[DEAN]

Greetings group.
Does anyone have experience or have any words on this machine? I have been seriously considering one and this being my first machine purchase.
Thanks!
DJ

[Dan B]

We have the SL10 model. I have no idea how similar ours is to the one you are looking at, but one thing we noticed right away was that the documentation that comes with a Haas machine (we bought a gantry machine at the same time) is poor.

Also, our lathe seems to break down quite regularily. Due to this, we have discovered that Haas' service is pretty good. They do seem to respond fairly quickly to get you back up and running.

Bottom line: If I was buying a CNC lathe for myself, I would look at some other makes.

Dan

[Klox]

Dan, sometimes you get a machine that breaks down regularly. Then you speak to other people that owns the same brand machine that never breaks!
I've come to the conclusion that stuff that was manufactured on a friday or a monday gives problems. I call these manufacturing days "hangover days"....LOL!

Klox

[Dan B]

Hi Klox,

I don't really have any grudge against Haas. It's just that we bought one CNC lathe from them, and it is troublesome. I have no way of knowing whether a second, or third lathe would have been more reliable.

Like I said, if it was my hard earned cash being spent, I would look elsewhere. It's not that our SL10 model is junk, on the contrary. When it's running, it is a sweet machine. We are turning pins in less than a minute that took manual operators a couple of hours. The first week we bought it, we finished that week's work in the first day we were running. But breaking down 4 times in 9 months seems excessive to me.

On the otherhand, our Haas gantry machine has only required one service call in the same 9 months.

Dan

[Klox]

Dan,
my previous employer bought a factory reconditioned Charmilles Robofill 310 wire edm ('96 model). That machine was fast but very temperamental. It let us down a couple of times when time was not on our side....
Charmilles Machines are renowned for quality & accuracy. It seems that we're an isolated case. I understand 100% what you said, machines are suppose to earn money not burn holes in the budget by breaking down! LOL

Klox

[DEAN]

Thanks for the input guys.
I do hear more good about HAAS than bad. I would guess they are the least expensive for a reason. The extended warranty is probably a good idea.
I like the fact that they are only a few hours away from me. So getting training, parts, help etc. shouldn't be a heartbreaker..
I hope that others will ring in on this topic to help give me some confidence for my purchase.
Thanks again guys for your input.
Dj

[HuFlungDung]

Dean, don't be afraid to look at ebay. If you spend $19K on a used machine, you will likely get a lot more for your money, and beat the high depreciation, taxes, and get some free tooling thrown into the deal, most times.

Of course, you might not find much that is both manual and cnc, but IMO, I cannot imagine if that is a real handy feature. Heck, you can jog with a full cnc, and that's about all the functionality you get with the controls of a manual lathe anyways.

Electronic handwheels don't give you the "feelback" that you get with manual hand cranks, so there isn't much in the way of feeling how your tool is cutting anyway.

[Edster]

Dan, what was breaking on your SL-10? I have an 02 SL-10 with no problems. How many hours do you have on your machine?

[Dan B]

Hi Edster,

We have 283 hours of actual cutting on our machine (1942 hours total up time)

We have had electrical problems, and currently have a broken drive belt. We have been down 6 days now waiting for Haas to fix it. Apparently they don't stock the drive belt, and had to order it from California.

We also needed the turret re-aligned, but that was not the fault of the machine. From what I have been told, our operator caused that one.

The electrical problems seem to have stemmed from assembly problems on our machine. Perhaps it was built on a Friday afternoon.

Dan

[Fish]

Hey Dan,

I agree with some of the others who've said that you should look at other machines as well. I've owned Hass, Okuma, Mazak, Mori Seiki and Niigata machines (mills and lathes), and one thing is for certain - you get what you pay for.

I regularly browse the used equipment companies and have seen some pretty good deals. For example, I saw a Mazak Slant Turn 28 ATC, about ten years old, that they were asking $24,500.00 for. It had 16 tools, live tooling, tool presetter, 8" chuck, about 16" max turning diameter, 24 HP, a hydrostatic barfeed and 1.75" bar capacity. I've seen tons of machines of the same quality (Moris, Okumas and the like), and as well equipped as this for around the same money. It's worth a look.

Good Luck

Fish

[Dan B]

Hi Fish,

I think you intended to address your post to Dean, the thread starter, correct?

We already have the Haas lathe, and have no intention of replacing it. When it's running (which, realistically is most of the time) it is a sweet little machine. No doubt once this drive belt issue is solved, we should run trouble-free for a long time.

