[ghyman]

We have a shop full of Haas, plus a smattering of others: Okuma, Cincinnati, and even a Komo from years gone by.
I'm a fan of the Fanuc control, and Haas does an excellent job of duplicating the Fanuc; I want to keep the learning curve down, and introducing a new control is a little scary for me... I believe in using the best available tool for the job, but at the same time, if a vanilla-flavored Haas can get me into the same functionality as what the Fadal+Fanuc was supposed to achieve, then I will be happy with that. And the ability to drop any operator in front of it with very little training on 'how to use the new control' makes that decision a little easier.

[Edster]

I've got a few Haas machines and I've been happy with them. For bang for the buck you can't go wrong with them.

[ghyman]

The refund check did NOT bounce!!!

...and they all lived happily ever after.

[goechsli]

The spindle stalling out is, once again, due to the TSC seals leaking on the belts. Mine was doing the same thing before the seals were replaced the first time.

When the TSC seals were replaced for the second time, the service tech discovered that there was a check valve in the coolant supply line that was keeping coolant from being purged when the TSC was turned off. This also contributed to the oily coolant mess in the spindle area as well. I also got the line that the TSC seals will always be a problem. The tech told me that if you turn on the TSC with a tool that doesn't use TSC, this will ruin the seals after only one time, or so I was told. This is a problem, seeing as the regular coolant and the TSC switch are side-by-side on the controller. You never know when the operator may put a HSS drill in place of a coolant drill without thinking.

I have a third call in to Fadal (Cardinal Machinery...excellent sales and service by the way) as we speak for a problem most likely related to the tensioners. It makes an intermittent noise when starting up after a tool change that also requires a speed range change.

The machine (a 6030) was installed in 15 Aug 07. It's been very productive. All of the situations that required service have not been so severe that we couldn't still run the machine and total downtime has been about 20 hours. All of the service has been under warranty so far and has been done by factory technicians.

I've got a requisition in for another Fadal, a 4020FX. I think they are great machines for the money. I'm thinking you got a lemon, which really sucks, I know. It happens, but it always alters your perception of the manufacturer.

We had a major problem with the TSC seal kits blowing out and leaking coolant on the belts and I feel like that also contributed to the spindle failures that we've encountered. However there is a quite simple fix, about 2 years ago I installed a pressure relief valve in the TSC line, with the pressure set around 100 PSI, and have had very little trouble since. You may concider trying this.