Haas TM-2

Howdy,
I am currently looking at a 2005 TM-2 to purchase for my home shop. This machine has 4800 hours on but only 700 spindle hours. It was only used to cut aluminum and brass. Its equiped with the high output coolant pump, ridgid tapping, floppy drive, prewired for the 4th, and the 10 pocket tool changer. Ive ran a couple of these machines before and for what im going to use it for its more than enough. I was curious if anybody knows of any problems these machines are known for or anything to be careful of.
Any help would be much appreciated,
Thank you
David

The only problem I ever had with mine was it was slow.

Slow as in spindle speed or rapid? It was my understanding that both could be turned up with a parameter change?
Thanks
David

Spindle speed 4,000 RPM. Radid and FR 200 IPM. If you are only making 1 to 10 pieces, WHO CARES.

Someone on another site can tell you how to increase the spindle speed, but I'm not sure about the rapids. Don't do it though till your warrantee expires though.

My TM1 had everything you listed plus a 5C 4th axis. I really wanted to bring it home after my heart surgery, but my wife thought she had to keep her CAR in the garage and there wasn't room for both.

When will women learn that garages aren't for cars, THEY ARE FOR STUFF.

I am in the market now for another one. I am looking for a TM1 or TM2 with no tool changer. My thinking is, "for $7,200.00 I can change the tool a lot of times by hand". I work by myself and like you I only do 1 to 10 pieces. My business card says "ONE TO TEN PIECES IS OUR SPECIALTY". I'll take 25 pieces, but I'll turn down 26 or more.

I race gasoline powered model boats and I have a line of hardware I make for them. I am working in my garage right now, and I can't make them fast enough. Some parts, I make in lots of 25, but I make a few in 100 piece lots. When I do the 100 piece lots, I run them all at once to get them done, then I don't run them again for 6 months or so.

I used to cut all kinds of material on my TM1. I even did some inconel 718 jobs. Just use small cutters so if anything goes wrong, you break the cutter not the spindle. A 3/8 cutter is $30.00. A spindle is $4,500.00.

The TM1 or TM2, even the TM3 are wonderful machines. And after the way I was treated by Haas when I had to send mine back, I would buy another one in a heart beat if I were to buy another new one.

Haas had agreed to add the payments I missed after my heart surgery to the end of the contract (I would have missed about 6 payments). But when I sent it back, I still owed a little more than $14,000.00 on the machine. They sold it for $22,000.00, took a $2,000.00 commission from the $22,000.00 and sent me the rest (almost $6,000.00).

If you use the Haas toolroom mills for what are meant to be used for meant for, there isn't a machine out there that will beat them.

Last year at Westec I was almost talked in to a machine that was a Bridgeport style knee mill, but then I realized the Haas has something the Bridgeport doesn't. Sixteen inches of Z travel. What do you do if you have a Bridgeport style machine with 5 inches of Z travel and you get a job that has holes that are 7 inches deep? You're screwed.

Thank you Steve, I really appreciate the input. I think that for what I'm doing its going do great. My dad and I restore antique tractors and single cylinder farm engines. We do a lot of things on a Bridgeport over and over again it would be a lot faster to have a cnc to do it us. We mostly just do specialty one off parts out of cast iron or 4140 steel but sometimes we do get some projects through the door that are a few more pieces.
David

Customer Service

Hi Steve,
Your story is the best marketing that any company could hope for! I have read the back and forth between Haas machines and the more expensive Japanese machines. While high production shops can justify spending the monies for these Japanese machines, there are plenty of small shops with one or two people that couldn't justify a quarter-million dollar machine.

The fact that Haas took the machine back and took care of you speaks volumes. I think the reason they were able to do this is that there is a good demand for their used machines, and they do care about their reputation.

Good news for the new year.

Regards,
Chris

Steve Seebold said:

If you use the Haas toolroom mills for what are meant to be used for meant for, there isn't a machine out there that will beat them.

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I would totally agree with that! My TM1 has been chugging along for over 5 years with almost no problems and no serious problems whatsoever.

If I could find a nice used 10 tool changer for mine, I'd be in 10-Tool-Heaven!

We have a 2007 TM-2 w/ 20 pocket changer in our hospital prototyping shop and it's been great, as has the TL-1. Yes they are slower than big machines on YouTube but they get the small runs done just fine. I agree the long Z axis is key by the way. One of our machinists used to work at a shop with a mini mill of some type and pointed out you have to have all sorts of special low profile tools because you lose 5" from the vise and can easily need 8" or more for a drill in a chuck. Do CNC knee mills have CNC on both the quill and Z-axis? Never thought about that before..... By the way we have our TM-2 set to 6000rpm max, but for little end mills on mostly plastic.

RC

Haas had agreed to add the payments I missed after my heart surgery to the end of the contract (I would have missed about 6 payments). But when I sent it back, I still owed a little more than $14,000.00 on the machine. They sold it for $22,000.00, took a $2,000.00 commission from the $22,000.00 and sent me the rest (almost $6,000.00).

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Steve,

I'm glad to hear that. For your sake, and to believe that there are still good companies/people out there today.


JAckal