New Mini Mill Questions

Well, I went out and bought a new to me Mini Mill. It has under 300 spindle hours. I just got it powered up and now I have some questions. My only cnc experience has been on a Maho MH 400E. One of the features that the Maho control had was "Teach In" mode. You could press the Teach in Key then enter spindle speed (say S500) then enter spindle rotation (say, M03, or M04) then press the Start Button. The spindle would start at 500 rpm and turn in the direction programmed. Then by pressing the "Manual" key you could move the table, using the direction keys. You could also vary the feeds while feeding the tool into the work. Manual operation! Very simple and easy.

Can something similar be done with the Haas system?

Another question is how do you simply start the spindle turning? It looked like a pretty simple sequence of keys when I got the demo from the seller and I thought the Manual would give instructions on this but haven't found the answer yet.

Thanks,
Rick

I'm not sure what the "manual" mode really does on the Maho, but on the Haas you can turn on the spindle with the FWD or REV button and then in "hand Jog" mode you can feed into the material using either the direction buttons or the handwheel.
The feedrate depends on one of the 4 buttons: .0001, .001, .01, .1 , which then can be further refined by 10% increments with the "feedrate override" button.

As to how to turn on the spindle, you first have to go in MDI and enter a simple S500 ( or whatever speed you'd like ) to define the spindle speed
After that the pressing of the FWD or REV buttons will turn on the spindle with the programmed speed. That can now further be adjusted up or down by 10% increments with the "spindle Override" button.

Another nice feature is the "jog lock". You press it and one of the directional keys and the machine will feed continuously until you press any of the direction keys or the "jog lock" button again.
I did say nice, but be careful as it will mow down anything in it's path fully automatically! ( I reserve the right to do damage on my own stupid terms ....)

Thanks Seymore,
Exactly the information I needed.

Rick

SeymourDumore said:

As to how to turn on the spindle, you first have to go in MDI and enter a simple S500 ( or whatever speed you'd like ) to define the spindle speed

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Nope. Go to MDI, just type in the desired spindle speed in the buffer at the bottom of the screen, without the *S*:

2500

Then press FWD.

Be careful with turning the spindle on with the CW / CCW buttons. If you do not enter an RPM, it will turn on at the last commanded RPM.

Matt@RFR said:

Be careful with turning the spindle on with the CW / CCW buttons. If you do not enter an RPM, it will turn on at the last commanded RPM.

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This is especially important if you are using an indicator! Many years ago I was locating center on a round part using a coaxial indicator and was in MDI but had not hit cycle start and just hit CW. Needless to say 1000 rpm was not good for the indicator!

I usually locate with an edge finder so I generally leave MDI with S1000 M03 entered. Depending on which edge you are checking it might be easier to see by hitting CCW. Just a thought.

Mike

Donkey Hotey said:

Nope. Go to MDI, just type in the desired spindle speed in the buffer at the bottom of the screen, without the *S*:

2500

Then press FWD.

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That don't work on a '07 vintage machine.

Works on my '07 VF-2ss. I can enter only a number in jog or MDI modes and hit CW / CCW and it works just fine. Have you had a software upgrade?

Matt@RFR said:

Works on my '07 VF-2ss. I can enter only a number in jog or MDI modes and hit CW / CCW and it works just fine. Have you had a software upgrade?

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Are you sure it is not just turning on to the last spindle speed? Generally you need the "S." Check the actual RPM.

Mike

Matt@RFR said:

Works on my '07 VF-2ss. I can enter only a number in jog or MDI modes and hit CW / CCW and it works just fine. Have you had a software upgrade?

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Ok, Ok ..... Momentary lapse of sanity....
I have an '01 Mini and an '07 VF4 side by side . Apparently I actually typed it on the Mini, where it didn't work......

Just did it on the VF and it works as described. RPM without the S and hit CW or CCW.

machineit2 said:

Are you sure it is not just turning on to the last spindle speed?

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I sure am, Mike. I use this feature quite a bit and have never typed the S.