[cweiss]

Hello,

We are working on a '96 HS-1 that CONSISTENTLY has pallet clamp/unclamp problems. Haas has replaced the drawbar, the motor, gearing, belts...you name it...its been changed. When we arrived on the job, we disassembled everything and started from scratch. We very carefully re-assembled the machine, and we thought we were successfull because it ran flawlessly for over 5 months. NOW, we are back at the same point...dissassembly. Has ANYONE ran across this before? FYI, this is the FIRST variation of the pallet changer. I am told that later serial numbers had a different system, and that it is NOT retrofittable to our customer's machine.

I have been a member of this site for quite some time, but have just mainly been a spectator. Now that I am in the service field, I suppose I should start contributing more!

Thanks,

Christian Weiss

[extanker59]

In a previous job, we had a HS-1 (I think so anyway- one of the first ones Haas made) and that stupid pallet clamp system drove me nuts. It had a silly screw try to come up and screw into the pallet to pull it down. Hung up all the time. Haas had a guy come in who told me to keep it lubed with anti-sieze compound daily (put on by hand with a container he left with us). Needless to say, that didn't work. We finally gave up after 4 or so months and returned it to Haas. Junk.
Haas did try though. They were here from California so often I felt like they worked here. On the bright side, I hear that Haas has changed the clamping system on the newer ones and they work now.
Can someone who has a newer one chime in and tell us what your experiences are?

[awesome83]

HS-1 Rotating Pallet Changers have quite a few problems with them. There is several different variations as well. The older style screws into the pallet to lock it down, then the went to a pull stud type to lock the pallet down.

[CNC_Kristi]

In a previous job, we had a HS-1 (I think so anyway- one of the first ones Haas made) and that stupid pallet clamp system drove me nuts. It had a silly screw try to come up and screw into the pallet to pull it down. Hung up all the time. Haas had a guy come in who told me to keep it lubed with anti-sieze compound daily (put on by hand with a container he left with us). Needless to say, that didn't work. We finally gave up after 4 or so months and returned it to Haas. Junk.
Haas did try though. They were here from California so often I felt like they worked here. On the bright side, I hear that Haas has changed the clamping system on the newer ones and they work now.
Can someone who has a newer one chime in and tell us what your experiences are?

The newer pallet changers do not have the same issues because HAAS changed from screws to locking pins. There are new issues though. Issue #1. I'd recommend keeping the underside of the pallet as clean as possible. Bits of material can cause the locking pin not to engage properly. This will cause an error and force your operator to have to use the necessary M-codes in MDI to clear the pallet from the work area so that the the pallets can be cleaned. Best way to keep this from happening. Make sure the work station table the pallet sits on is cleaned now and then of chips and stuff. Issue #2. Limit switches go bad. Depending on how many changes the table does in a 24hr period. If you are switching pallets every few minutes it'll wear on the limit switches and eventually they'll start locking up. A little brake cleaner on them every now and then followed by some WD40 or 3in1 oil fixes this. Issue #3. If you have a VF3 with a pallet table sometimes the chain drive doesn't always return to where it is suppose to when exchanging tables and over time this will get worse. Again it is your limit switches not functioning as they should due to grime or whatever. Just keep the machine as clean as possible. Have your operators clean the pallet area now and then of chips and gunk. The cleaner you keep the machine the better it performs with less downtime.