Hooking up HAAS VF-3

[scidog]

Hello,

I have a year 2000 HAAS VF-3.

It's been 4 years since it has seen use, and I just got the thing running.

After performing the maintenance and checks cited in the manual, the thing seems to move well enough.

I am now looking for a dummies guide for "Running your first program on the HAAS VF-3".

The manual has a lot of in-depth info, and I am of course reading the manual.

Still, if anything else is out there, it would be stupid not to ask. I find that users often give better instruction than manuals, especially for quick-start guides.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

scidog

PS
I attached

[Geof]

My suggestion...Start going through the posts in the Haas Mill forum. You will probaly find most of the questions you will ever ask, and the answers.

If you come up with a question that has not been asked previously then ask away.

[swain]

Hi scidog.

I have run a 1999 vf3 for 9 years. If you need any thing specific, I can help you. PM me and get my email or phone....be happy to help you.

What cad/cam software are you gonna be using?
Are you just learning now or do you have a specific job that needs to be done?

Are you are new to cnc, and have you run manual machines before?

I ask this because you need to think the same mode when clamping or jiging your work to the table and setting up tools, but as far as programing, machining as you would on manual does not up your production. For an example, you can run a 1/2 skicarb end mill at max rpm<7500> at 200 ipm if you have clamped things right. No one in thier right mind would do this on a machine with no enclosure.

I usually start off slow till I get the bugs worked out on the programming, then ramp up the speed and feed. Most manual machinists cringe when they see some of the stuff I do. That skicarb end mill I was just talking about will have chips flying from one end of the machine to the wall on the other side.
It looks like a blizzard of chips fogging up the machine.

Also, do you know what options your machine has? ridgid tapping, rotation and scaling>spelling?> ect. They are handy.

The most looked at part of the haas manual is the g and m codes section. To this day I still look up codes in there to help me machine items faster and with less programming. I also wrote some nice thread milling macro's that saves alot of time in programming. Position the tool over a hole center and call the macro in the program. This saves loads of time. I use this mostly for blind hole threading.

Good luck with your machine...and try not to crash it. <wink>

Dan