[smittys800]

Just recieved my New/Old Mill. Looking for ideas for a chip enclosure. Thought about the HAAS Chip/Coolant guard, but for 700.00, figured I might make my own, just looking for a few ideas.
Thanks,
Smitty

[CJH]

Smitty,

We wrestled with the same exact issue in our shop. The first couple of projects that we did on the TM-1 were dry acrylic, so we didn't think much about it. Then the first coolant job ended in puddles everywhere. So we weighed our options of custom building an enclosure for the mill. So after figuring what it would cost to pay for a couple of day fab time for one of us to make what we needed the $700 or so dollars to buy from Haas seemed more cost effective. That way we could still keep all hands (myself and another guy) on programming and production since we were at a busy time in our schedule.

Some points to note would be...

1. Use alot of silicone caulking to seal the machine. This machine is a massive leaker.

2. Bend up a small sheet metal shroud to extend past the box holding the optical limit switch on the Y axis, you will lose lots of coolant at that spot.

3. If the machine doesn't have the table chip/coolant gaurds then get those as well they help a lot.

4. In front of the machine on the base casting the open area under the Y axis handwheel also needs to have a covering. We covered ours with thin gauge aluminum, leaving about a 1" opening at the bottom along the length. It may be usefull to mount it on a hinge if you plan on doing a large quantiy of work on the machine, cleaning that nook out can be a hassle if you don't hinge the plate.

5. The table drain hose is also an issue sometimes, if you can, I would reccomend drilling drain holes on either end of the table and let it drain vertically into the pan that way. The factory hole is just slightly above the bottom of the T-slots so the coolant will lay in the table till every is cleared manually.

6. I you plan on doing a lot of fixturing changes, I may also recommend getting a few lengths of the T-slot covers like they sell for Bridgeports. This will help keep the chips out of the slots and make the collant run a lot better.

7. On our machine I made a quick aluminum splash gard that is easily removed when not running coolant, that runs the length of the factory standard chip trough that drains into the coolant sump.

8. Some other ideas we have kicked around in our shop are adding endcaps to our shroud pans made from lexan or aluminum, but make sure if you do this keep in mind the clearances for the table moves.

One other note, at some point you may want to upgrade a get a larger coolant resivoir, the 5 gallon one is a bit under the need if you plan to run the mill over night a lot with the coolant.

All in all though we have had the machine on the floor making chips for the past 3 years and could be more happy with it.

Hope this helps.....

CJH

[HAILINHAAS]

Will you post some pictures of your machine to see the fabrication you did to it.

[smittys800]

CJH,
Thanks for the reply. Was just looking at my options this morning, and looks like a home made Enclosure might be the best bet, or just man up and get the one from HAAS.
Garage is still packed with the old Machines that need to go to their new home, so I have NO room to do JACK SQUAT.
Will post some pics once I get things rolling,
Smitty

[Geof]

Just recieved my New/Old Mill. Looking for ideas for a chip enclosure. Thought about the HAAS Chip/Coolant guard, but for 700.00, figured I might make my own, just looking for a few ideas.
Thanks,
Smitty

Before cutting and bending sheet metal you could try making a prototype using Coroplast. This is the corrugated plastic used for signs; Home Depot has it but it is called Tenplast I think. I have used this for splashguards, it is easily cut, you can score it and bend it and then Pop rivet it together with some caulking along the seams.

[gunsmither]

I initially purchased the chip and coolent guard with my TM1, but sent it back before ever making a cut. I found it to be so high and deep, as to be very awkward to place things in a vise, or take a measurement, or to operate the vise handle for that matter.

I haven't used coolant yet, just brushing on oil while learning to use the machine. I was visualizing something along the lines of a clear shower curtain to surround the beast for chip and coolant containment.

[smittys800]

I like the curtan idea, cheap fix for temp use for now. Toss some magnets to the bottom of the curtan to hold to the chip pan. We will see!@
Smitty

[smittys800]

Well, I did not MAN up and buy the HAAS chip tray, made my own enclosure.
Spent most of Monday whittling this out, kinda ugly lookin', but seems to work ok for now. Spent maybe 200.00 in materials. Battleship Grey, and some stickers soon to add some color!!!!
Notice the little hole in the left side, forgot about the Servo motor on that end... WHOOPPSS
Smitty

[Ken_Shea]

Smitty,
That is not ugly, looks good to me and you can buy a lot of tooling for the $500 or $600 bucks you saved, not a bad days pay at all.

