Horizontal machine

[murphdog]

Anyone with exposure/experiance around an EC630 horizontal? Haas stopped making them in 08 or 09 and was curious if it was just a demand thing or something else. I am wanting to machine some engine block castings on a small scale. Maybe 50-75 a year. We have other work that could transition to the horizontal also that we currently do on a VF4
Murph

[haastec]

Usually it's a demand issue for the discontinuation of a product line.

[extanker59]

I ran a Haas horizontal (new in '96 or so) and was very disappointed. The pallet wouldn't reliably lock down. They had a weird screw type mechanism that would screw up into the pallet and pull it down. Some percentage of the time it would just make a clicking noise and time out with an alarm. The owner of the shop sent it back.
So, if it's the same type of pallet lock as that, don't do it. Don't know if they ever fixed the issue.
Very happy with the VF-2ss and VM-2 that I've run since then.

[haastec]

I ran a Haas horizontal (new in '96 or so) and was very disappointed. The pallet wouldn't reliably lock down. They had a weird screw type mechanism that would screw up into the pallet and pull it down. Some percentage of the time it would just make a clicking noise and time out with an alarm. The owner of the shop sent it back.
So, if it's the same type of pallet lock as that, don't do it. Don't know if they ever fixed the issue.
Very happy with the VF-2ss and VM-2 that I've run since then.

The newer EC series is a complete remodel and uses a different pallet system than before. The whole package is much improved over the older HS series.

[extanker59]

Excellent. I wouldn't have posted but he was talking about the older horizontals. Good to know about the improvements.