[RodneyH]

I have a 2 part problem- I am looking for a full blown maintenance/REPAIR manual for a SL30 and VF3YT50. My VF3YT50 spindle lock up recently and I need an exploded view for the spindle head/clamp-unclamp cyclinder. Can use the complete manual or a partial. Anything would be a great help. I've been told it was either my spindle bearings or my cylinder adjustment has backed off stalling out the spindle. This machine is 2 years old with very few hours, outside of warrenty and right now its down. I would greatly appreciate any help I can get.

2nd- My SL30 has had issues even before warrenty was up. It has had chatter problems starting about 5 months after purchase and has been worked on (5 or 6) several times. Just prior to the end of the warrenty the machine was worked on the cut beautifully for about 3 weeks before it started messing up again, still under warrenty. Since then the spindle bearings have been changed, machine totally realigned, a #5 taper added to the tail stock, and was going to replace the -x- axis ball screw because of .0002/.0003 backlash. I believe the techs lacked knowledge of there own equipment. The chatter has been blamed on my slab and tooling yet the machine is not working correctly after the tech leave. Blamed on everything but the machine's rigidity. Up till the last time the techs came out the techs work was covered even though it was 3-4 months out side of warrenty but the last time it was not and now I have a machine that still has chatter and a $2300 bill to boot..

Could use some in put on both issues I am having.
Thanks,

[djr76]

As for the manuals, you have to buy those from Haas for 50$ for the mechanical and another 50$ for the electrical. For the lathe, I would call Haas directly and work with them since it seems your HFO $hit the bed and never fully fixed your machine.

[RodneyH]

I have done that and talked with several in California too and I get the same from both. Not sure where to go from here....

[djr76]

Tell them you will never buy a machine from them again if they wont come to a reasonable agreement.

[RodneyH]

I have done that as well and the next purchase was not a Haas.

[djr76]

We had a similar problem with our lathe. We purchased an HL-2 back in 98' and the operator at the time programmed his very first part and had his offsets all fubarred, 100% rapids, 2000 rpm chuck, and turret dont mix well. After a few months of the HFO coming out to keep fixing issues with it, they finally got it totally fixed. A little bit time after that my boss wanted to trade the machine in for the newer SL machines but the HFO/Haas wouldnt give him a fair trade in value. He vowed to never buy a Haas lathe again and now the HFO salesmen dont even ask anymore.

[RodneyH]

Hmmm, That sounds fimilar. I get a email ever so often from my Haas rep but its bulk email. There hasn't been a Haas rep inside my door since November of 2008. I don't believe they care to resovle this issue and truly don't know if they know how to resovle it.

[djr76]

Maybe look into see if some kinda lemon law might be in effect.

[gepperta]

You just can't hog steel on a Haas machine, lathe or mill. That's my experience with them. They are not solid construction, they don't even scrape the column to base fit on the mill, so they are prone to vibration.

[bearman22]

I also have many problems with chatter on my sl30 lathe. I have come to the conclusion that the machine is just not rigid enough. Let me know if u or any one else can solve this problem.

[djr76]

Guess you've never seen the nickel test done on a haas.

[gepperta]

No, sure haven't. What is this test about?

[RodneyH]

I have fought chatter on my SL30 for sometime now and I wish it was only during heavy cuts. I hope there is someone out with a SL30 who knows how to fix this type issues. I opened my shop little over 2 years ago and bought new Haas equipment thinking if I bought new I would have 4-5 years of trouble free operation. I would have never thought I would ever concider trading in a 2 year old machine with less than 3500 hrs.....Whats even more baffling to me is that Haas really doesn't seem to care... I've been pretty happy with my Mill.... Still looking for in depth maintenance manual for it....

[gepperta]

We ran a good little job here recently on our SL-20. The part was aluminum and had a 1.625 inch bore 6 inches long. We had no chatter and held a plus one, minus nothing tolerance. This is because it was aluminum, but also because the boring bar was solid carbide and we had long jaws surrounding the part.

[djr76]

I always use solid carbid bore bars now, saves the time and aggrevation.

[kevinjgerber]

I've had alot of luck removing chatter using an M38 spindle speed variation.
M38 Turns it on M39 shuts it off. You have to set it up in setting 165 and 166
telling the machine the number of rpm's you want the machine ti vary and in what amount of time. I found a good starting point is 20 rpm's every 20 milliseconds

[RodneyH]

Thanks for all the feed back. The M38/M39 I've have used in the past. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it does not. I have not went to carbide bars yet for a couple of reasons. 1st, I shouldn't have too going off my parts and set up. 2nd is just the cost of carbide bars in general.
What is the Nickel test?
Reading over some of the post from several different forums, it seems the tendancy of the Haas (sl30)owners are having to go above and beyond there normal setup to fight chatter.

[HuFlungDung]

Do you see chatter occuring with regular turning tools, or only when boring?

[RodneyH]

We have chatter in turning tools,grooving tool,threading tools and but more so in boring bars. I understand that with chatter in turning and boring tools the chances of having it in grooving and threading are extremely increased just in nature.

[kn6za]

Hi all,

I think the nickel test is used to check for vibration. Stand a nickel up on its edge, located on the headstock of the lathe. Run the machine through is speed range and if the nickel stays still then your machine passes, if it falls off it fails.

Someone correct me if I am wrong on this.

Andrew