New Machine Day - Robot Invasion!

[wrustle]

I wrote quite a while ago asking for opinions on robot loading machines, in particular, the Haas robot loader packages. This was back in February/March of this year.

After researching this more, I ended up ordering a 2022 Haas VF-2SS - Robot 1 package. That was back at the very end of March.

The delivery estimate was approx. 16 weeks so I had plenty of time to procrastinate on getting ready to take delivery of this machine, and was very successful at doing just that!

Fast forward to the end of May, where I'm sitting on a beach for a week in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic sipping umbrella cocktails with my wife, when I get a very distressing email from Haas.

You machine has been completed and shipped today 5/27/22 and should arrive at your riggers facility on June 2nd. Wait? What? Just hold on a damn minute, what???? I'm not even going to be home until the 4th of June!

Let me do the math here...end of March to end of April to end of May, that's 9 weeks, woah, 9 weeks, wtf?? What happened to 16??????

Ok, I promise to never procrastinate again!! Um, actually, I'll have to start that tomorrow, I have things already planned for today that I need to push off until then........but anyways..........

So, we get back home from vacation, and into the office on Monday morning. First order of business? You guessed it, get the rigger to procrastinate this delivery........like a boss!! Luckily for me, he was very booked up for the next few weeks, and with the July 4th holiday approaching, I was looking at a mid July delivery!

Not religious.........but thank you Jesus!!

Spoke with my electrician next. He had his crew come over a couple days later and got all the conduit put in place and he assured me, that once the machine hits my floor, he'll send them back to pull wires and hook it up. Good, check that off the list!

One of the real head scratchers problems came up with my overhead door for that bay. The problem was with the height of the fencing enclosure around the front of the machine being 101" high, the garage door opener would be in the way, along with the overhead rails for the door as well. This caused me quite some concern. We use the door on a weekly basis and cannot be just sealed off and not used anymore.

I called up my garage door guy....you know.....we all have one, right? He came over, assessed the situation after hearing my concerns and problems and came up with a great plan. Apparently because of the type of door I have due to a low ceiling height, it uses a double decker type rail/track rather than just a single, so that's why I don't have the clearance at the end of the rails for the fencing. To resolve it, he's going to make a new rail system with just a single track. This will allow me the needed space for the fencing.

With regard to the opener, he said he will remove the existing overhead opener and track, and install a new one on the side of the garage door that opens and closes it using the torsion spring bar. Perfect!!

Monday 7-18-22. New Machine Day has arrived!



Ahhhhhhh, Home, Sweet, Home!




We have not had any rain for over a week now!






Any guesses on the forecast for this day?? That's right, rain...........any time now!!





This will be the new home for our new machine. This used to be our shipping area and parts inventory storage area. It took us nearly 2 weeks to get it all broken down and moved and "partially" set up in our loading dock/assembly area. It was a MAJOR move!!




This is the problem area here. Garage door opener and rails are too low for the fencing enclosure around the robot to clear.



Despite all the distractions and rearrangement of normal day to day operations, the guys are keeping the spindles turning!!




The big boss working hard up in the office!! She's the glue that keeps this place together!




What's that I hear outside? YES, the riggers are here!! It's finally new machine day!!!







This is the part where those of you who know me, will hate me,..........and those of you who do not know me will learn to hate me!


To be continued................

Later,
Russ

 

[wrustle]

Before we can get the machine into the building, I needed to protect my parking lot that was paved just a little over a year ago. When speaking over the phone with the rigger a couple months ago, they requested I send a picture of the parking lot and entry area where the machine was going into the building. The first thing they asked after viewing the pics was, how long ago was it paved. After stating it was just over a year ago, they recommended bringing plate to put down so they would not leave marks in the pavement especially since it had been so hot lately and my parking lot is in the sun all day long. One small issue however was they could only bring two plates with them on one truck due to the weight, and if they had to bring more, they would need to charge extra for the travel for the additional truck, so he suggested I just pick up 4 sheets of 3/4" thick plywood and they would use that, so that's exactly what I did. Saves me a bunch of money, since the rigger would be coming from New Hampshire, and I'm in central Mass, on the western edge.



Just need one more plate!








With the plywood and plates set in place, it's time to un-tarp the new machine!





