From Haas to Kitamura. Good move?

Hello all,

We primarily machine 17-4 Stainless and our Haas VMC's are not holding reliable tolerances (2014 VF2, 2017 VF4). We've been speaking with some other machine builders and the Kitamura rep suggested the Mycenter 4XiD as a good decent cost replacement. Anyone have experience with the newer Kitamura machines? I would not want to go from a bad machine to another bad machine wasting a ton of money.

Thanks in advance!

invariably someone is going to ask what you define as reasonable tolerances, so it might as well be me.
what are you requirements going forward?

part size?
material?

A colleague is running Ti at very high speeds on a Haas and it works just fine... So not sure if a new tool is the key

You should also fix your location in your profile. It's the rules.
JR

I am no professional machinist, but even as an absolute amateur using a Haas TM1 I can hold to about 1-2 thou in any axis if I care enough and take time to do everything right (much longer than anyone with experience would take). Most of the time anything that I get to work on has a generous tolerance range, which is why I get to do it.

Now if you are looking to do some crazy aerospace 5 axis type stuff, there are machines that are better suited for those types of parts.

I work with actual machinist that use VF1, VF2SS and a VF4 a couple years older than yours. They can all hold a better tolerance than I can without too much trouble.

Haas machines are generally two part castings. I have been told that in environments with large temperature change, especially as the machine warms up throughout the day, you can encounter some issues. This came from a guy with two Haas mills and a 3rd on the way. So it's not like you can't overcome these issues.

There is a huge variety of things that can cause poor tolerances, most of which I only know the absolute basics of.

What kind of tool holders are you using? Speeds and feeds? Titan has some impressive feeds, but also some impressively low tool life and high tooling bills. Are the tools used for any other materials (notably hard materials)? Tool wear, Work holding techniques. Are you entering the nominal size of a tool, or actually measuring it? Is the work piece heating up and cooling down? Probably most importantly, tool length (in regards to deflection).

Long story short, yes Kits are a little better than Haas but is it really worth the investment? If your doing some real tight work, you should request test cuts from severl different manufacturers