VF2 spindle lubrication

[fokusco]

I have a 2003 VF2. Running yesterday and the spindle started to sound funny... sort of like dry bearings or something... I had assumed that the spindle was lubricated by means of the way lube oil from the resivior on the back of the machine. Looking at the manual it mentions gearbox oil that is accesed from the top of the machine above the spindle motor. well there is no filling cup up there... my boss wants me to take of the entire spindle motor housing wich will require disconnect of the prog. coolant, some airlines and about 4 hours of work... there has to be an eaiser way to lube the spindle! any suggestions? think that a dry spindle is the source of my "dry bearing" sound?

[fokusco]

got to looking a little further... looks as tho the spindle is lubed by way of air over oil... ok so I follow the line that looks to be connected to the spindle to the back of the machine and come to a regulator.. while the spindle is of it reads 0 pressure and while it is on it reads 18... is 18 normal? can spindle bearings go bad? difficult to replace? any insight would be helpful!

[extanker59]

That spindle air pressure is one of the weekly checks in my VF2ss (17PSI).
Our spindle went bad, making a lot of noise, days before the warrenty expired so we were "lucky". The service guy at first misdiagnosed the problem so we were down 2.5 days. They really pushed for a different problem, in my view. They say there is no spindle problem but we've had our problem and I've read of a lot of other spindle problems too.
Still... the machine is worth it. It's making us parts and it's in the right price range.

[fokusco]

Yeah I typically check that regulator... guess I had just never traced that line to the spindle before... guess i was checking not knowing for sure that was the right reg to check haha.... oh well.. 17-18 is ok so thats all that matters... what was it that went wrong with your spindle?

[extanker59]

I don't know the details of what specifically was wrong inside the spindle cartridge. For us, it was the noise mainly (very loud- had to talk loudly close to the machine). Surprisingly, the finish was only slightly affected at that point. The first spindle they sent and installed appeared to be a used one, even though the service guy claimed it wasn't. It had to be changed right away. Noise didn't get better. They got a new spindle cartridge in and it was like night and day. Very quiet. He also changed out the oil orifice (apparently a new directive- when changing the spindle, change the orifice too- a clue to their problems?). We read the directions for changing the spindle and it talks about ensuring the oil is filled around the spindle cartridge. Both the guys who came from Haas weren't familiar with that and we had to point that out to them. They were about to close up the machine. But it got done.

[rlabonte18]

If your machine has through the spindle coolant sometimes the rotary coupling on top can sound like a bad spindle if it locks up or drags.

[Mr.Xtreme]

We had a spindle replaced in our VF2SS while still under warrantee, but it was a different sound.
Actually it sounded like a whirling buzz sound. They replaced the spindle because they put a noise probe on with software and had a couple spikes, but not enought to call it bad, but put one in for us while still covered.
Turns out it seems like that orange daisy coupling for Motor connect to spindle is our noise.
Your problem noise sounds like I have been hearing for years on several Haas Mills.
It is the Air at certain times while spindle is running sounds like a dry bearing.
It is not a consistant sound and happens at any time, and sometimes all day you won't hear it.
These spindles with this noise have been running for several years now and still haven't needed replacement.
Yours could quite possibly be the same.

Paul

[jimmck]

We have a VF2 ,2001 and there is a lube fill cup for the spindle at the top of the spindle .Our machine has been making the noise for a long time,but still runs great.

www.jmfabrications.com

[fokusco]

Thanks for the input guys... But, I was told by my boss to continue running. So run, I did. About 3 hours into today i was boring a hole when all of a sudden *CRUNCH*! My spindle locked! lol So now we are going to try to get HAAS out here to take a look...

[littlerob]

Things should not go *CRUNCH* in a Machine shop, sorry about that.

[fokusco]

haha that's kind of what I was thinking... it was more like *crunch**ping* the bearings grinding and then locking the spindle was the crunch sound and the ping was my endmill breaking... not really sure why my mill didn't fault out when the spindle locked now that I think about it.... hmmm