TL-1 options
My opinion on TL-1 options...
If you get a turret, high speed spindle, and enclosure, you might as well start looking at a real turning center for that price, unless you need the work envelope.
For the prototyping that I do and very small scale production (no more than 10 parts), I think that a 4-position automatic tool turret would be more of a hinderance than a help. My quick change tool post with 15 toolholders and programmed offsets is more versatile.
High pressure coolant would be wasted unless you get the enclosure. As it is right now, I probably lose 1/2 gallon of coolant a day because this machine really isn't made to fully contain coolant and chips. I like the coolant option but it is messy, even with the petcock valve turned waaay down. I've got ideas on how to manage the coolant leakage on mine, but it is still a work in progress.
I haven't seen a real use for spindle orient.
I have used rigid tap and find it very useful.
From what I understand from my fairly unknowlegable salesman, the machine already has 4 "extra" M-functions that are unused. I think one of those is used if you get the factory coolant.
The chuck...I went round and round on the chuck that came on my lathe. I need a "set-tru" chuck to do the kind of work I'm interested in. Everyone I talked to at my HFO said the chuck I would get if I ordered it would be a BTC set-tru chuck. Well, when my lathe finally arrived, it had a made-in-Korea Samchully chuck in the crate. It was a very nice looking chuck, and probably better quality than the made-in-China BTC, but wasn't adjust tru. I sent it back and got the BTC. In hindsight, I would have been better off just buying a Bison adjust-tru, at about the same price as Haas charged for the BTC. I would have been about $200 ahead if I had waited until one of J&L's 25% off sales took place (like is running right now). The Bison chucks I've had in the past are much better quality than the BTC I got.
A few other accessories that I didn't even think applied to this machine, that I have since added are TB (Tool Bin) and FT (Front Table). The TL lathes have notches cut in the splashguard at the headstock end of the machine. Those notches fit some of Haas's "toolholding solutions". When you get your lathe, Hass will generously send you a grease gun and a chip brush. I put the TB option on the back side of the splash guard, and will hopefully never misplace my chip brush or grease gun. Since I use the quick change tool post (Dorian, bought locally for 75% of what Haas wanted to charge), I use the FT option on the front side of the splash guard to store my tool holders, at least the ones I'm not actively using. The ones I'm actively using sit on the headstock. Can be seen in picture #3 I posted at the beginning of this thread.
I will probably some day get the steady rest, but just didn't have the money for it when I ordered the machine.
I bought and mounted a Sunnex 35 watt work light to the back side of the little splashguard that moves with the carriage. Cost a little more than 1/2 the "option in a box" light that Haas wanted to sell me. The installer commented that it was the best looking light setup he had seen on one of these TL's. I can't comment on the Haas option as I didn't get it.
Hope this helps,
Eric