You are going to have to lengthen that servo opening in the Y direction also.

Ken

[Geof]

....Notice the little hole in the left side, forgot about the Servo motor on that end... WHOOPPSS
Smitty

And in my post I had deleted the sentence that read; "and if you goof up and don't leave enough clearance nothing serious happens" because I thought it sounded a bit of .

[Ken_Shea]

Smitty,
At first look I thought your guard was separate from the table , so my mention of enlarging in the Y does not apply.


Here are a couple of things that you or other Haas owners may find useful.

The first is a picture of the tool release button which is covered with a Butler Creek 01 Objective flip open scope cover. This was after inadvertently releasing a tool with the palm of my hand.

The second is self explanatory, affixed with good quality double sided sticky tape, this is used all the time, very handy.

[gizmo_454]

Good idea on the button cover. They must have had too many people do that in the past, as the button on the new machines are supposedly on the side of the head instead of the front.

[smittys800]

Yep,
On the Y axis, I felt like a moran when I did the home cycle, turn'd my back to grab something, and heard a small creek/crack. Oh crap!!!! Little trim here and there, and all is good. Will just make a small box to cover the hole, but I think I will lenghen (sp) that slot, never know!!
I like the tool release cover, I have found myself leaning way to close to that button, and the Calculator is a no brainer.
Thanks for all the comments, figured I share my ideas, as I will most likely be needin' a little asst. from time to time,
Smitty

[mpstech]

smittys800 do you have any updates on this enclosure ?
How is it holding up ? what paints did you use ?
Anybody else build there own enclosure lately ?
Anybody have any recommendations for paint/coating ?

I just built something similiar out of plywood and 1x's.
Now I'm needing to paint/coat it with something. I
use a water based synthetic coolant and cut aluminum
most of the time. I was thinking some of the garage floor paints or 1 part epoxy concrete paints would work well. I will also reassemble and calk it
with silicone of course to keep the leaks down.

[smittys800]

The enclosure is working just fine. Had a few small leaks, some of my own, most from the machine itself as mentioned before. Have most taken care of. As for paint, I used a good quality primer and paint, and have not had any issues with lifting. I would think Epoxy paint would work just fine.
My doors are made from 1/4 Lexan, and the bottom rail is actually some 1/2 plastic pipe I cut in half so the doors slide nicley in that. Now I f I could only get some more spindle speed out of it, I would be set for sure.
Smitty

[mpstech]

Cool, sound great and thanks for the update.
I'm with ya on the spindle speed....

[Ken_Shea]

Smitty and mpstech,
There is quite a bit of info on this site on speeding up the TM1 but essentially all you need to do is

You first may have to unlock the Paramteres to do this
1) Press Emergency stop
2) Press the SETNG/GRAPH key
3) Type 7 the push the down arrow
4) Use the Left or Right Arrow to change to off.
5) When off is shown press Write/Enter


Then follow these steps

1) Press Param/Dgnos
2) Enter 131
3) Press down Arrow
4) Change parameter 131 from 4000 to 6000 and press Writr/Enter
5) Enter 183
6) Press down arrow
7) Change parameter 183 from what it is to 20000, mine was 13333 I believe
and press Write/Enter


What you will be doing with the 183 Parameter id increasing it the same ration you increased the RPM.

Now you will have 6000rpm and likely No Warranty

The spindle should be warmed up, increased over time to the 6000rpm and then run in at that RPM for a hour or two I have heard, and that does make sense.

From what I have read this causes no problem as it is the same spindle as the TM2P and Mini-Mill both of which operate at 6000rpm.

The Rapids can also be increased but I was more interested in the rpm.

As always, and just as I was warned, do so at your own peril

Ken

[smittys800]

Ken,
Thank you. Might give that a try. Regarding any Warr. My TM-1 is an '03, so no worries there. So there are no real drawbacks that I may encounter?
Thanks again,
Smitty

[Ken_Shea]

None that I have read of and/or experienced to date, although this was done just recently on my TM1. To me there are no draw back except for throwing chips and coolant a bit further now


I have no intentions of going back to 4000 at this point, but you can just as easily as it was increased.

I did change some of the text in the steps so re-read that first..

[Vern Smith]

After releasing a tool from my TM-1P with an unintentional head butt I put a stiff foam ring around my button. I'm glad to hear they have moved the button. I thought it rather strange that they would provide capability to deactivate the tool release button on the control while placing the spindle button in harms way.