[mulcher]

dose any one have specs for a 2" I.D. bolt on toolholder for a haas SL30BB

[100]

One option I have seen on a vmc was an operator held coolant gun... Looks like the standard hand held air gun but shoots out coolant... Nice...

[nervis1]

the control needs a "find the center of the circle" function. Where you could touch off three points of an arc and the control finds the center for you.


How about improving the coolant return? I get backup if I don't watch the coolant screen about every hour I am talking about the screen in the machine. It plugs with chips, coolant backs up and the pump cavitates.

makes it hard to get away from the machine for long periods while it's running.

Got to reach in there and brush the screen off.

I have an 07 machine with the new coolant washdown ports as well.

How about putting the coolant return screen in the auger trough, make it wider so it won't plug the auger could wipe it off with ease?

How about ring type coolant nozzles in the spindle? Sometimes even with p coolant I get little flow to the cutter because there is a wall between the nozzle and cutter.

The coolant tank needs a better chip catcher, it's hard to get out of there and lets too many fines through, make a small catch basin and a partition so fines and chips are settled out in some sort of removable / cleanable device?

Consider if the machine did exactly what you wanted. I am cutting a o-ring goove with a T slot cutter. I push feed hold to adjust a coolant spigot. The spindle stops while in the groove and then retracts in Z breaking off my T slot cutter. Same thing with a slitting saw or any sort of undercut tool. What about multiaxis guys? Retracting in Z might hit the tool holder to a rotary product of some sort.

My Mazak lathe had this function "mpg" or something like that where you could stop, jog out and hit a button to store position at each line move. You could change what needed changing and then hit a button to re enter and continue the machine would follow the stored path back into the work. Pretty slick.


The control needs a cable input so you can watch history channel while you are running parts.

Dave

[Geof]

philipm; I have to compliment you on your patience explaining things. I am tempted to shriek READ THE ****ING MANUAL YOU ******.

The Haas control does have REPLACE.

Also regarding the CLIPBOARD I have discovered a lot of people do not realise it is possible to load from a floppy or USB drive into the CLIPBOARD by using the correct program number. This means you can insert entire sections into an existing program very easily. Also it is possible to run the program that is in the CLIPBOARD. Very useful for editing or checking some moves on tool 20 with a long program without having to wait for RESTART to scan through the program.

I don't understand the complaint about waiting for the toolchanger. Both my VF2s with the SMTC move the next tool into position for the change before the spindle has pulled up to Z zero and stopped so there is no delay.

[100]

Here is a link to the a section on the haas website that answers some questions. This section has a few good tips.

http://www.haascnc.com/cncmag/answerman.asp

[DSL PWR]

Amen with the circle center function! It would also be nice if you could define z offset with any tool in the spindle, without having to manually calculate the difference. This would be great since I touch off all of my tools to the table, then I don't need to setup my tools for each part.

[gar]

070309-2043 EST USA

100:

Answerman says that Ethernet is much faster than RS232. My calculations and experiments do not show that. But it depends upon the definition of much.

Answerman's figures of 7.5 megabytes in 9 minutes is 1.2 minutes/megabyte. We have clocked RS232 115.2 kbaud into HAAS at about 1.5 minutes/megabyte. Not a big difference. The theoretical maximum is 1.45 minutes/megabyte.


nervis1:

If you are using a touch probe with an output contact that can connect to a HAAS input, then you could "eyeball" the circle center and position the probe there. Next initiate a program that will move in the X-axis to find the + and - X sides of the hole, and calculate the X-axis center from these two points. Move to that calculated X-center, then do the same in the Y-axis. Maybe go back and redo the X-center. This would be better than a three point calculation. Probably not necessary to redo Y because of the cosine effect, at least where the tip radius is small.

You should be able to write your own program for this. Note: the radius of the probe's ball tip should be substantially smaller than the radius of the hole.

If you do not have a full circle, then three or more points (more being better) on the arc will be necessary, and a lot more math.


Geof:

On the G53 subject I will try to check it on a newer machine this weekend. I should not base my analysis on an old machine.

.

[gar]

070310-0738 EST USA

DSL PWR:

I do not understand your problem on Z.

Our procedure is as follows:

1. Setting 64 is OFF. This means the tool offset button measures tool position relative machine Z absolute zero. This is independent of any G5x settings.

2. Tools are set to a 1" gage block on the left rear vise jaw, or if no vise, then the table. If you break a tool or have to replace it for some reason you have an absolute way to reset the Z offset for that one tool.

3. After setting your tools use a calipier to measure the distance from the top of the gage block on its reference to where you want your working Z = 0 plane. Put this value in the Z position of G54 or whichever ones you are using. The sign (+/-) will depend upon on how your machine is setup.

Are alternative way is: We always operate in HAAS mode (setting 33) on our mills and thus we put this Z offset into the Z of G52 instead of G5x. Now it applies to all G5xs.

Then you can use different G5x Zs for different vises.

.

[sixstring]

How about making the Haas Lathe canned cycles a little more compatible with Fanuc style cycles! I have been programming Fanuc lathe controllers for 8 years now.Just got a Haas SL-30,and i might better toss out the window everything i know about programming on the Fanuc because you just about have to change everything to make it run on the Haas.Haas might be fine if you are using a CAM system,but not everybody uses a CAM system.I can write most programs out by hand faster for 2 axis lathe programs just by copy and paste similar parts programs and change a few numbers.Another thing that is annoying is that when running a canned cycle on the Fanuc you can feed hold after a retract move in X or Z to change an insert or adjust coolant and just hand wheel back to the point where you hit feed hold and resume cycle from that point.Not with the Haas!!! start from the beginning! I like the use of canned cycles because it makes it a lot easier for my operators to make changes if needed.Haas salesman told us Fanuc programs would run in Haas no problem with the exception of a few M codes.I think he used to be a used car salesman.

