[kevincnc]

I'm considering a HAAS 5' X 10' router with the 20HP 5000 RPM spindle. One of the jobs would be a cleanup cut on a large thick-wall 6" wide steel tubing weldment, hopefully cutting 6" wide and at least 1/16" deep per pass.

Does anyone have any experience cutting steel with one, and is the machine rigid enough for this?

My rep says it will work and I'll get HAAS to guarntee it before buying one, but any input would be appreciated.

I'd much rather do it with a $100,000 machine than a $300,000 one...

[Jaguar]

Good luck Dude, I don't care what the Haas rep says. Ask him if he can run any of the machines he sells. Most Haas salesmen don't have a clue. They sell off of the brochure and hammer you with, we're Haas, ain't we great. The GR series are OK in Aluminum and can drill holes in Steel. Milling is another matter.

Get in front of a machine and make them show you how it performs. I used to manage two HFO's and I know these machines all too well.

TM

[kevincnc]

Thanks, that's about what I expected to hear. I'll make them show me but I'm pretty skeptical.

[Dan B]

We have the Haas GR510. We have been using it daily for over 2 years now. It has been a very reliable machine, but I wouldn't use it for extensive milling in steel. We use ours primarily for drilling, reaming, tapping, 2D profiling etc. in aluminum. We had ours custom built with an extra 6 inches in height to accomodate a drill chuck.

I have done some 3D contour milling in aluminum, but I won't even try that in steel. However, drilling in steel is not problem, if your drill sizes are under 3/4 inch. Anything larger than that and we drill 3/4 and helical mill to size. For that application, it does well in steel.

Also, we find the accuracy pretty good for a 120" table. Over 120" we are out about .003". Not too bad.

Dan

[kevincnc]

Thanks Dan. Do you think a .100" deep cut in steel with a 1" endmill would be OK?

[Dan B]

Yes, you could definitely do that, but personally, I wouldn't do it all day, every day. We do some 2D profile work in steel, but it's the exception, not the rule. Also, set up a regular schedule to check for squareness. If you crash hard, or bump the machine, it will go out of square. It's easily fixable, but you'd hate to make bad parts because you are not aware of it.

Dan

[MegaMoog]

With the extra 6 inches in Z did you still do anything in your programing to raise the Z up higher like 4 inches above zero so as to get as much tool clearance as possible before and after tool changes?
We just got the GR712 and need to do some drilling, mostly under 1/2 inch.
But might try and use a drill chuck which would be real close to scraping the bed not to mention any work on top of that yet.
Maybe any custom macros or sub routine?

Thanx, Larry

[Dan B]

Hi Larry,

That's a hard question to answer because our process is pretty unique to our company. I wrote the CAM plug-in for Rhino that produces G-code for drilling, reaming tapping etc.. When we do use WorkNC for 3D contouring, there is nothing special that we need to do. We always keep our work in the -Z, so zero is always above the part. That's probably why we don't have any issues with the height.

The extra 6" was to prevent the problem you are having now. We bought this machine for the sole purpose of drilling, so fortunately we had the foresight to make that customization.

Hope this helps,

Dan

[MegaMoog]

Hey thanx,

I didn't have enough pull with the purchase of the machine options!

I did notice that option but the head eng. had other thoughts!
Now he is retired and we're stuck with what we have!

I think we can work around this because we will be putting a vacum table on top of the alum plate and I was thinking of mostly just useing colleted tooling!
Not too many clamps to worry about!

I did get my post for EZ-Cam to let me go into incremental G91 to raise Z+4.0 and back to Absolute G90 but only after tool changes! If I try this before tool change machine gives Z overtravel. I know its also relative to where I use G54 Z offset also.

I e-mailed EZ-Cam and there gonna try and help.

Next I'll try the Haas installer and see if he has any suggestions.
He help set up a shut down program which does what I need before and after tool changes but I can't seem to get that to work in my posted programs!


Thanx, Larry

[Geof]

....we will be putting a vacum table on top of the alum plate.....

Have you thought about removing the alum table and putting your vacuum table directly on the machine frame. That will give you an extra inch; actually to get picky about 1.02".

For very short colleted tooling have you looked at some of the holders from ISCAR? I have some ER32 that are about 3/4" long or less. I can post a picture and part # if you like.

[MegaMoog]

I thought about taking alum plate off then mounting vac table!

Yes, send pic and tool info, we use cat40 holders.

Thanx

[Geof]

The picture should be somewhere here. My memory was faulty, they are a bit longer than 3/4" but shorter than 1". You have to keep your wits about you putting them in the spindle to avoid pinching a finger. They do not seem to have a part code other than ER32 Short and they are ETM by Iscar also balanced for 20k rpm.

If you do take your table off any chance of pictures? I would like to see what is underneath. I took delivery of a GR510 a few weeks ago and tried to make sure I got enough options I would not be limited; i.e., 15k spindle, 24" Z travel and a few others. Fortunately I am the one deciding what gets included.