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New Haas Mini Mill 2

So... can I add that side mount tool changer to my 2003 Mini? That will be a question I will have to ask the HFO about.

Dan
 
So... can I add that side mount tool changer to my 2003 Mini? That will be a question I will have to ask the HFO about.

Dan

I would be very surprised if they made it retrofitable. I think Haas would prefer to sell more new machines.
 
Your probably right, but it never hurts to ask! 10 tools, while better than changing manually, is not always enough. I am curious to see pricing on the new machine with the side mount drum and when they plan to have them ready for sale.

Dan
 
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By the time you load it up with the options you need, you'd probably be priced close to the cost of a base model VF1 or a VF2. In my opinion the minis are ok if you're cramped for space, but kinda a joke when it comes to performance. I'd spend few more bucks and get a full blown machine.
 
I hope to be in the market for a small VMC like this in a year or two as an upgrade to my CNC BP clone mill, and I'd like to be able to buy American. However, right now it would be hard to not go with a Sharp SV-2412. For less than $40k you get a pretty stout machine, and users have been pretty happy with them. I've been hoping Haas was going to match or beat this machine, but I don't think the MiniMill 2 pulls that off, it appears to be more money for less machine.

Paul T.
 
"By the time you load it up with the options you need, you'd probably be priced close to the cost of a base model VF1 or a VF2. In my opinion the minis are ok if you're cramped for space, but kinda a joke when it comes to performance. I'd spend few more bucks and get a full blown machine"

The other reason it is appealing is the power. When you are generating the third leg of the 3-phase juice, you are limited to the amount of spindles and horse power you can run. The total draw from your machines cannot exceed the converters max output or ther will be lots of smoke in the shop. So 7.5 to 15 hp is quite attractive to those of us who do not have 3-phase on the poles running down the street.
 
When you are generating the third leg of the 3-phase juice, you are limited to the amount of spindles and horse power you can run. The total draw from your machines cannot exceed the converters max output or ther will be lots of smoke in the shop.


I bet you have never experienced this first hand have you?

I have been running convertors for <20 yrs and have never seen such a thing.

The only thing that too big'a draw on too small'a convertor will doo IMO is throw a fault on a CNC machine or draw down a reg motor. A motor starter falling out would be an extreem case - and likely only if it was wired using the wild leg.

A bigger machine could be ran on the smaller convertor if you staged the ramp up - or adjusted teh gain to ramp slower.

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I am Ox and I approve this post!
 
The only thing that too big'a draw on too small'a convertor will doo IMO is throw a fault on a CNC machine or draw down a reg motor. A motor starter falling out would be an extreem case - and likely only if it was wired using the wild leg.

A bigger machine could be ran on the smaller convertor if you staged the ramp up - or adjusted teh gain to ramp slower.

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I am Ox and I approve this post!

Exactly the situation I have here and how I solved it.

Have a Yam Cnc lathe but it's a gear head machine and only 7.5 hp, but my phase converter is a 30Hp. When you hit the start button on the Yam it would almost instantly be spinning a 10" chuck at 2900rpm's and would knock out power to my other machines due to the huge drawn in amps it pulled. The alarm on my Haas VMC would state "Phase Loss". Had my electrician come in and he put a variable speed drive on the lathe and now it ramps up to speed over a 3 second time period and no more power problems. The only problem I get now is trying to run my Ikegai and the Yam at the same time. The Ikegai is a 20/15 hp (didn't realize the 20 part when I bought it) and when it kicks in it causes a phase loss on the spindle drive for the Yam, and occasional will knock out the Haas also, but rarely. For the most part we don't run the Yam and Ikegai together so it's not a big problem, but one I have to address soon. Most likely have to get rid of my 30hp and go up to a 40hp converter. Just agreeing with Ox on this one......been there, done that.

Later,
Russ
 
I've always been told that the more 3ph motors you have running, through contactors, the more regeneration capacity you have. For instance, running a 4hp while on a 5hp RPC, then starting a 10hp motor, the 4hp motor acts just like an RPC to help buffer the 3rd leg.
 
From my experience - and not just going off theoretical or hear/say - I would agree to that - ONLY on regular eletric motors.

For instance - back when we ran screw machines and such, we had many machines running on smaller units. Now when I say "smaller" I am starting at 20hp convertor and going up to 50 and 60. The last one didn't start any harder than the first one. The only limiting factor at this point is the size of the feed line and the breaker! (And also from past experience, the transformer on the pole. LOL!)

When you start werking with DC drives and CNC equipment - I don't think that the other ones running are helping the next one - other than possibly regen (if your machine has that?) on decell helping start another - provided they both hit just right. ;)

Wrustle - I am currently running my whole shop off of one 60hp "Phase Master" convertor. I found that this unit is WAY more efficient than the home built 60hp jobbie that I was running before. Both based on Lincoln motors. I can run more equipment with noticably less total draw than the old one. They are awfully proud of their units, but I am SOLD!

That said - My CNC's don't like it when I send spark to a 30hp Acme - and even my 10hp compressor starting at the wrong time will kill some CNC's if it hits durrring ramp-up. So I will sometimes run that on "continuous".

I have been running a 50hp lathe, a 25 main / 15 sub lathe, a 20 lathe, plus saw and compressor such - together - all running like champs off the one convertor.

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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
I built my own rotary phase converter out of a 60 HP motor. The key to this system over my previous ones is that I balanced out the wild legs with Oil Filled Capacitors and the additional power output from doing this vs. an autotap type transformer is phenomenal.

I run a Mazak Integrex 200IV-S off this system, my Haas HL1BB, a bunch of manual machines, timesaver and some industrial robots all at the smae time. I've never had a lick of problems.

In the days before capacitors the rapid motor start / stops caused a few issues. With a decent bank of caps that's no longer a problem.
 








 
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