anyone else have issues with tool setter on their haas Lathes?

we have an SL-20 and we have had the factory dealer in here four times to troubleshoot this tool setter. they "rebuilt " it several times...but sometimes more than others apparently. I am sick of paying them thousands of $ and then have the same issue 4 or 5 months later.... you can set the tool dia with the tool setter and go cut a part and it is .030" off..... this # has migrated over the years ...but lately it seems to be .030 to .040"!!!!!!!!!!

the length seems to be fine....

my company isn't up to fighting the local rep, so we just keep calling them back in for another $1000 bill!!...it seems to be working when they leave, then within a month or two....the offsets are off again...

they have sent three different guys over the years.

soooo has anyone else had issues on their machines?


dvice

What exactly gets corrected when the service techs are out? Is the turret adjusted? Is the tool setter arm getting rotated? Is the stop pin for the arm getting bent?

Obviously something is moving after it gets adjusted. Talk with your service tech about what is happening, why it is happening and how to prevent it going forward. It's quite possible that each tech that comes in just sees the problem and corrects it without fully understanding that this is a reoccurring problem. Don't rely on a dispatch person who takes your service call to fully pass along the details of your machine history to the field tech.
Hopefully you get things sorted out.

Good luck!

Are they rebuilding as in taking probe apart, cleaning the probes contacts, tossing back together, calibrate and your good to go...
Good to go as in...till coolant makes its way back in and messes contacts up again???


That's my guess. If your asking that, then yes I have a similar issue, except I used to take mine apart, clean, assemble, calibrate and be good for a few months. Once coolant has gone past the seals the first time...you can bet it will go past the seals again in short time...then it is how long till it tacks up, coats contacts.

A new sealed Probe will last much longer, like in years longer.


If you want rebuilt or new probe to last much longer...
--First thing, make sure that rubber grommet on probe home housing is in good shape to keep coolant and chips away from probe. Replace when needed.
--Second thing, take a sheet of thin plastic and make a little 3 sided awning over the Probes home, let it extend past the arm. I use electrical tape and wind it around a few times to keep in place. Next I use same plastic sheet and cut out a backboard for the probes arm. When home the cover sit just inside the housings little awning and keeps coolant and chips from going in that way.

That little piece of crap plastic sheet has made probe cleanings go from a month or so to a couple years...and new probe, it is way past the normal life till I used to have issues.

To clean...pull apart, unscrew barrel, electrical cleaner sprayed, blow it out...work switch...repeat, repeat, repeat till the lightest touch gives good contact in all four directions. FYI...use the good side of probe to get feel for what it should feel like.

they have partially rebuild the round housing down at the pivot area... and then they TOTALLY rebuilt that same assembly, I think they have installed a new probe tip( or contact)...all new wiring...... they might have don't one of two of those things TWICE already....

I think Ill go the awning route, but I think I need to get the tech back in here.

do you guys eat your bad service???? doesn't seem right to pay over and over..... they would accept that with their cars transmission!!!!!!!!!!

dvice

just too
k a look at the grommet, because I couldn't remember them looking at or replacing that. sure enough it looks like a donut with aluminum and metallic sprinkles all over it.. I pulled it out and it just about crumpled to nothing in my hand....sooo much for the service techs looking at everything closely!...

When I first started on a HAAS lathe I had no idea how to set the tools any other way than using the tool setter. It was always off too but not as bad as yours. Would be off by a few thousandths one way or the other.
Damn sure not close enough that I could trust it 100% and not have to offset in X+ to keep from killing a part.

The hinge broke on it one day.
The cost was several thousand to fix and it was gonna be a few days before tech could come by to fix it.
We were under the gun and didn't have 3 days.
I HAD to learn to set the tool using the work.

You know what? After learning to set my tools to the work I told my boss to cancel the service call and spend the 3k on tooling I needed (wanted) instead.
I would take cut at the same depth I planed on leaving for the finish cycle and set the tool geometry to that.

Once this was done I could just hit cycle start and be 100% sure that part was gonna be +-.0005 of what I programed. Even closer +-.0002 if the machine is good and warmed up.

My point?
Tool setters may be nice when they work correctly every time but its not that bad to get used to just setting the tool to the work.

I used to use a paint pen and write the X geometry numbers on my boring bars when I removed them.
When I needed a boring bar to bore out chuck jaws I would stick it in, set that recorded number into the geometry and the boring bar would be damn close, close enough to bore jaws any way.
You can do the same for turning tools too, if you measure accurately from the tool tip to the tool holder/turret.