Westec 2007

[AMCTony]

Anyone go to Westec this year?

[CNCADEPT]

I did!! It was nice to see that the Industry still generates a lot of interest and is strong. I couldnt help but notice the dominance of Haas Automation, Inc. that had 32 Machines at their booth with around 28 of them cutting constantly, aluminum and steel. Its amazing to see the growth of Haas's worldwide network and the capacity of buidling 14000 machines a year is unprecedented. The sky is the limit!!!

[raymond1]

I also attended the show it was my first and I higly recomend it to any one who is involve in machining. I also got to say I am very impress with haas it looks like they were the ones who were sponsoring the show then again they were the ones with the most machines. But I got to say my favorite machine was the lazer it will blow you away when you see it work.

[Joe Rodney]

I went.
Great show once again.
Haas is definitely a force at the show.
One of favorite items there was by Air Turbine.
They make the coolest high speed stuff.

[tmt_92021]

Haas!!!
Beware my friends. They're getting you to think that they are all that. But think about what they are doing to their quality and service building that many machines. I bought a Mill from them last year and it leaks like crazy!The enclosure looks like my grandma's bath tub, and who knows how long it will hold from coolant and chips. The service guys doesn't know what they're doing because they had just started. I can go on and on, but think about it before you decide to buy one of these junks. Believe me, I bought nothing but Haas in the past, but no longer. Might as well buy Taiwaness.
Signed,
Sad Haas owner.

[AMCTony]

I couldn't help but look at the Mazak Machines. Damn Fine pieces of equipment.

[sixstring]

I agree ! My company has purchased 3 Haas mills in the last 2 years ,one as recent as Jan.07 .I am the companies Lathe programmer and they talked me into getting a Haas SL-30 lathe ,what a P.O.S.!!!! it has had more service calls in the month that I have had it (got it in March) then the 8,7 and 4 year old Daewoo lathes and a 15 year old Hatachi Seiki lathe have had since I have been programming ( 7 years ) . The lathes gearbox went the first day we ran it ,got it replaced and still has no power to speak of compared to all of the other lathes.All kind of alarms for this and that,switch inside turret came off and would not run ,had service guy come in to fix it and when he had panel off i noticed this giant garage door spring hooked to the turret for a counterweight,better have on a diaper if it ever breaks. No nice shortcut features that the Fanuc controllers have on the Daewoos ,even the 15 year old Hatachi has better features on the controller than the Haas. One of the Haas mills has had 4 spindles replaced in 2 years and the newest one started corrupting all the programs you put in it ,had to have the software upgraded.And yes ! they all leak coolant like your Grandmothers bathtub!!

[ltmquik]

I had new HAAS VF-3SSYT installed July 2006. I have been running the machine daily since without a single problem. Oh, one, the air blow gun started leaking air. I called my service person and HAAS sent a new one that week.
Just yesterday I was machining P-20 steel inserts. Used a 3/4" coated carbide EM, 1200 RPM, 20 IPM, 1/2" deep and .250 side cut. The spindle load was at 90% and kept chugging away.
I'm impressed with HAAS so far. No leaks either, unlike my four (4) Fadals.

[AMCTony]

I have heard good and bad about Haas. We have a TL-2 Lathe and a TM-1 Mill. Both have been good machines. This still does not negate the fact that I have been hearing bad about the Haas machines lately (read the last 2 years) and no complaints at all about the Mazak, Makino, Mori, Mitsubishi, Fadal, Kitumura, ect.... This is leading me to believe that these other companies are delivering quality and Haas is after nothing but huge quantity. This combined with the fact that when you fully option out a Haas high speed machine the price is nearly the same as one of the other brands and the options are standard on their machines and many times exceed anything that Haas offers. I like american made but I also like to have it right the first time. One thing I can say about Japanese machines is that their designers and manufacturers seem to take their product quality and performance personally while the US engineers and designers are just worried about what toys they are going to buy and play with this weekend and the hell with everything else because we got BIG NUMBERS. A 100 foot tall pile of crap is still always a pile of crap no matter how you look at it and not one turd in this pile can be picked up by the clean end.

[cncmachiningzon]

this is cncmachiningzone.com i hve been using haas mills and lathes for the past two years .. mini mill .. sl10 and 20's and VF3's and never had any problems with it ...

[joecnc1234]

I don't know. a company I do work for just bought 5 mills and 2 lathes including a 4 axis lathe and a couple of vf3's for around $500,000 and they work awesome I only personally have experience on their mills and lathes up till 2001 and other than coolant leaking arournd the spinkle area they have been great machines. I worked for a company that bought daewoo mills a couple of years ago and if you put an indicator in the spindle and put it on the table and leaned on the sheetmetal of the machine the indicator would move at least a .001" so you get what you pay for.

[gizmo_454]

No matter what you do, or where you go, there will always be someone that has something good, or bad to say about Haas machines. But isn't that true about anything? Computers? Cars? Boats? Planes? TV's? DVD's? MP3 players? Everything is like that. To each their own. Everyone has an opinion, and a right to it.

Are there better built machines out there? Sure. Are there better priced machines out there? Yep. Does anyone really know why Haas builds so many machines a year?

It's not because they are the best machine. It's not necessarily because their service is the best. Not that they have the most options. In most instances, they offer the best bang for the buck. Also, they will finance their own machines if you cannot afford to pay cash for one. They want to sell a machine.

I bought 2 Haas' in the last year, and I'll buy another because they gave me what I want. A machine that works, an HFO that is responsive to our needs, and all at a good price.

As for the fellow that is using the SL-30, I don't know what you are doing to make the machine grown, but our SL-10, which is 15 HP, and no 2 speed gearbox, will take a .1" cut easily in steel without too much trouble, other than shoving the bar back through the collet, making my part too short.

The debate goes on and on, but this is my .02. One of these years, I'll have to go check out Westec and see what all the hub bub is about.