I spoke to our shop foreman, just to get his opinion of the Haas lathe, and he is quite happy with it, despite the problems we have had. He doesn't feel that it's been that big a deal. He too says that it is no Okuma, but for what we paid we got a pretty good machine.

Dan

[Edster]

I haven't had any problems with my SL-10 except for a coolant hose that wasn't properly attached to drain the box on the drawbar. It was leaking coolant and forming a big puddle underneath it. I called Haas and they said it was normal. After a little checking I found the loose hose. No leaks now!

I see what you mean about the drive belt, It's pretty small!

Does your Tramp oil separator actually work? There isn't even a drop of oil in mine after 1200 on time and 750 running hours. It says in the manual it should be primed, but I bet they didn't do that at the factory.

Did your operator crash a tool into the chuck when tool changing?

Ed

[Dan B]

Hi Ed,

Sorry for the delayed response.

I inquired about the Tramp oil separator, and apparently we do not have any problems.

We talked to the Haas people at the Toronto tool show yesterday about the week and a half it took to replace the drive belt on the lathe. They were very apologetic about the delay, and it seems that there was just a chain of unusual events that caused the delay (the tool show itself being one of them, and a blown transmission in their service van being another).

As for the crash, yes, that's exactly what happened. Definitely can't hold Haas responsible for that one!

Dan

[bookwurm99]

i have been running the tl-1 at work for about 3 months and before that it wasn't used for about 4+ months. the reason i'm using it is that i know g&m and have run haas machines in college. all the other guys are used to running the okuma's with the igf. this machine is nicer than the okuma that i was running before. the tailstock on the other machine was hit a few times without getting fixed. some parts we had to put about .007/in. taper in to get it to run straight. most of the time it wasn't that bad.
the tl-1 that we have has the 4 position auto turret, the sliding doors, and a manual tailstock. the 4 position turret is annoying sometimes because you have to shim some of your tools to get them on center. i personally prefer the screw adjustable wedge lock tool holders because it is easier to set all tools to center. the most problem setting a tool was a .5 min bore boring bar. putting the bar in the regular tool position made it about .500 low. to fix this we had to find a bushing that fit the bar and also fit the 1.000 id tool holder that we have for it.
the tl1 that we have is about 18 months old. the sliding doors are nice for when you have to use coolant but it would be nicer if the windows didn't leak. the safety door is a little anoying because if you need to have it open to sand or scotchbrite something you are limited to 100 rpms and reaching around it is not fun.
the tailstock is pretty good but it would be nice if it was aligned with the axis of the spindle and not wiggle on the ways so every time you move it you have to realign it so parts run good or holes drill straight.
bottom line: i love this machine but it would be nice to tune it up so it would run better and be a little more operator friendly. i would buy one anyday if i needed a machine.

[DEAN]

note to the previous post; Your tailstock shouldn't have any "wiggle" in it even before you clamp it down. You may need to adjust the setscrews on the back of the stock at the rear rail. Mine is rock solid and accurate.

How often are you folks greasing your linear bearings? I don't use mine in production, couple hours a day.
I know the manual says to pump grease till it comes out of the trucks, but how often do you suppose? My thought was; pumping grease till it comes out of the bearing can't be too good for the seals.

[Geof]

....How often are you folks greasing your linear bearings? I don't use mine in production, couple hours a day...

When I remember .

Actually I think we do it weekly; I hads given standing instructions for (I think) three strokes of the grease gun once a week. There is grease oozing out of the trucks, not much but a bit so that keeps me satisfied.

[bookwurm99]

You may need to adjust the setscrews on the back of the stock at the rear rail.

thanks dean. will try that this coming monday. i figured there had to be something to do to fix it. will probably have to take off some of the panels to get my hands in there to adjust them.

[Edster]

I had a guy running my lathe that did the same thing. He opened the door when the cycle was running. It stopped the lathe. He hit reset and started the cycle again without checking for clearence between the chuck and tools and, Whamo!

How did you tell the turret was off? The crash I had wasn't that bad, but I'm still curious to see if the turret is misaligned now. It makes the parts just fine.

I checked the tramp oil bottle the other day after I posted I didn't have a drop of oil, and it was working. Go figure, I guess it takes a while for the system to start working.

Good luck with the lathe,
Ed

[DEAN]

I just wanted to bring this topic back about the TL-1.
Anyone out there using one?
Even better anyone out there have a relationship with a HAAS tech that will speak the truth about the machine?
Thanks guys,

DJ

[ARB]

I'm going to DemoDay 5 next month. I will be giving the TL1 a serious tire kicking. I am also very interested in one of these. I have a pretty honest rep who is a ex toolmaker. He seems fairly impressed with the machine.

I will report in after DemoDay 5