[DSL PWR]

When are we going to get some info on the SS/ST lathes? Price, y-axis travel, spindle hp, sub hp, live tool hp, various configs...

[MikeOD]

I'll be working in the Haas booth for Westec too, say hi if you see me. (I'll also be at Eastec for the whole show since thats the show thats 20 minutes from my job at HFO Hartford).

[Haas_Apps]

Okay, Okay, I know it has been a loooong time, but expect to get all these questions answered very soon. The hold up has been me. I have not been entirely satisfied with the machine until recently. This machine has been tested again and again and again. My boss has refused to release the machine until I am happy with it. It has been a long time coming and I think you will like what you see.

I really hate to burst your bubble, but no Y-axis right now.

I expect that we will start finalizing price, availiblity, etc. within the next two weeks. Don't hold me to this. It is really just a guess.

When are we going to get some info on the SS/ST lathes? Price, y-axis travel, spindle hp, sub hp, live tool hp, various configs...

[Donkey Hotey]

Wow, wow, wow, is all I've got to say. Day one at Westec was painfully slow. The whole second hall (Kentia Hall) was closed this year. I got main hall parking at 9:30 AM. The floor was less than half as crowded as past years.

I'm about to head down there for today. I don't know if I'll need to go back tomorrow or not. I'll be spending quite a bit of time in the Haas booth today.

I never did verify the restaurant options. I'm going to look at a motorcycle after the show today (they close at 6:00) and I took my mom out to dinner last night.

[peter@slater]

We had a fair amount of traffic at the Slater booth yesterday, but the few times I wandered away it did seem like the Haas area was always packed. I took a video of one of our tools over there.

There's an wide variety if attendees from nearly every mechanical industry I've heard of. Interestingly, there were also alot of retired guys just looking around for something new to do in their garage.

We had dinner at the Engine Co. #28 two nights ago, and had a beautiful monster burger with spicey fries. We ate Italian at the Sheraton Hotel last night, all good. There's no shortage of good grub here.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRKfKrTcAmM"]YouTube - Slater Tools Rotary Broach in Haas SL 10[/ame]

[peter@slater]

Cool reverse engineering apps from Verisurf at 2009 Westec show.

[tobyaxis]

Wow, wow, wow, is all I've got to say. Day one at Westec was painfully slow. The whole second hall (Kentia Hall) was closed this year. I got main hall parking at 9:30 AM. The floor was less than half as crowded as past years.

I'm about to head down there for today. I don't know if I'll need to go back tomorrow or not. I'll be spending quite a bit of time in the Haas booth today.

I never did verify the restaurant options. I'm going to look at a motorcycle after the show today (they close at 6:00) and I took my mom out to dinner last night.

Empty means less fighting traffic, but being slow doesn't look good for the economy.

[Donkey Hotey]

We had a fair amount of traffic at the Slater booth yesterday,...

And I was one of your customers today. Thank you again for giving me a solid explanation of rotary broaching and your fine product line. It was a bit much to decipher from the website but I now know what I need.

The show had quite a bit more people today. A guy I know at one of the booths said that at noon it was already double what they had all day on Monday. That was good news. It's still off of last year but it looked a bit more normal than yesterday.

Haas had a few new machines. I'll post more tomorrow when I have a solid idea of what I'm talking about.

Their new Mill/Drill machine was absolutely startling (15K spindle, 0.8 sec tool changes, new sidemount tool changer and a Mini-mill footprint--wow!).

They also had a new compact, 2-axis trunion that mounts fore & aft instead of side to side. That means it will fit on one side of a VF-3 or larger table. They had a demo with a Kurt vise on one side (first op), then the trunion on the other side to do all the second op stuff.

It still took me two days to get through the show. Tomorrow is mop-up day for me. I'm going to go back and talk to a few vendors, maybe buy a few things and spend the rest of the day hanging around the Haas booth.

[MikeOD]

I haven't met any of you forum/zone guys yet in the Haas booth...but I assure you, I'm there (well right now I'm in the hotel up the street...but tomorrow I'll be there again).

