Need Help!- Adding 4th axis to Mini Mill

[RonThom]

Does anyone have a 4th-Axis Drive (4AXBLMM) and cables for brushless-type rotary tables to fit a Haas Mini Mill that they would like to sell? I am not opposed to using a non Haas drive if there is something that will work.

I bought a 2005 Super Mini Mill that should arrive in about a week and would like to add the 4th axis.

Thanks, Ron

[Donkey Hotey]

I think there is a code you'll need to turn the 4th axis option 'on' in the control--there's more to it than just an amplifier and cables.

[Geof]

Yes a code is needed. You are probably better off just getting the Haas 4th axis installed.

The Z clearance is a bit limited on the Super MiniMill and the largest rotary that is practical is the HRT160.

[RonThom]

Thanks guys,

The plan is to use a 5C indexer and I had hoped to talk Haas into giving me the code to enable it. Of course that may be a problem! The $2300 price brings out the response that it is more than a little over priced, but not having a workable design I won't be making one anytime soon. The bottom line is I will probably be ordering one after the machine arrives and I am ready to fire it up.

Thanks, Ron

[charger19690]

You could get lucky. We just stole a 4th axis card out of our VF6, (it was shipped with 2 for a trunnion table that was sold years back) and put one in one of our Mini Mills.

We were in the same boat, we have 4 Minis, and one happen to have the option turned on. Turns out that when the company purchased the mill it was a floor model which had everything turned on, but they stripped the hardware before they gave it to us.

It was a nice surprise because we were able to put a small 5C indexer job in there to open one of other machines up.

The only other problem was fudging the parameters so the indexer indexed to the right angle. There is a for better terms resolution parameter for the pulse of the indexer. Our reseller wouldn't support the technical information because we didn't buy the option. We were able to make it work correctly.

Mike in MN

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[RonThom]

Hi Mike,

Tell me more about getting the 4th axis added to the Mini Mill. What parameters did you have to set, and to what values? Still have not found a used drive so it might not make much diffference, may still have to buy a new one.

My mill has not arrived yet and I am not sure what might be turned on, maybe I will get lucky.

Thanks, Ron

[Geof]

I think you should resign yourself to paying for it if the machine does not have it fitted. I would guess you will find it difficult finding a used 4th axis amplifier and even if you do it is likely to be the older brushed version.

[charger19690]

Yeah, I would also say it will be difficult to find a loose card for it. Our situation was pretty lucky in the fact that the company I work for ended up buying a machine (the VF6 with Trunnion table) then selling off part of it. And to have an old Mini Mill that had the option turned on, I figure it's like wining the lottery...

When you get it and if you find a card, let me know, I would have to dig in the control to figure out again what it was all about.

All I know is it took us about a day to get it to index correctly playing around with things we probably shouldn't have. We also had a CMM to back up our experiments to prove it was indexing correctly.

Mike in Mn

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[03clipse]

I run a VF2 with 4th axis. One job I needed to run with the HRT210 and a small 5c indexer I just used a HAAS control box and fired a m code to the control box and it fires the 5c indexer. all haas mills should have the aux m-code output. But that would only work if you have the extra stuff laying around.