2017 VF-2 Realistic Rear Cabinet Access?

Hey

I'm taking delivery of my first CNC Mill 2 weeks tomorrow, a new VF-2.

My question is realistically how much space do I need to leave behind the machine for access?

Haas web page says 914mm / 36in but that seems to be only so the door can be fully opened.

I have a relatively small workshop 35m2 / 370ft2 and I don't want it to look like the machine is sitting in the middle of the room.

Are there other options instead of fully opening the door for maintenance. i.e. work with it half open, let it open enough so you can pop the pins on the hinges and take it off?

Any help is much appreciated.

Cheers
J

One thought is put the machine at 45 degrees to the wall. The you can put it with enough room to squeeze between, and have plenty of room to open the door. This works well for me in similar situation. You really should not need to be in there often, and TBH the service guys are used to limited quarters (based on their comments). I still prefer to keep things as easy as possible, thus the 45 degree setup for some of my machines.

Here in the US, 36" in front of an electrical cabinet is a legal requirement. If you have to work in there, you will appreciate it.

There will not be much of 370ft^2 left with a VF-2 inside. That's like slipping it into a condom.

ewlsey said:

Here in the US, 36" in front of an electrical cabinet is a legal requirement. If you have to work in there, you will appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Yep - and I've seen this enforced as a 'floor to ceiling clear' requirement doing installs too. Although I've heard it argued both ways.

This requirement is to prevent electrical arcs when the cabinet is open with power to the cabinet. And yes, I have seen arcs form across pretty significant distances (> 2ft) in panels similar to this.

You need 36" behind the machine. Why not make a heavy duty shelf on wheels that you can store behind the machine but move it out of the way when servicing the cabinet?

And don't forget that the coolant sump sticks out further than the electrical cabinet does, at least on mine. My sump handle ('07 VF-2ss) is 12" behind the electrical cabinet. Plus 18" bare minimum clearance for maintenance, you might as well just go the last 6" to be correct.

Mine are all 30" from the wall. (Measured at the side of the cabinet, not the filter case) I feel 30" is enough. But, I personally wouldn't go any closer than that.

Thanks for all the replies, great feedback.

eaglemike said:

One thought is put the machine at 45 degrees to the wall. The you can put it with enough room to squeeze between, and have plenty of room to open the door. This works well for me in similar situation. You really should not need to be in there often, and TBH the service guys are used to limited quarters (based on their comments). I still prefer to keep things as easy as possible, thus the 45 degree setup for some of my machines.

Click to expand...

Yeah was going to give that a try but unfortunately there are doors in nearly every corner of the room I can't block any of them because one is too my "Dirty Area" and the other too the kitchen then the main doors.

ewlsey said:

Here in the US, 36" in front of an electrical cabinet is a legal requirement. If you have to work in there, you will appreciate it.

There will not be much of 370ft^2 left with a VF-2 inside. That's like slipping it into a condom.

Click to expand...

In the UK this does not appear to be an issue as the regs only apply to distribution equipment, not end equipment. Plenty of space according to my 3D model I made last night should take about quarter of the space. There is only going to be the machine and "clean equipment" in this space, all the cutting, welding etc... will be in another room.

converterking said:

You need 36" behind the machine. Why not make a heavy duty shelf on wheels that you can store behind the machine but move it out of the way when servicing the cabinet?

Click to expand...

Great idea! I'll have a look at this. I wasn't so worried about losing the space behind the machine I was just more worried about it looking like it was sitting in the middle of the room.

Matt@RFR said:

And don't forget that the coolant sump sticks out further than the electrical cabinet does, at least on mine. My sump handle ('07 VF-2ss) is 12" behind the electrical cabinet. Plus 18" bare minimum clearance for maintenance, you might as well just go the last 6" to be correct.

Click to expand...

According to the drawing off the latest model it looks like the cabinet stick out about 2 inches further than the coolant tank.

wheelieking71 said:

Mine are all 30" from the wall. (Measured at the side of the cabinet, not the filter case) I feel 30" is enough. But, I personally wouldn't go any closer than that.

Click to expand...

Thanks wheelieking that's kind of what I was looking for, I saw on another unrelated thread from martin_05 he managed to negotiate 22 inches with his HFO, they just take the door off when they need to get in.

Our HFO is on holiday today so will be in touch with them through the week.

I'll post some shots of my model when I have added the rest of the kit for the shop.