With the road being so narrow in front of my building, they had to pick it off the truck further down the road where they had more room.





Now here's something you don't see coming down the road everyday!





Everything looking good on this side! So far, so good! Not sinking in at all, but still VERY glad I got the plywood! The fork truck is 15k and the machine is 8k.








Ummm....looks kinda like it's not going to fit! The other two 2018 VF-2SS machines we have in the building fit no problem. Are the newer models a little taller? Let's hope once it's off the pallet it will make it under the header!




To be continued............................

Later,
Russ

 

[Ox]

Wruss'll be late to his own funeral....

"Oh, one more thing ...."


---------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[DDoug]

Would be easier to simply jack up the building.....

 

[wrustle]

So as I stated in my last update, it certainly is looking like clearance could be an issue, and I was having a very empty pit feeling in my stomach going on at that moment.

I honestly did not even measure the door height. I mean, I already have two 2018 VF-2SS machines sitting on the floor of may shop already.

So, I'm standing here eyeballing the pallet under the machine and comparing the thickness of it to the drop in the top of the machine when it comes off of it and thinking to myself....hmmm, I might be good after all.







Ok, from this vantage point, I'm feeling a little better!







Wow, so deceiving how much more room there is now with it off the pallet.






I guess you could not get a heck of a lot more clearance than that, phew...............

The guys even came out from lunch to watch the drama!





Geez, don't know what I was sweating about. Even have enough room to get the skates underneath.





Life is good! In position now and the riggers are lowering the machine down onto the leveling pads.








I do believe we are running out of room in here.





Time to get the robot, or should I say, "WALL-E" (as he's been named) and bring him in out of the rain.



I am personally so excited for this new venture! I just cannot believe how things have evolved over the course of the years I've been in this trade and I've been in this it seems forever.

I thought we were supposed to slow down as we get older and step away from this craziness? The problem is, I just cannot. Things with this business are still just as fascinating to me as they were going back.....well..... more years than I can remember.

To me, this is like a big game. In fact one of my all time favorite hobbies is playing computer strategy games.

I love planning the next move and weighing the consequences of it before even doing so. You always have to be one step ahead of your opponent, or in this business, your competition.


To be continued...............

 

[wrustle]

Have some free time this fine Tuesday evening, so thought I'd sit and get some pics loaded.

Been a very hectic week so far with one of my guys out on vacation this week and the shop still in disarray with the machine and robot install, and it's only......Tuesday? Geez........


Here's WALL-E being lifted off the truck. Funny seeing the size of it from here in this pic. Up close, it is really not all that large.




Ok, down to business now, let the unveiling begin!







And there we have it! Our new employee! Wall-e!















Andrew's least favorite chore, especially in near 90* heat......clean up!





To be continued..................

 

[alphonso]

Less than 2 weeks and the saga is nearly finished. Who are you and what have you done with Russ?

I thought Andrew had left to try something else. Didn't work out??

 

[Mtndew]

Awesome! Looks like you're going to need to build an addition to that building so you can buy more toys!

 

[DavidScott]

Less than 2 weeks and the saga is nearly finished. Who are you and what have you done with Russ?

I thought Andrew had left to try something else. Didn't work out??

Truck driving, and I have been wondering how he was doing.

 

[wrustle]

Less than 2 weeks and the saga is nearly finished. Who are you and what have you done with Russ?

I thought Andrew had left to try something else. Didn't work out??

Yeah, Andrew got his CDL but never found a decent job driving a truck. No one would hire him without experience and the ones who did want to hire were long haul routes and he did not want to be on the road for several days sleeping in a truck along the routes.

He came back for a bit and then tried a stint with UPS for just over a month. Took him that long to realize how good he actually had it working here and he came back. Life is good!

Later,
Russ

 

[wrustle]

Awesome! Looks like you're going to need to build an addition to that building so you can buy more toys!

Funny you say that because we just looked at a larger industrial building that was for sale the next town over. Was excited at the prospect of having a much larger building until we went to look at it and saw it as nothing more than a huge money pit. It was in very sad shape.

The upside (I guess you could call it that anyways) was it came with a house on the property that already had two tenants and a VFW building as well so that would be a 3rd tenant.

It would certainly make it easy to manage the mortgage payment with 3 incomes, but no thanks! I have enough going on in my life without having to deal with tenants, and I certainly would not want a bar right outside my shop. Too many potential problems there for my comfort level.

