[1cnchogger]

I would like your opinions on what mill to purchase. I'm in the market for a small mill. Right now I'm looking at the Haas TM-1P and the haas mini mill. Roughly the same price. Besides the travel size what would you see as a better product for a small shop. Thanks

[daleman]

i have a haas super mini mill which is well worth the extra money if you can afford it .
we use it mainley to produce alu parts for the electronics industry and small aerospace parts also in aircraft grade alu.
We had one niggly problem to start with a proxy switch but since that problem was resolved it has run error free for 12 - 14 hrs a day for the past 2 1/2 yrs .
Great little machine if there is one thing i would moan about it is the difficulty in being able to clean the coolant tank out easiy but other than that 10/10.

[1cnchogger]

It seems like a better machine, I'm mainly wondering if the TL-1P will do everything the mini mill does, plus give me the extra travel. Any advice?

[axis]

what are you planing on cutting with it

[daleman]

if it the extra travel you need then thats the one but dont expect it to be as good as the mini mill or super mini mill

[1cnchogger]

I plan on using it for all milling ops in a jobber shop. I think by the sounds of it the mini is a better quality? Thanks for the advice

[Geof]

It seems like a better machine, I'm mainly wondering if the TL-1P will do everything the mini mill does, plus give me the extra travel. Any advice?

It will do everything the MiniMill does but slower, much slower compared to a Super MiniMill.

If you really, really need the axis travel get the TM enclosed.

If you are considering doing production on small pieces get the Super MiniMill. If you want to do 4th axis get the Super MiniMill with the raised Z axis option and you can mount the HRT210 rotary table.

The enclosure size on the mini's is large enough that at a squeeze you can do long jobs by repositioning them on the table so you can (maybe) handle bigger jobs on these machines.

If you do get a contract for lots of small things that you want to do very fast you cannot speed up the TM.

[axis]

just so you kmow the tm and the mini mill are all the same thing
same motor same servos
yes you can speed up the tm
the tm will do 6000-8000 rpm
and you can ramp up the rapids to the mini mill feed speeds(but this will void warenty)
i would go with the enclosure on the tm-1p
if you are going to be a job shop get the z axis travel ,after you put a vise on the mini and the tool changer you dont have much room
and if you get larger jobs you can open the sides of the enclosure on the tm

[Geof]

Okay I was not totally correct; you can speed the TM up to the MiniMill level, but certainly not the Super MiniMill level. The Super not only has faster rapids the toolchanger moves in and out at around twice the speed of the Mini.

[PBMW]

I have a regular mini. When I needed another VMC I bought a Sharp 2412s super mini. 10k rpm, box ways, 16 tools and 18" of Z axis. It has Chip Flushers. Way easier than cleaning a mini. Roll out coolant tank, a real coolant pump, and a Fanuc control. Mine has a regular chip conveyer adn I upgraded the control from a Fanuc 0i mate to a 0i Mc and had it wired for my Tsudakomo 4th for very little more than a super mini. I had intended to buy another Haas but got screwed by my loal dealer on a service where they sold me a turret motor I didn't need after a crash on my SL 10 and charged me 19 hrs labor and 7 hours travel to repair my turret.
At that point I made the decision that I'll never buy another Haas because of teh service issues I've had.
The machines are fine. Don't get me wrong. They have made a lot of money for my shop and my customers, but here in Puget Sound, You can't get them serviced.
I thought my Haas would be cutting 80% aluminum, it's 90% stainless. The Sharp does a much better job. Bigger, faster cuts and faster cycle times. I'm doing some large auminum parts on it at the moment. 13" by 6" by 2 1/2" I am roughing at 10K rpm, .75 dia 3 flute 2 1/2 long endmill at 220 ipm .625 deep and .625 radial depth of cut.
I've never seen a Haas Super Mini that will do that
I cut 316 ss heat exchangers. Pockets are .75 deep. I rough them with a varimill (variable helix) .5 em at 200sfm and .004 per tooth. .2 deep. No problems. Ramping in at 8 ipm. My Haas won't do that.
My point is that there are other options out there.

[1cnchogger]

Thanks PBMW. The only reason I'm looking at Haas is price and the fact I've been running them for 10yrs now. I'll check the Sharp site. What did you get yours in the door for?

[PBMW]

My machine included a higher pressure collant pump. Wired for my 4th, upgraded to a Fanuc 0iMc control, chip conveyer, 120 blocks of look ahead, High speed machining (AI contour and AI Nano) a spindle chiller, 10 hp Phase Perfect and all the shipping and rigging came to $54k

[1cnchogger]

Nice. Roughly the same ballpark price. Went to Sharp site , going to look into it more. Thanks

[PBMW]

I have done quite a bit of surfacing with my mini. It has no high speed machining capability. No look ahead. Therefore the feedrate is quite limited in order to get accurate surfaces. AI contouring and AI Nano, produce very nice finishes and they work the same on my fourth axis. I get very nice accurate surfaces. I'm pretty pleased with it. I'm looking at a 3016 Daewoo at teh moment also.

[randy porter]

Iv'e been using haas mills & lathes for years. for the money, versatility and speed it sounds to me like a good old haas VF2 will admirably cover most of your machining needs.

[elecman1]

Selway charge you that?

[kochevnik]

I also started out looking at the TM-1P and then found the Sharp, which is clearly a much better deal (1181 IPM rapids vs. 400 for example). If you take the Haas and add ANY bells and whistles (for example coolant you're up to the Sharp price level anyways.

And then - I found this : $39995

http://www.hardingeus.com/index.asp?...=63&prodID=117

which is just a few more kopecs than the Sharp. And a much bigger envelope.

This Bridgeport is now on the top of my list.

[PBMW]

Selway charge you that?

Yes they did.
It has since been resolved in my favor, But yes they did
It's really too bad, I was interested in a Matsuura Horizontal.

[GOLETABRIAN]

PBMW,

We have had some issues dealing with Selway over the years but the one good thing about Matsurra is that you won't have to deal with them after you buy the machine. We just got a new one and it's awesome. As a matter of fact it's the only mill running in our shop right now, all four of our Hass mills are down...