cam turns it lifts a handle that pumps lube oil. The handle is pumped every 32 minutes of spindle run time.

When the handle is pumped all lube lines in the machine are pressurized to approx 20-40psi. Pressure will remain for anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes. At all points where lube is required - ballsrews, linear rails, etc there is a restrictor valve that slowley allows the lubrcation to flow through to lubricate properly. If cheap/ bad lube oil is used, then these restrictor valves can get blocked up and will then need to be replaced.

The spindle is lubricated by the pressurized oil - mixing with compressed air, then piped up to the spindle giving air cooling and lube simultaniously.

There is a pressure switch just behind the lube tank so the machine knows whether:
1 pressure is there or not
2 If there is a leak in the system
3 If the system is totally blocked

There are two filters in the system.
One is a suction filter inside the lube tank.
The other one differs in location depending on the age of the machine.
Pre 2004 the filter is located to the left of the lube tank - and after 2004 it is located inside the tank.

Hope this helps

[rawen2]

Haas_man,
Do the VF's work the same way?
Thanks,
Ralph

[cordeirot]

Haas_man, Thank you for your reply. It was very helpfull.I have 2 more questions.The line that goes to the spindle is dry isn't that suppose to have some oil in it,and Is there a way that we can make that 32m cycle less?

[Haas__man]

rawen2

Yes, the VF's work the same way too. More recently though (in the last 12 months) the system has been re-designed and uses a mixture of grease and lube oil.

cordeirot

The 32minutes has been worked out to give the correct amount of lube for the machines so I would suggest leaving it as it is - however if you really wanted to - then i suppose a faster motor on the lube pump would do it - you would also need to alter the lube cycle time parameter too, but as I already said I would suggest this is not required.
If you have no lubrication in the spindle lube line then this needs to be rectified as soon as possible. I would suggest first of all you need to verify that you have a problem. To do this:
First of all pull up the priming handle on the lube tank to get pressure.
Run the spindle at 20RPM
Go around the back of the machine
look at the back of the main air regulator
you should see a small air regulator
this should have a gauge on it
now depending on what mchine you have the gauge should read
15-20psi (only while the spindle is running and for 2 minutes after it has stopped)
If you have no pressure - then you may have a faulty solonoid valve
the valve is right next to the regulator and will be a mac valve.
You should see a black coil on the valve with a button in the centre. Pressing this should put pressure on the gauge.
If you have pressure - but it is the wrong pressure - then the regulator can be adjusted to give the correct pressure.
If you have the correct pressure - teke hold of the 1/4 pipe and remove from the push in fitting.
You should now have air escaping from the fitting.
Get some tissue and hold it over the fitting - give it a minute or so and you should see the tissue get wet - there will not be lots and lots of lube - but there should be drops of it that you can see.
If the tissue gets wet - then plug pipe back in and all is well.
If not then I would suggest that either the regulator itself is faulty, or the 'spindle lube restricor' is blocked. This is located very close to the solonoid and regulator - it is three brass fittings fixed together, one has an arrow engraved in it indicating direction of lubrication flow.

Hope this helps

[cordeirot]

Haas_man thank you for your information it was very helpfull.Now i have a good understanding how it works.
Thank you again.