Are you happy with the machine? We have been running HAAS for close to 15 years now so we know many of the ups and downs with them.
Here are some concerns you maybe can shed some light on?
Any places for chip-build up?
The salesman says it has a separate pump for flushing the inside of the enclosure.
Is the A-axis brake strong enough?
Sometimes we have to unlock the brake and make a small movement to get correct position after some heavy drilling.
Any issues with thermal growth?
Our DM1 moves alot in Z-axis. Would be a bummer with 20+ offsets in a pallet pool
How many tools did you get?
I went with the 100-tool ATC. I was worried at first it might be slow like the old 24/40 style. It is actually quite fast. Its the newer style which moves full speed until it reaches the next tool. Changing tools on opposite sides of the carousel is approx 10 sec. I was thinking it
could be godawful slow not being able to pre-stage a tool if I'm running random pallets, but it is quite fast. No noticeable wait times in programs even doing quick drill/tap programs. Sometimes pallet to pallet you can grab a tool pretty far away from last one, but IMO only a small delay if you're running 10-15+ minutes per pallet.
I haven't had issues with the brake, but I don't run too many large drills. Largest typically is 21mm. This one loads the Z axis approx 70% and it is about at the edge of the pallet, 200mm off center. I can check later, I have this setup still.
What's interesting is the ballscrew is off to one side on Z, and not in the center. Not sure if or how much twist I can get on this part at that load, but it seems to run just about the same load on B90 as B-90.
This part I drill 13" thru 304SS (half from each side.) I used to run this part on my UMC750ss. To me it seems the rotary on the EC400 has less runout. I get slightly less mismatch in the center of the part, running on the horizontal. Sorry I don't have many measurements on accuracy of this part, tolerances are pretty open and if it looks ok, it pretty much gets signed off
Can't comment yet on thermal growth. Hasn't been a problem for us. Most of the tolerances of parts I run on this one are ±.1 or .25mm Maybe I can check some tools throughout the day. I'd imagine it is similar to their other machines.
The chip evacuation is excellent. This is my first horizontal, so I don't have much to compare it to. However, it seems the flood and wash-down coolant gets pretty much everything out of the enclosure. The only time I notice some minimal buildup is if you continuously run the same parts over and over. If you mix it up a bit with 2 or 3 different jobs, the machine moves more and clears just about everything out. It is real nice not having to sweep out any chips into an auger or conveyor.
Two coolant pumps move a LOT of coolant in that small space.
Rigidity? Seems like a regular Haas to me. The iron looks like they're headed in the right direction, but I think it's still limited by the spindle. What I mean by that is the column has a wider stance on the X-axis. The bearing trucks are further apart. Compare to my 2016 UMC - the Y-saddle is very narrow in the X-direction, which I assume contributes heavily to it's flimsy..ness. It is quite floppy.
The EC400 cuts fine, similar my other verticals.
Not much in the way of complaints so far. I have some minor enclosure leaks and the solenoid to activate the tool setter probe randomly leaks air. My HFO is working to correct them.
The tool probe is kinda neat, they have it covered and a pneumatic cylinder lifts it up, opening the cover.
I think it's my favorite machine in the shop. But it is the newest. Seems the new machine is always my favorite, until the next new one
I could probably add some pictures later. Let me know if there's something you want to see or other questions