Haas TL 2

[Peter Gibbs]

Hi DeanThought maybe I should post his here as someone else might have a idea about turnig between centres.....

Ive decided to go to the tl 2 and the tm2 toolroom machining centre....These are just for my hobby so I could easily get away with the smaller units but my son is a toolmaker and if he wants to use them for something, chances are he will be saying down the track "Should have got the bigger one Dad" ....so err on the larger size

On the speed issue if I am doing small work I can always use a well sharpened tool steel particulatly on brass...I will get my son to check them out for the computing power....seems they dont have a USB port yet just floppy..... thats a bit lame...I guess it will come in time

What do you do if you need to turn between centres on this lathe there is no facility for a dead centre in the head stock ......... I was hoping to get a face plate, centres , 4 jaw chuck and steady


take care Peter

[JPMach]

What we were taught in school. for highly accurate work between centers put a piece of scrap in the chuck and turn a 60 deg point on it. Then just run the lathe dog against one of the jaws on the chuck. It is highly accurate since you are turning a point concentric with the rotaion of the chuck. If doing threads, and you need to remove the work from the centers to check something mark the jaw the you are running up against with a sharpie, other wise you will end up cutting a double start thread or triple start.

JP

[Peter Gibbs]

Thanks JD...on my current lathe (Colchester Master 2500) it has a camlock chuck..I would remove the chuck pop on the face plate with drive peg and use a hardend ground centre in the spindle and away you go.....quicker than turning a new centre....but of course the new haas being CNC will only take a moment to turn a new taper derrr... I have rtart thinking differently....old brain cells will have to work faster thanks for the comment Peter

[Peter Gibbs]

Gentlemen ......I still havent placed my order as yet for the TL2......my son is checking it out to see if it will do what he wants as well.....BTW they are US $ 30k for the tl1 and 34k for the tl2....and that is on a serious special....not so cheap over here....I have heard rumours about the TL1 and 2 are not as rigid as one might like when machining steel...are there any comments out there please....unfortunately there are no demonstrators in the country so we cant give it a good run to prove it for ourselves so any comments would be GOLD....Regards Pete

[treg]

I have a TL1 and love it. I mostly cut alloy steel. This macnie does have it quirks but once you know how to use it they are fine. Drilling can be a problem, if you need large holes in pieces you will have to get a insert carbide drill. if you have any questions just holla.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by treg I have a TL1 and love it. I mostly cut alloy steel..... if you need large holes in pieces you will have to get a insert carbide drill...

What is large? Why do you need the insert drill? Do you use a pilot drill?

I also have a TL1 and yes, within its limitations, it is a good machine. I do wish the tool changer was faster though.

[nervis1]

You have a turret on your TL-1?

Post up a pic.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by nervis1 You have a turret on your TL-1? Post up a pic.

I don't have any pictures at the moment and don't have a camera handy. Go to the Haas website you should be able to find something there. The auto turret for the TL series was only introduced this year along with the full enclosure option. It is only four station but it is possible to gang tools so you can use more than four tools in a program. The only complaint I have regarding the tool changer is that it is painfully slow but that is understandable on an open machine which would have a good potential for chopping fingers off with a fast tool changer.

[nervis1]

Oh that is pretty cool. I did not know they had a turret option. I see it's like 2500 bucks, not too bad considering. I'm seriously thinking about getting a TL1 come December time, the turret would be a must have.

Haas does not have a pic of the beast on their site.

[Geof]

$2,995 to be exact. Provided you remember the TL is not a great hulking monster with a 50hp spindle drive and 5000 lb thrust servoes on the Z axis you will do fine. It is limited in speed, feed, tool change time and metal removal capacity so it is marginal for production. I use mine for new product development and it is very good because by the time I have something ready to go into production I have the production program largely complete.

[treg]

who drills pilot holes anymore????? not me
old stuff I geuss. It would be painfully slow. 1.25" carbide insert drill gets the job done in a resoable amount of time

[Geof]

Originally Posted by treg who drills pilot holes anymore????? not me old stuff I geuss. It would be painfully slow. 1.25" carbide insert drill gets the job done in a resoable amount of time

What do you call reasonable? You are cutting alloy steel; what are you rpm and feed and what are the spindle and Z servo loads? The reason I ask is I am using smaller HSS drills on leaded steel running conservatively at 800 to 1000rpm and 0.007ipr with flood coolant and I get a servo load around 60%.