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Machine research inquiry: VF-1, SL-20

Perry Harrington

Titanium
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Location
Klamath Falls, Oregon
I'm looking at acquiring a business that has a 1996 VF-1 gear head and 1999 SL-20. I can't find any docs or info online about these vintage machines, so I was hoping someone here could answer some questions:

VF-1: Is the programmable coolant nozzle standard, or at least almost standard via wide optioning? The pictures I have don't show the spindle head.
Is the screen on this year a monochrome or color CRT? Anyone know the rapids for this?

I did some research on TSC, has anyone retrofitted TSC to one of these machines?

This machine appears to lack any chip evacuation, is this as simple as swapping in a conveyor, or are there significant sheet metal changes?

Are they really 7100lbs, and how tall are they? I may attempt to rig out the machines myself if it seems doable (they are in a home garage).

Any gotchas or things to look out for especially on this vintage of a VF-1?

On the SL-20, it has a 10pos VDI turret. I presume these were available with live tooling as an option, can this be retrofitted, or am I dreaming? Similar situation with chip control, is this just a "slide the chip pan out, slide the conveyor in" operation? Are these color or mono CRTs in this vintage?

Thanks for playing my 20 questions game.
 
I can answer one of your questions. Both those machines should have a monochrome crt monitor.

It's kinda funny you say vintage. I guess I've got a bunch of vintage stuff. A 94 fadal vmc 15 that still runs great for what it is. My 02 SL-10 is nearing vintage, and most of my manual stuff is from the 70's :)
 
We have PCOOL on our vf6, and it's a nice feature, but you can achieve pretty much as good cooling with the 3 plastic nozzles if you aim them correctly.

Live tooling can be fitted on the sl20, we also have an sl20, but don't use live tooling. A better result can be achieved with a rotary table on the mill, it's a much more rigid setup. Of course, it would be handy though if you have a part which is mostly a turning job with maybe a hex head on the end of it or something.
 
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Monochrome as stated.

VF-1 , many packages had the programmable coolant nozzle, but fairly sure it is not standard.

VF-1 auger, sheet metal on all the machines have the needed pockets for the auger, which is a real bitch to clean if you don't have the auger.

I don't have the machine specs in front of me, but they have not changed, you can get weight and dimensions off the Haas website.


SL-20, I am fairly certain Hass does a one sheetmetal style fits all, that is the metal is made for an auger.
 








 
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