The new drill/tap machine (DT-1) is very cool indeed...what Greg didn't point out, is that it's rigid tapping at 5000 RPM ...and the VF-12 is bigger than my apartment...I a very excited to see the production version of the DT-1 hit the showroom floors...I think that machine has tremendous potential.

The show has picked up the past day and half or so...today was a very good day for attendance...but I am definitely looking forward to getting back to the other side of the country after tomorrow

[tobyaxis]

I haven't met any of you forum/zone guys yet in the Haas booth...but I assure you, I'm there (well right now I'm in the hotel up the street...but tomorrow I'll be there again).

The new drill/tap machine (DT-1) is very cool indeed...what Greg didn't point out, is that it's rigid tapping at 5000 RPM ...and the VF-12 is bigger than my apartment...I a very excited to see the production version of the DT-1 hit the showroom floors...I think that machine has tremendous potential.

The show has picked up the past day and half or so...today was a very good day for attendance.

Hey Mike,

Any chance you can take a few snap shots of the VF-12 for us. The HFO here is only like 4000 sq ft. Most likely not enough room for a Monster

A Little WestTec on the Zone would be quite COOL!!!!

[Donkey Hotey]

I haven't met any of you forum/zone guys yet in the Haas booth...

Not so sure about that, Mike.

You're from the HFO in Windsor, Ct, right? We talked at length this afternoon about training design engineers to use Haas equipment in their own R&D lab?

Me:

[tobyaxis]

Tell me that is your new machine Greg

[Donkey Hotey]

That's my machine (look at the date on the door). Not 'new' anymore but if you saw how few hours it has...yeah...it's still new.

[tobyaxis]

Hmmmmm.......... Who is the guy in the white shirt

[Donkey Hotey]

That guy in the white shirt is exhausted. I got home at 7:00 PM and collapsed in bed. I didn't roll over until 11:30 PM. I'm now thinking of driving back in the morning.

I had plans of spending only 'two' days (or maybe three) but ended up spending much of Tuesday and Wednesday with friends at the show. That leads to spending time at different booths and learning different things, but it also cut into my personal plans.

I got all the 'high value' info I needed, but I'm still off tomorrow...and it'll just cost the price of gas, parking and lunch. Hmmm. I'd better get to bed.

[tobyaxis]

That 'gut' in the white shirt is exhausted. I got home at 7:00 PM and collapsed in bed. I didn't roll over until 11:30 PM. I'm now thinking of driving back in the morning.

I had plans of spending only 'two' days (or maybe three) but ended up spending much of Tuesday and Wednesday with friends at the show. That leads to spending time at different booths and learning different things, but it also cut into my personal plans.

I got all the 'high value' info I needed, but I'm still off tomorrow...and it'll just cost the price of gas, parking and lunch. Hmmm. I'd better get to bed.

That was not supposed to be gut I must have hit "t" in stead of "y". Sorry My Bad.

[Donkey Hotey]

I just can't do it. I just woke up and I should be on the road. I'm exhausted. Three days is all I can do. I'm going to have to start training hard if I'm going to see IMTS next year.

[tobyaxis]

I just can't do it. I just woke up and I should be on the road. I'm exhausted. Three days is all I can do. I'm going to have to start training hard if I'm going to see IMTS next year.

Training Hard??? I was unaware that the shows were this exhausting You weren't mugged were you??? Did you find a place to eat at least, besides the "Road Kill Cafe"????

Where are all your pictures from the show???

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed yourself.

Next time you will be ready

[Donkey Hotey]

I actually took very few pictures. They 'prohibit' photos inside the show but if I asked, I was never turned down to shoot things. Sorry, I didn't get pictures of the VF-12. It just looked like a 40-taper, VS-3 parked inside of a big, sheetmetal barn.



I'll compress the video of the DT-1 and post it later. I didn't get a picture of the machine but it was in their What's New at Westec brochure. I don't remember if the VF-12 was in there. If it was, I'll scan it too (it's out in the car right now).

I failed on the dinner thing. I had other plans every night. It looked like the LA Live venue was still under some kind of construction (new parking garage, I think--they need it).

[tobyaxis]

I can probably park my truck on that

NICE!!!!!