[yellow_plinko]

I have a 1993 Haas VF-3. Latley it has been giving me a lot of tool changer problems. Problem 1: spindle locked, and spindle not locked alarms. When I get the spindle locked alarm I reach in and the spindle is not locked. Problem 2: Spindle orrientation alarms. Sometimes I'll watch the spindle at tool change and it keeps trying to get to home but passes home. It keeps trying this until it times out. Those problems cause no harm and can be easily reset and are nothing but inconvenices. Problem 3: This is the reason I'm here. Twice in the last week it picked up the wrong tool (one tool off). The first time was at the end of a program, and I noticed it before I pressed cycle start and tried center drilling with my 1/2 endmill. Now yesterday was the last straw. I drove my brand new high feed mill right into my part at 3000rpm and 500ipm rapid. This time it was mid program. It was changing from tool 10 to 12 and decieded tool 11 would be better suited for the task at hand...ugh! Needless to say the part is junk, and the high feed mill is in the scrap bin beside it. I'm ready to get my tools out, but am looking for a general direction before I rip into it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[BilletTed]

Let me know what you find you find on picking up the wrong tool. My '94 VF-0 does this every so often, but I can not figure out why either. I have ruined a few parts and at least one fixture.
Ted

[Machineit]

I think you are dealing with at least two separate issues here. In other words, they are not related. The spindle lock/unlock is probably a bad spindle shot solenoid or the collar it fits into is worn or bad. Remove the spindle cover and look behind the spindle. The collar is right behind the spindle and the shot pin is to the right of it. The collar could be loose, but I doubt it as you did not say the spindle orientation was off.

Easy to check with the cover off, just watch it as the "spindle orient" button is pushed. The shot pin should go into the slot and stay engaged until you cause another action that required it to open, tool change, reset etc. Check the pin itself and the grove in the collar and make sure they are okay.

The tool changer only has one switch to determine what tool is up, or should I say to look for tool #1. That switch is hit by a pin on the carousel and this tells the controller that tool #1 is up. After that, the tools are counted up and down by another switch. Pull the front cover off of the tool carriage and check there. There is a switch that is triggered each time the cam system rotates to the next tool and another that is triggered by tool #1.

I would suspect that you have a bad switch that is causing the miss-counting. It can be missing a tool as it passes (loose switch) or it could arc and double count. Heck, the switch could be loose and that is it. I would replace both switches though, as they are so easy to get to.

Mike

[GITRDUN]

One other thing that can cause the orientation pin to not function properly is the solenoid valve not fully switching and not pushing the pin out completely. Most likely you just need a new locking collar like Machineit suggested. Dont worry they are cheap and not to hard to replace.