Problem- Installing / Removing HAAS HRT210 4th AXIS

[glenn105]

We have a new HAAS VF-3 (40"x20") Mill and have a few jobs that require the use of a 4th Axis Indexing Head. We bought our mill with a HAAS HRT210 Indexing Head. Since the table is fairly small, when we're NOT using the indexer, we need to remove it from the table. This occurs quite often. We really don't have a good way of lifting the HRT210 in and out of the VF-3.

Does anyone have any clever ideas that might make things a little easier?

thanks in advance.
-Glenn

[Geof]

For lifting a HRT210 in and out of a VF2 I modified an engine hoist by mounting the casters on a piece of flat bar welded to the top of the base tubes instead of having the casters bolted under the tube. This lowered the base several inches. Then I raised the VF2 an inch or so higher than normal by putting aluminum pads under the pucks that the levelling screws rest on. This way the base of the engine hoist could could go under the machine with the boom inside to pick up the rotary.

[Delw]

Vf2ss
I moved mine on friday and off today,
I have a cart that is as high as the table and I slide it on and off. I picked it up it wasnt that heavy either, just watch your fingers

I have a engine hoist, for it but havent shortened the legs up yet, the engine hoist is the only way to go, just shorten the legs about 1-2 feet.

this is one of those compact engine hoist that fold up. It has sliding legs and a extended boom, if you cut the tabs off the legs , the legs will slide in farther.


Delw

[Geof]

Originally Posted by Delw ...... I picked it up it wasnt that heavy either, just watch your fingers....Delw

If 'it wasn't that heavy' you must be a gorilla. The first time I put one in a VF machine I didn't have any hoist or cart so I lifted it in stages up onto some boxes then inched it along a length of plywood between the stack of boxes and the machine table; it was d****d heavy, to me at least.

I never did that again.

[mls]

I have always had someone help me we stick a bar thru the 2 in hole and pick it up it is fairly heavy. I will have to modify my engine lift if I use this more it has only been in there twice.
Mike

[samhyto]

Geof is telling you the smart way to do it, you want the front wheels under the weight. I've seen it with the wheels behind the weight (boom extended), and with the boom turned about the frame 180 degrees. Both of these had alot of weight added to the base to increase the mechanical advantage. Even with the weight added these were not stable and could send the rotary to the floor.

The additional benefit to to raising the machine....ergonomics. You don't have to bendover as far to put parts, vices etc in and out of the machine. You don't really notice/appreciate this until you work on the bigger VF's then go and do work on a VF0,1 or 2.

Stay Safe,

Sam

[Delw]

My vf2 sets at the prefect height along with my rolling carts for me , I dont have to bend over to pick anything up off the cart to put on the mill and vise versa, its more of a pickup and slde than anything else, dead lifting one of these things forget it.

The plywood and alum trick works good have used them on the fadals and acrolocs,


Sam,
Thats worried me about he weight distibution on the engine lift also by shortening the legs. I planned on putting about 8 shotgun shot bags on the lift in the back.
now that you guys talk about raising the machine, I might end up doing that, the thought of dropping something that cost 8-10k is pretty scarey


Dekw

[Geof]

Originally Posted by samhyto .....The additional benefit to to raising the machine....ergonomics. You don't have to bendover as far to put parts, vices etc in and out of the machine. You don't really notice/appreciate this until you work on the bigger VF's then go and do work on a VF0,1 or 2. Stay Safe, Sam

The funny thing is that the machine we raised is part of a 'cell' run by a small fellow so he has to stand on a platfrom to easily reach the slightly higher machine.

[greg emmon]

we also have a moving table but we welded tubing out riggers that put the hrt 210 right over the table then we just slide the cart back ..

[glenn105]

Wow, guys... Thanks for all the ideas. I had thought about using an engine crane, but the one that I have has casters that cause the legs to sit too high to slide under the VF-3. I really didn't want to have to lift the VF-3 and install riser blocks and have to re-level the machine, but it sounds like I might end up doing just that.

I figured I'd pose this question because I had one heck of a time putting the HRT210 on the table the first time. Since we didn't have the right equipment, here's what we did...(won't do this again, though) We wheeled the steel cart with the HRT210 to one end of the VF-3 cabinet. I grabbed two other guys in the shop and a 10 foot 2" Pipe. I looped a chain over the pipe and latched it onto the HRT210 lifting ring. One guy stood at the end of the cabinet and one guy stood at the front of the machine with the doors open. Both guys lifted each end of the pipe, while I slid the HRT210 onto the table by sliding the chain along the pipe. Then the guys lowered the pipe to rest the indexer on the table. In short, it worked, it was somewhat safe, but I prefer not to involve three guys in what should be such a simple task.

The biggest pain in the butt is that the cabinet won't let you get a rolling cart close enough to the table to slide the indexer onto the table without some sort of bridge or ramp. I guess an engine crane does seem like the best way to go if I can get the legs under the cabinet.

Thanks again for all the posts, guys!
-Glenn
Buzzards Bay, MA

[CJH]

There's a company in Idaho that makes compact cranes for doing just this type of lifting. We've been looking for a way to safely lift our 4th as well. I ran across this company doing an internet search after seeing one of their products in the Enco catalog.

Here's a link to the webpage fo Skyhook. http://www.skyhook.cc/

We're probably going with the 8570 cart and integrated crane, since we've also been looking at either buying or fabricating a cart for all of our heavy tooling, so it's not sitting on a work bench.

Chris

[Geof]

Of course you can always build your own solution bolted onto the machine.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22023