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Haas EC-1600...

Jay Cee

Hot Rolled
Joined
Apr 24, 2006
Location
North East Ohio
I searched history and see a couple of you have a Haas EC-1600...
We are looking at picking one up and was just wondering if everyone is happy with theirs.
We only need this machine to hold .003" tolerances for the parts we are going to run on it. Thinking to the future, what are these machine capable of holding?
The probe seems to be a hit judging by previous posts... Is it an option or standard?
Also there was some talk of macro calculations being an issue... Is this problem easy to get around?
Thanks in advance for your input!
 
At what distance are you hoping to hole a .003 tolerance?

.003 True Position?

+/-.003 over the entire length of a large part?

+/-.0015 over the entire length of a large part?
 
I can't imagine the machine not being able to hold that tolerance.

Just out of curiosity, how large is the part? 15 inch hole pattern seems pretty small for such a huge machine.
 
been running mine for about 2 months now and getting ready to order 2 more. holds tight tols and the new haas control is extra nice.
 
We have had ours about 2 years. We have rotary table and Reneshaw probe. We also have macros, scaling & rotation, spindle orientation. The only problem we have had is the cable to the rotary table went bad about 4 weeks ago, and was a bear to find and replace. It actually was the end connector on the cable didn't have enough strain relief and after enough cycles a wire broke.
We also have a right angle head so we can mill grooves and holes in large flat parts. The canned cycles don't work with the right angle head so every thing is hand programmed. The machine is so big that we put an extra step on one end of the 2 step platform so our operaters can climb up onto the table during step-up.
We found out the hard way not to leave a long part on the rotary table when you are homing the machine!! We found out that the probe uses macros from #501 to #599 so we write all our macro's starting with #601. We kept corrupting our Reneshaw software when we ran a macro program. I would certainly recomend a EC1600. Just remember it is a very large machine. We had to make our doorways wider and taller to get it into the plant. Good luck
 
The part is a tall cone shaped deal that we need to be able to get all around. This machine looks to be perfect.
Thanks everyone for your replies...
 
I can actually vouch for that machine. I am pretty sure it has less than 20hrs runtime. They are going out of business because they were a sub on a huge contract that was paying for 95% of the bills, then the company that had the contract lost it to General Dynamic.
 
I can actually vouch for that machine. I am pretty sure it has less than 20hrs runtime. They are going out of business because they were a sub on a huge contract that was paying for 95% of the bills, then the company that had the contract lost it to General Dynamic.

Sam, do you have any more details? Based on the newness of all the equipment, and the few pictures on their website, I figured the shop was built solely on one contract, and then promptly sold off at the end of the contract.

Is the place bankrupt because of losing the contract, or was it more of a, "This is a 5 year contract and we'll make millions of dollars, then close it up when it's done...." type of deal?
 
Sam, do you have any more details? Based on the newness of all the equipment, and the few pictures on their website, I figured the shop was built solely on one contract, and then promptly sold off at the end of the contract.

Is the place bankrupt because of losing the contract, or was it more of a, "This is a 5 year contract and we'll make millions of dollars, then close it up when it's done...." type of deal?

It was definitely built solely on the one contract, but they had no intent for it to end. I had talked to the owners several times about eggs in baskets several times and what would happen if they lost that contract. I guess to them, that seemed impossible. The original plan was to build kit cars in component form, and this contract that built the shop up was a way to achieve that. They also had a performance motorcycle parts operation running out of there as well. That was basically a side business that was never really given the attention it needed to succeed as well. The owners are both real nice guys, and all the equipment they have is in impeccable condition.

I plan on going to that auction, especially since it is maybe 5 miles from my house :)

I would love to get one of the CNC machines they have, but I am not real optimistic as I am assuming most of the stuff will go for good money.
 
Sounds like a bummer. Do you know what the parts were that they were contracted to manufacture? It looks like some sort of trailer mounted communications device?

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Sounds like a bummer. Do you know what the parts were that they were contracted to manufacture? It looks like some sort of trailer mounted communications device?

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engineering.gif

It was for exactly that. They were trailer mounted Satellite communication devices that were deployed for the DOD. I don't remember the name of the company that actually had the contract.
 
We have an EC-1600... Previously in the mill dept. all i had ever ran was Mazak... I haven't been real impressed with this Haas machine. I guess i'm just picky but to me comparing a Haas and a Mazak is like comparing a BMW to a Chevy. If you plan on doing any serious grunt work get a machine that has more than the 30hp rating of the EC-1600. I think thats way on the high side myself seems more like about 20 and thats is being generous. We bought it to run a couple parts mainly. Neither part taxes the machine at all it was just a length issue we had so we had to get a machine for these parts. This one fit the bill and it does its job. The overall quality i just haven't been real impressed with. It does hold its tolerance i will give it that much. Don't expect it to be a speed demon either. Its rapid is only 540ipm. Coming off of a Mazak Ultra 650 which is 1000ipm and the HCN 6000 which is 2100ipm. It drives me nuts to watch this Haas go back to change tools... lol
 
I just returned from the auction that had the EC-1600. It went for $187,500. plus 12% buyer's premium. Everything went for so much, it was a total waist of a day. The VF3SS went for 62,500.00, the lathe and bar feeder went for 150,00.00 without any tooling. It was sad.
 
I just returned from the auction that had the EC-1600. It went for $187,500. plus 12% buyer's premium. Everything went for so much, it was a total waist of a day. The VF3SS went for 62,500.00, the lathe and bar feeder went for 150,00.00 without any tooling. It was sad.

Waste of a day is an understatement. It was unreal the money that people were throwing at stuff. I got outbid on everything. It seems as though the people there would rather pay more than retail for used equipment. The only thing I was able to buy was 2 bar-b-q sandwiches. And those cost me $10...LOL
 
Same here, 2 bar-b-que sandwiches and 2 cups of ice-t without the ice. Then drove back home 1 hour away. I was really impressed with the building, and the equipment didn't look beat to hell and back. It's hard to believe he went under so fast.
 
Same here, 2 bar-b-que sandwiches and 2 cups of ice-t without the ice. Then drove back home 1 hour away. I was really impressed with the building, and the equipment didn't look beat to hell and back. It's hard to believe he went under so fast.

They had been in business for 5 years. They had only been in that building since Nov 2006. Part of their problem was the cost of the building coupled with the cost of most of those large machines.
 
Waste of a day is an understatement. It was unreal the money that people were throwing at stuff. I got outbid on everything. It seems as though the people there would rather pay more than retail for used equipment. The only thing I was able to buy was 2 bar-b-q sandwiches. And those cost me $10...LOL


No buyer penalty on those was there? ;)


Sounds like HAAS is a bit backed up on orders rat now. Delivery will make a nice machine worth a LOT when someone has a current need!

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