[100]

I noticed that haas previousley offered a marposs probe that looks like it could measure the tip radius of a cutter with a laser system. Now they only offer a touch probe for diameter and height. I would like it if they offered the probe that measures tip radius.

[DomB]

I like the control very much. The only thing I think I'd change is the axis-select and increment buttons. I wish they were like a Mori or Fadal with rotary knobs. It's alot easier to jog those machines around without needing to look at the control each time you want to change axis or increment amount. Like when you're jogging an edge finder up to a part, etc.

Personally I am very glad the axis select are on buttons on the control. It stops mistakes being made with a knob. You take a quick look at the knob set on x axis for example after touching up to a part, then you look down and click the knob one to the right to select yaxis, unfortunately you have clicked the x1 x10 x100 knob instead and the table moves in x 'x100 fast' and breaks the probe, it's easily done.

And when a cutter is burried in the work and you have to stop the job and retract the spindle, I know that if I press Z+ the cutter will retract upwards for sure safely, unlike with the rotary control as no matter how many times you have done it you always turn it the wrong way momentarily until you realise to turn it the other way, bye bye cutter, at least Z+ is always Z+.

If you need know controls then pay out for the remote jog handle they are all there already, and you can have the choice, even easier on the neck when it's right infront of you. But I would not want the main panel to go to knobs, too many mistakes too easy to make.

[DomB]

I would like a feed hold function that stops the spindle, and z up to max Z, plus a safe re-enter to the work.


joe V.

I wouldn't want to be around if the feed hold did that when I was using an undercutting tool or slitsaw. Ouch.

You can stop the spindle currently, just press stop on the spindle keypad, cycle start then restarts the spindle before recommencing the cut.

It would get very tedious if the spindle stopped every time you pressed feed hold, especially at 10,000rpm.

[jimzin15754]

I cut my teeth on a mazatrol eia control and grew to love the G25 subroutine call. Jumping from program to program for subs works but having it all right in front of you is way better!

[gar]

070419-1918 EST USA

jimzin15754:

What is G65?

Does a G25 have a means for passing parameters to a local subroutine?

If not, then how does it differ from M97?

I would like a G65 equivalent that calls a local subroutine.

.

[gar]

070419-1923 EST USA

HAASman:

I would like a defective program to load into memory so I could see what the problem was instead of just being aborted. This would mean the control would have to have a good/bad flag for each program so a defective program would not run.

.

[STS_John]

What features or options do you wish your Haas machine had?

We have a 2003 VF4, great machine. Has run since new with no service calls. We just purchased a new VF3 SS with high speed machining turned on. We now want to update the VF4 and have the high speed option turned on. Dealer says "new processer, with upgrade of 16MB of memeory, and a trip from a service tech" Total of $4K. Not a problem, and from what we have seen on the VF3SS, the VF4 would pay for the upgrade in less than a month. Problem is, we still have a 1.5MB floppy on the VF4 for file transfer. I know, hook up a RS232, but we neveer seem to have the time to run the cable. We asked about adding a USB input, like the VF3SS has, but I don't have enough time to sit on hold with the Haas tech line. the only thing that is keeping me from popping for the upgrade is the use of the USB input for bigger programs.

[jimzin15754]

g25 works like this
g25 p100(line to start at)q200(line to end at) L (optional)
with this command I only ever wrote the profile of a part into the program once then called those particular lines with different cutters and depths of cut. Of course I cheated the compensation numbers to rough and finish. it was also real cool for cutting a helix. Just prgram 1 loop incrementally then run that line (L) number of times and presto, its as deep as I need in 2 lines of programming.

[stefan2108]

lathe software needs more cycles.
1. finish contour for grooving cycle
2. chamfering and radii should be easier to program.
our 20 yr. old Graziano had a G17 cycle which allowed us to connect two angles with a radius and the machine figured out all the points.
all in all a good machine (SL20) but pretty skimpy on the controller.
G77 milling cycle for live tooling should incorporate a feedrate.

[Geof]

On the TL1/2 Four Place Toolchanger make the square turret easily removable. I am thinking replace the solid turret with a tapered hub that has a key and a threaded extension on the top. Then have a matching tapered hole in the square turret and a big nut for the thread.

With this it would be possible to have extra turrets filled with tools with the X offsets recorded and when a part needed more than four tools the turrets would be switched and the offsets entered. It would even be possible to keep the second set of offsets in the machine just by naming the tools T111, T222 etc instead of T101 etc. It would be possible to have programs using eight or twelve tools quite easily and do the switch at an M00.

The only thing is the operator would need to keep track of what turret was on the machine. It might even be possible to have closely matched tooling dimensions on the different turrets so if the operator forgot the result might be an inaccurate part but the mismatch would not be serious enough to cause a catastrophic crash.

I know I could always go for the Dorian eight place changer but that is too bulky to have on the machine all the time.

[mikenaturalice]

i see alot of posts concerning programming, editing, etc. even haas will tell you editing or programming at the machine is not efficient (because the machine is not running, most of the time...). if you have good programming software (i.e. mastercam ). you won't want or need these other options