another New Machine Day with Yet Another Haas....

bryan_machine · Feb 27, 2020

Well, obviously, a VF5SS.

Why this particular machine? It is the biggest travel machine I could fit in that space. Lots of folks have smaller machines that would fit there, and I could rearrange all manner of other things going on in the building, but lowest cost/aggravation for largest work envelope was a VF5. (All of the casting feet are on the pad.... Legal and workable space for electrical access.... and like that's it. This photo is taken with my back against the DMU60.)

This machine's mission is to scratch various itches - to be big enough, to hold enough tools, and hold enough different mundane fixturing, to remove aggravation from my life. Which will also reduce a lot of aggravating workholding change overs on the DMU60.

While there are certainly much larger machines, the procedure for cleaning blue-schmoo out of the machine does give a sense of scale (don't think this would work in a brother speedio, eh?)

Key options - 50 tool changer - because I often spend more time loading tools into the machine than running the job (typical batch is 1)
The spiffy difffy color touch screen pendant - which is V-E-R-Y N-I-C-E.
Pre-set for thru-spindle coolant so that CAN be added later (not on there now.)

Oh, and unbeckoned by me, it came with pneumatic assist doors - so one can open/close them manually, or with a button push. Clever, slick, though I wouldn't have paid extra for it...

ripperj · Feb 28, 2020

Sweet- that’s a wide F’n table!

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ChipSplitter · Feb 28, 2020

Nice! Wish it was mine!!

I will say, if you're drilling a lot, the TSC is absolutely worth it.......

Cycle1000 · Feb 28, 2020

Nice,
That extra Y you get with the 5 makes that a huge machine :drool5:

I would like to see that door setup in person.
Gary

fmari --MariTool- · Feb 28, 2020

Yea thats a nice big table. Good luck with it.

ChipSplitter · Feb 28, 2020

Cycle1000 said:
Nice,
That extra Y you get with the 5 makes that a huge machine
I would like to see that door setup in person.
Gary

My impression is that the Auto door is standard now on most Haas builds.....
Seems like a nice thing to me.

bryan_machine · Feb 28, 2020

The air door could well be standard - and I find I use it pretty often, just because the doors are kind of big and heavy. (And you can hit the button to move the doors and then go grab something else in parallel.)

rcoope · Feb 29, 2020

We got the auto doors on our VM-3 without specing them as well in late 2018, and they are nice. It's motivation to find high volume jobs for which you then need to get a robot arm to feed the machine!

Cycle1000 · Feb 29, 2020

I love the idea of the auto doors, but the first ones I seen...long time ago were so slow I couldn't be bothered as I was not doing any automation.
But the fact that you can also manually move them, plus I am sure they are much faster now is wonderful.
Cant wait for IMTS to test drive everything new they have come out with.
Can you imagine how big their "booth" will be this year :willy_nilly:

Gary

Ox · Feb 29, 2020

I have a cpl lathes with big heavy doors, and I learned not to git in a hurry with them as they will get you in the end if you cycle them too many times / too fast.

Shirley you can fire an M code at the end of the prog and have it waiting there for you?

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

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

bryan_machine · Feb 29, 2020

On my (very brand new) machine, the button is reasonably quick (but only opens about 80% of the way - you have to push them a little farther if you need max opening.

There are m-codes to do it under program control, but when I tried them I got an error - maybe my getting used to the control, or some extra-cost option to actually use them in automation - but it seems the hardware is at least there.

Also, don't pallet changers usually go through one of the side windows? But I guess a robot might use the front door?

lastrada · Mar 2, 2020

bryan_machine said:
But I guess a robot might use the front door?

I've seen quite a few of them that do.

david n · Mar 2, 2020

lastrada said:
I've seen quite a few of them that do.

Wow............that was painfully slow......................I hope it was just a demo................

bryan_machine · Mar 2, 2020

So there's always this funny threshhold where the automation is slow, but reliable enough to run lightly attended or unattended for really long periods, and so it eventually becomes a win even though it's slow. If the part run is big enough. Though that particular part sure looks like it could be run on a big-enough bar-fed lathe....

That application looks a little cobbled up - using the robot to manually operate the doors and press cycle-start - OK, that VF2-SS was what was at hand. And I count 72 or so sports for stock to start from - so it apparently runs batches of 70 or 80 or so. Not really the poster child for robotic loading, but I don't run that shop or pay their bills..... (And it's not like anything I do makes particular sense.)

Mtndew · Mar 2, 2020

Congrats!
Is that a 50 taper?

edit:
nvm it's a 40.
The size of the table threw me off

Josh@OTTP · Mar 2, 2020

bryan_machine said:
On my (very brand new) machine, the button is reasonably quick (but only opens about 80% of the way - you have to push them a little farther if you need max opening.

There are m-codes to do it under program control, but when I tried them I got an error - maybe my getting used to the control, or some extra-cost option to actually use them in automation - but it seems the hardware is at least there.

Also, don't pallet changers usually go through one of the side windows? But I guess a robot might use the front door?

On my lathe with auto door its a setting in the control. M30 automatically opens it at end of program.

bryan_machine · Mar 3, 2020

@Mtndew - it is indeed 40 taper. Loading 50 taper tools into that far away spindle could be kind of an issue....

@Josh - I'll have to look for that setting.... Then again, the doors open manually too...

B88I45 · Mar 3, 2020

Haas has a tool loader for 50 taper. 50-Taper Tool Loader

Also OP, did you look at the VF-3SSYT? It has the Y and Z travel of a VF5 with 1400IPM rapids. We have all VF5s and are looking at moving to these for the smaller footprint.

bryan_machine · Mar 3, 2020

@B88I45 - I actually wanted X travel even more than I wanted Y, so I was more interested in a VF4 and competitors than even a VF3. If the VF5 hadn't fit, I would likely have gone for a VF4 (or one of various competing machines.) This wasn't about "how many machines to support a particular workflow can I fit in X sq feet" (that is a legit thing) - rather it was "what's the biggest machine I can fit into this available cubbyhole to deal with whatever random thing I work on next"

If your workflow indicates it, more VF3s (or similar) in place of fewer VF5s (or similar) could make perfect sense. (Think LONG and HARD before you give up the Z travel....)

For me there's an issue of "elbow room" - I'm not a commercial shop (which is really pretty weird compared to most of you) - but oddly I am often doing things (for various charitable and social projects, or my own projects) that are under a lot of time pressure. As in go from design to part in as little as 30 minutes.

So "elbow room" in the sense of having a variety of vises and chucks just hanging out on the table, or having space so a larger part doesn't have to be set up to 0.010" to fit in the machine, matter a lot to me. Because of the time they save.

The tactics, often seen here, of having numbers of dual station vises, or various fixture plates, to handle 10s or 100s of parts in various ops in one loading, make perfect sense, and are utterly irrelevent to my shop. (Just as my "maximum setup flexibility for any feasible part" arrangement would be silly in most of your shops.)

Cycle1000 · Mar 5, 2020

I wish more people could think like this.
I would have to pull out the tape measure but I bet the footprint wouldn't be that different between machines..some but not enough to lose the Z travel
I love the Y travel of the VF5..until you have to lift a vice on the table :codger:

Gary

another New Machine Day with Yet Another Haas....

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