vonblowseph
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2010
- Location
- athens ohio
Howdy and Happy Friday to you all,
There are 2 machines here at work that I need some advice on how to deal with them. I feel like the situation is unique so I guess I will need to explain that too. This isn't necessarily a normal machine shop/manufacturing environment. I work for a mid to large size university in the engineering school. I have been offered 2 Haas machines that have been sitting for 15 years, one is a VF2 and the other is an SL20 they are from '99 and '01. These machines have been on campus in another place....sitting idle for 15 years.
The controls are old, they have the old disk slots on them. I don't see any place to plug in a USB or anything. In order for these machines to be valuable to us here they need to be user friendly with modern programming. I could use them and program with G-code but that doesn't do a whole lot for showing students how to use modern CAM software.
Can I get new modern control upgrades to these machines? What is the cost if so? Is it worth it to even mess around with these machines? I don't necessarily NEED these machines but they would greatly modernize our shop and increase our capabilities. I already have a CNC lathe and mill in my shop. The university here is under a serious budget crunch and money is tight. Does Haas have a trade in policy? Asking for 20k for control upgrades is a lot easier than asking for 50k for a new machine. I have 2 calls in to Haas over the last 2 days and no response, which also worries me. That's why I'm posting this here. I feel like I will get a better and quicker response.
There are 2 machines here at work that I need some advice on how to deal with them. I feel like the situation is unique so I guess I will need to explain that too. This isn't necessarily a normal machine shop/manufacturing environment. I work for a mid to large size university in the engineering school. I have been offered 2 Haas machines that have been sitting for 15 years, one is a VF2 and the other is an SL20 they are from '99 and '01. These machines have been on campus in another place....sitting idle for 15 years.
The controls are old, they have the old disk slots on them. I don't see any place to plug in a USB or anything. In order for these machines to be valuable to us here they need to be user friendly with modern programming. I could use them and program with G-code but that doesn't do a whole lot for showing students how to use modern CAM software.
Can I get new modern control upgrades to these machines? What is the cost if so? Is it worth it to even mess around with these machines? I don't necessarily NEED these machines but they would greatly modernize our shop and increase our capabilities. I already have a CNC lathe and mill in my shop. The university here is under a serious budget crunch and money is tight. Does Haas have a trade in policy? Asking for 20k for control upgrades is a lot easier than asking for 50k for a new machine. I have 2 calls in to Haas over the last 2 days and no response, which also worries me. That's why I'm posting this here. I feel like I will get a better and quicker response.