ALARM shuttle drawbar alarm haas

[timmydabull]

Originally Posted by Vern Smith Good for you, my pages would not have done you any good anyhow. Now get some sleep so you can successfully deal with Geof's imminent job offer.

right now i would take whatever i could get

[CJH]

Hi guys,

I just stumbled across this thread. I'm expiriencing the same thing with the tool clamp faults on our TM-1. We had the same problem a few months back and had a tech come in. Apparently it was the large oring inside the spindle drawbar clamp unit. We had a lot of crud in there from the materials we are cutting. He cleaned it all out and gave it light lube. The mill has run fine for a few months and now it is doing the same thing again. I'm thinking that it is probably the same thing. so I plan to tear it down and give it a good cleaning. What I was wondering is if anyone knows where to get a replacement oring for it? The tech says that Haas reccomends replacing the whole unit. I'm not sure we have a full replacement of the unit in our budget. In fatc I' don't have cost on the repalcement. Has anyone had to do this? What does the unit cost? We would probably do the replacement ourselves.

Any help would be appreciated in this.

CJH

[Haas__man]

Replacing the o-ring isn't too difficult. It's a fiddley job but once you figure out how to do it it;s not too bad. You'll need to remove the 5/8 circlip from the top of the clamp cylinder which is kind of a two man procedure. Fully clean the whole unit. Then i would suggest greasing up the new o-ring. Depending on the age of your machine the piston could either be round, square, or rectangular. You will also find that the o-ring appears to be way too big for the piston. It is supposed to be like that. I would suggest putting the o-ring over the four corners of the piston platethen gently feeding the piston plate back into the piston until you just pinch the o-ring. Keep a little pressure on the plate while you evenly feed the o-ring back inside. You will probably not manage to do it the first couple of times but you'll get there in the end. Patience.
Once the o-ring is back in you'll just need to refit the circlip. Be careful when removing the circlip, don't stretch it too far as you open it, or it will probably come loose during operation later. It might be an idea to get some spare circlips too.
Also before you replace the o-ring you should try these tips first:
Make sure your air pressure is around 100 psi
make sure you have no more than 10% pressure drop during tool change
Make sure you have enough air volume, try to avoid snap on fittings
You should grease the pullstuds on your tools monthly, not too much though just a couple of dabs, and try not to get grease on the spindle taper.
Try to avoid leaving tools in the spindle overnight
Periodically clean your spindle taper and smear on a light oil too
periodically clean tool holders and make sure they are free of rust
Your compressed air should ideally be dry.
Hope this helps

[CJH]

Haas_Man,

You brought up some things that I already know. The Haas tech told me how to take it apart and put back togehter since I wasn't around when he did the last service and didn't get in till he was done. So I have that covered, but thanks for the reminder.

"Make sure your air pressure is around 100 psi" Yep ours is set to between 95 and 100psi.
"make sure you have no more than 10% pressure drop during tool change" I haven't monitored this but will check it. We moved the machine to a new facility about a year ago and this problem began here in the new place. Our air compressor is in a location a lot further away now, this may have something to do with it. It wouldn't surprise me if the CA pipe has been undersized. "Value engineering" you know how it is.
"Make sure you have enough air volume, try to avoid snap on fittings."
I never stopped to think about this one, but yea our machine is plumbed without QD fittings, we only use those if we have it run on the aux compressor overnight since the air goes off at the end of the day automatically. Gotta love smart building controls.

I may try to isolate the mill and run on the aux comp. to see if that makes a difference. When I looked at it last time with the shroud off, the drawbar initally worked fine except for the last little bit of return.

The other stuff I knew about maintaining the tool holders, and leaving an empty pocket at night. But some times it's hard to remember to do it.

From the sounds of it you have replaced your o-ring. Is this correct? If so where did you get a new one?

I'll try your tips when I get back to the office next week. Today was my day off.

Thanks for the tips......

CJH