I own the vacant lot next to my building here and may consider expanding once the building and materials bubble has burst and prices come back down to a reasonable level.
Just went out and took these pics. It's just a drop dead gorgeous morning here in central Massachusetts!

Later,
Russ

 

[Scottl]

Got quite a chuckle reading how you named it Wall-E.

Of course if it really was like Wall-E IT would have done the cleanup.

 

[cnctoolcat]

Fanuc makes fantastic robots, good to see Haas using them!

Looking great Russ. Yes, you've got plenty of room to expand your shop there.

I like a long-but-narrow shop layout similar to what you have now: machines down both walls, with an aisle down the middle.

ToolCat

 

[wrustle]

Getting back to the install, it took about a week for the install techs to come in and start the install.

Because of the size and scope of this install with the robot, they had two technicians in to work on the machine. One was a service tech, and the man at the control is an applications engineer who will be coming out after all is completed for 2 days of in house training I had included in the package.




One thing of note. I was stunned at how much of the blue rustproofing goop is applied to the machine. What was even more impressive though was how good these guys were at cleaning it all out, and believe me, it took hours!!

By the time they were done, you would not even know there was ever any there to begin with. Every nook and cranny was cleaned out. Here you see some left over on the Y way axis covers that they kept moving back and forth and cleaning until there was no rustproofing left. It was done that way with every axis.










This is the 6" Haas pneumatic vise. I know it's sitting there on the way cover at the moment, but that was because the machine was being trammed in.






Here you can see Wall-E getting ready for install with all the wrappings off.





There were several boxes of hardware that needed to be opened and installed on the robot.





Here's the big ass filter for the TSC system.




Here you see the hand held held remote jog for the machine and robot. The new control is a "Touch Screen" control.

That should make life easier than having to always get everywhere on the menu with the buttons. Sometimes it can be several button pushes to get to where you want on a screen. Always thought that to be very cumbersome.






That's all for now folks!

To be continued.............

 

[Ox]

Considering that the machine didn't ship accrost the open sea, and that it was likely to be indoors only days after being set on a truck in Cali, that they could have just shot it down with the likes of LPS3 or whatnot and been done with it?

Fancy filter housing!

I am a bit surprised that Fanuc uses plywood mounts for the robot, but it must work?


------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[DavidScott]

The setup tech wipes the rust preventative off???? That must be nice!

 

[wrustle]

I am a bit surprised that Fanuc uses plywood mounts for the robot, but it must work?


------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

It's ISI certified, so should work just fine!

 

[wrustle]

The setup tech wipes the rust preventative off???? That must be nice!

Yeah, you're not kidding!! I watched the progression of it being cleaned out. It was quite the chore let me tell you!

Whomever did the spraying that day must have been in a shitty mood or had a hair across his ass with the install techs, because it was covering everything, including painted surfaces!! The tech was actually using something that looked like a plastic cooking spatula and just scraping the stuff up off of the flat surfaces.

He was not a happy man!!!

Later,
Russ

 

[helocat]

Yeah, you're not kidding!! I watched the progression of it being cleaned out. It was quite the chore let me tell you!

Whomever did the spraying that day must have been in a shitty mood or had a hair across his ass with the install techs, because it was covering everything, including painted surfaces!! The tech was actually using something that looked like a plastic cooking spatula and just scraping the stuff up off of the flat surfaces.

He was not a happy man!!!

Later,
Russ

My VF2SS last year arrived the same, just hosed down with that blue stuff! Our tech also used a cake scraper to removed the bulk of it. Then ask if we had any shop towels so he could finish. We have large boxes of those blue HD paper shop towels, think he used a full box. Did not mind as he was the one doing the cleaning!

Watching this thread as I keep thinking our next mill is this same set up. Looking forward to seeing how well the bot works for you.

 

[Scruffy887]

Considering that the machine didn't ship accrost the open sea, and that it was likely to be indoors only days after being set on a truck in Cali, that they could have just shot it down with the likes of LPS3 or whatnot and been done with it?

Fancy filter housing!

I am a bit surprised that Fanuc uses plywood mounts for the robot, but it must work?


------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Plywood seems to be protecting the business end of the robots arm.