Haas Rigity and Controller life?

[scappini]

Can anyone please give me some feedback on their opinons of Haas SL30 and Haas SL20 Rigity and controller life.

We have a SL30 and want a SL20 but a supplier who doesn't sell machines only performs maintenance on various CNC's has stated they are poorly constructed.

I would appreciate anyones opinion either positive or negitive.

Also heard the controller only lasts a couple of years.

(our SL30 is 18 months old)

Thank you all
I love this site!!!

Cheers

[Geof]

I can say the controllers last more than two years. I have several machines older than 2 years without any controller problems.

None of my machines have gearboxes and we do not machine anything except small size aluminum, brass and leaded steel so I cannot comment on rigidity.

Poorly constructed? In what way? I have had small things such as bolts not adequately tightened on the chip auger drive but overall don't have any serious gripes.

[Qbranch]

At IMTS '04 HAAS was running the same part program over and over all day on already machined parts, as most companies do.

I was shopping around for a new VM and was going to buy a Haas till i saw them running.

After running the same program over and over on the same workpieces all day the machines were still taking dust off the parts, which makes me think that the rigidity and repeatability of the machines is questionable. It was enough to make me buy a Hurco VM-2 instead of a Haas. The hurco was a great deal as well.

By the way Hurco's have very very good rigidity and amazing accuracy/repeatability as well as circular 2 & 3 axis interpolation and are engineered here in Indianapolis. They have 4 lathes out and are releasing their live tooling (dual spindle) lathe at IMTS this year.

Don't take my word for it though. If you don't need the lathe right away just snoop around for one you like at IMTS '06 coming up this September 6-13 at McCormick Place.

-Alex

[scappini]

Thanks Geoff and QBranch

I trust your opinions Geoff after reading some posts about your G-Coding last night. For the record I too rather G-Coding than Cam. But that's another matter We do have gibbs before I get inundated about that topic again!!! lol. That satifies me about the controller.

The exhibition lathe, could it perhaps not have been perfectly level for it to still be cutting dust off part and or extreme temperature variations??
Sounds a little piculiar (SP*).

I am however interested with those who do have Haas Machines and can give me an honest opinion about the rigidity. We have been quite happy with ours. And the Spindle Speed Variation has eliminated many potential chatter problems.

Still interested about Rigidity comments.

Cheers All !!!

[Haas_Apps]

This is not true. All Haas machine cut metal all day long at all major shows. Those of you who have been to IMTS know this to be true. This make the rest of your statment suspect.

By the way, I was at IMTS 2004 and in the Haas both all day long for the entire show, so I know that these machines where cutting all day long.

On a side note, did you see the crash in the Hurco both? It took them about 30 minutes to turn off the camera inside the machine.

Originally Posted by Qbranch At IMTS '04 HAAS was running the same part program over and over all day on already machined parts, as most companies do. I was shopping around for a new VM and was going to buy a Haas till i saw them running. After running the same program over and over on the same workpieces all day the machines were still taking dust off the parts, which makes me think that the rigidity and repeatability of the machines is questionable. It was enough to make me buy a Hurco VM-2 instead of a Haas. The hurco was a great deal as well. By the way Hurco's have very very good rigidity and amazing accuracy/repeatability as well as circular 2 & 3 axis interpolation and are engineered here in Indianapolis. They have 4 lathes out and are releasing their live tooling (dual spindle) lathe at IMTS this year. Don't take my word for it though. If you don't need the lathe right away just snoop around for one you like at IMTS '06 coming up this September 6-13 at McCormick Place. -Alex

[gar]

060720-0927 EST USA

scappini:

We have 4 HAAS mills, and 1 lathe. These all use ball ways. A ball way is less stiff than a roller, and the roller is less stiff than a box way. However, both a ball and roller can be preloaded, meaning no play. A box way must have clearance. If you oil or air pressurize a box way you can eliminate play, but there is still a spring rate to the pressurized media.

Stiffness is spring rate so your deflection is a function of force. This deflection may be linear over a range or non-linear.

I believe that if you mill a circle with a box way machine you will find a greater error in the circle than when milled with a ball way machine. Years ago when I showed our HAAS salesman how good a circle was when mill on a HAAS machine he was impressed. Later he told me he would show potential customers how good the HAAS circle was compared to a box way machine.

For light cuts lack of stiffness is not a problem, and that is how finishing cuts are made. But preload is important here because this improves accuracy by eliminating slop.

We chose HAAS over others because of the ball ways, and in turn we got a very easy to use control.

See my web site www.beta-a2.com MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS page and in particular photo P8 that shows a milled hole. All of the parts shown in the photos were machined on HAAS machines.

.

[werks]

I have run just about everything out there in my twenty years of machining.


I run a shop during the day with all Okuma equipment (and one HL3). I think Okuma makes an awesome lathe. The mills I wouldnt touch. God, they have the worst control of all time, and they are about as ridgid as any other machine.


I also own a shop that I run at night. Guess what I bought for myself.

I have been running a batch of spindles made out of 1045 steel that have a +.0005 - .0. tolerance. Two days worth of parts and I maybe have to bump the offset a couple of tenths in a eight hour shift. It is as good as it gets for me, and what I would expect from a quality machine. Now I don't run castings, or irregular shaped parts, so maybe there is an advantage there.

Also out of the Moris, Okumas, Hitachis, I have run, nothing I have ever seen can give you as nice a surface, milling, than Haas's geared c-axis on their lathes. Nothing.


I think we all get a little emotional when spending huge quantities of money:lol, and like to think we have made brilliant decisions, but I think you will be pleased with a Haas machine. That is why I keep buying them.