Thankfully, i actually am coming back to describe the thingamajig, and read y'alls smart-ass replies... <slow clap>
But the question i had still stands, and is absolutely appropriate... do you have one or don't you? I wanted to ask a question in private towards someone who does have one. That was a fairly complete question. I didn't feel the need to describe the actual issue. But, since obviously inquiring minds would like to know:
The issue i have is the new bar feeder slides forward and back on some "rails" ... its actually one V-rail on the right, and the other side is like a hardened wheel/ball bearing on no track at all... just a flat powder coated bar stock. My Harbor Freight drawers have better engineered sliders.
Now... when it comes forward to "lock" into place, the lock only engages ONE side of the tracks (the right)... if you push or pull on the bar feeder, it is VERY easy to mis-align it, resulting in a crash while feeding. This misalignment can come from just pulling on the wrong place while sliding the bar feeder forward, or if you just let it come forward itself, it can easily mis-align, requiring you to manually place a bar near the spindle in the feeder, and then push it around until it feeds without hitting the liner to the left or right (you can adjust it up and down obviously, and the alignment of the tracks doesn't change that).... and then hope that it doesn't fall out of alignment while feeding, or it'll crash a bar into the back of the liner.
When i first bought the bar feeder, the picture on the site is exactly what i have... you could clearly see the single silver lock pedal on the right of the base. The new picture they have up now on the site shows a gray pedal more towards the middle, and it looks as if the rail on the left has more to it... meaning some kind of positive lock on the left of the base, and not just on the right. As it is, the lock only keeps it from sliding back on the right... the forward motion is actually "stopped" by the two hydraulic gas-charged shocks that they install on either side of the base so that it tends to slide forward and backwards smoothly.
As for calling my HFO, they SAY that Haas hasn't changed anything, so there is nothing they can do. However, the image on the website clearly shows something different... an improvement over a failed design. This design is pretty much in "lemon" territory for me.
So what i was wanting, was to see if anyone had one that was recent, to take pictures of their base and locking mechanism so that i could see if there actually was an update... there must be, because Haas put a new picture of the bar feeder on the product page... Why would they update that picture if there was not an update to the base. You can clearly see that the pedal and base is much different than the ones in their original video showing how the bar feeder slides forwards and backwards, etc...
Like on this page:
http://www.haascnc.com/lathe_bar.asp?webID=BARFEEDER#gsc.tab=0
Compare the top picture with the gray pedal to the product pictures at the lower side of the page with the silver pedal... the silver pedal is what i have... the bar feeder is nowhere near "solid" when locked in the forward/feed position.
