Spindle orientation

[StampCraft]

Hello, I have a Haas VF3 (97') owned since new. I have recently began having a 106 (spindle orien)alarm appears and stay. I've checked the book and was wondering if anyone else has experienced this and how they fixed it. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Stamper

[rleu]

Possible encoder issue does the spindle turn??

[dertsap]

i have no experience with hass but ive seen this issue after a machine has crashed and spun the coupler , if the machine hasn t crashed then you may want to check that everything is tight

[StampCraft]

116 alarm
Yes, the spindle turns. This has been coming on slowly for the past 6 months till it just quit. The machine has never been crashed and is rarely used in heavy machining. (I just think there's a microswitch somewhere not being made).

Stamper

[serviceman]

is the machine a vector drive? if not then you have a shot pin if you have a shot pin then you can try to adjust paraemters 73 and 74 sp high and sp low this is the orientation speed in high gear and lo gear you can also try shifting in to high gear before you orient since it is easier to stop the spindle in high gear. your orientation ring may be worn or the shot pin is leaking air and doses not have force to stop the spindle or the limit switch on the shot pin is no good.

[Donkey Hotey]

How is your toolchanger doing? Is it orienting the tool correctly for tool change? I'm not sure on which machines have shot-pin orientation vs software orientation but I'm going to assume yours is the 'shot-pin' variety.

If it has a belt-driven rotary encoder, the belt can/will strip its teeth. Make sure it's fresh. It might not be a bad idea to replace it anyway if it's original.

Also: a friend mentioned a case where the setscrew on the rotary encoder pulley came loose. It gave them similar intermittent alarms as it would slip on the encoder shaft. It was also giving them lots of problems doing rigid tapping (as you'd expect).

The good/bad news is that in order to check the set screws, you're going to have to pull the timing belt anyway. I'd just plan on replacing it.

Of course it might actually be the encoder but I'd check the other things first.