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Bad ass new Haas GM-2-5AX

Speedie

Stainless
Joined
Feb 24, 2009
Location
Midwestern MN/Wi USA
Wow so I saw a haas gantry mill for sale at an auction...I think it was a late 90s. It was massive and unreal that Haas built it. I guess they also built a few bridge mills. But the GM2 looks very good for 5 axis router style work. I think they were onto something going all digital and raising the encoder counts (If that is accurate) on the NGC control. That probably paves the way for an accurate massive 5 axis bridge... .. Now I know there are HUGE SNK, OKUMA..ect. But they are triple the price and use much more room..and more capable with a 50 taper. But I really think Haas has a good contender for pattern makers here.
 
The gm-2-5ax is a current/fairly new model. Are you sure thats what it was? It couldn't have been very old if thats what it is.
 
You know, I don't quite understand Haas's reasoning behind enclosing their TM machines.

If you look at the gantry routers, they are wide open, have a toolchanger AND they have a bigass gantry that will whack you if you're a deserving dummy.
Also, Fryer, Milltronics of the USA, and a host of Taiwanese makers have wide open bedmills, some as large as 120". Also with umbrella changers and no enclosure.

So what is the reason Haas can't get the TM-s to be open again?

It's kind of a sore subject with me right now as I might be in the market for a large bedmill ( 60 or larger ), and have left with nothing but Fryer or Milltronics as a candidate.
Granted, Haas doesn't have a TM series with that large of a travel, but still....
 
I remember watching one of those terrible motorcycle build shows back in the late 90s or very early 2000s. They showed a Haas machine cutting custom "billet" rims. I've never seen another of those machines. I believe someone posted on the forums about it. It was a prototype or custom built machine just for cutting rims. They never built another one.

There's lots of weird stuff out there. These machines are so expensive that they never get scrapped.
 
The one cutting the rims..was it maybe a VR machine? They have/had VR-11 machines which were huge VMCs with a 5 axis tilting head. I came across one on a used machine site some time ago and thought it was fascinating. Fairly limited tilt though, so not as versatile as some other machine designs.
 
It would have been nice if they sold the VTC-48 to the general public. Having a 48 inch VTL that all my guys could jump up on without having to learn a new control would be a dream.
v8-i28-Do-Not-Read_1.original.jpg
 
I remember watching one of those terrible motorcycle build shows back in the late 90s or very early 2000s. They showed a Haas machine cutting custom "billet" rims. I've never seen another of those machines. I believe someone posted on the forums about it. It was a prototype or custom built machine just for cutting rims. They never built another one.

There's lots of weird stuff out there. These machines are so expensive that they never get scrapped.

You know I also seem to remember some kind of machine like that, sort of had a VTL table on it with a regular milling head on it. Strange I cant remember for sure but I think that is what you are referring to.

Ooops I should have read further down, looks like someone else found a photo for us.

Charles
 
Shoot me but, rarely do you hear "bad ass" and "Haas" in the same sentence. We have Haas on our shop floor, so I am not anti-Haas, but...… How does it compare to an Okuma or Mori of the same general configuration?
 
My take on that would be the fact Haas is half the price of the equivalent Mori or Okuma and can most of the time produce the same result in the same time making me the same money is "Bad ass". Granted Mori And Okuma are better built machines you have to realize Haas is not the start up company like they where 20 years ago. I think anymore its all down to cutting tools and strategies that separate the machines.

If I program a Haas to run the max parameters for a given tool 99% of the time it will do it. Granted during HSM the other two will maybe beat it sometimes but for so much more money and so little gain I don't see the value anymore. The shop I built in Zhongshan China has over 40 new VF's and SL's in the past two years with a new one coming in every 16 days. Haas must be doing something right.
 
I understand....have you set up a SS NGC Haas and ran it for a while?? It will make you wonder why you paid so much for that okuma. And mori...throw that out the window...they went with direct sales....when you need a new 25,ooo dollar spindle...good luck finding a repairman to install it in the next 6 month. Modern DMG Mori is bad ass and require a trained service tech to change the oil. Something they habe just a few of.

Shoot me but, rarely do you hear "bad ass" and "Haas" in the same sentence. We have Haas on our shop floor, so I am not anti-Haas, but...… How does it compare to an Okuma or Mori of the same general configuration?
 
Big machines are really great if they are running on another man's money. During my apprenticeship at Firestone in the mid sixties, the Mechanical Building had some big stuff. A 30' Gray hydraulic planer with 30 hp Future Mill heads. Two on the cross arm, and another on the side. It was unusual to walk around on a machine tool table while installing the clamps on castings and weldments as tall as me,for the journeyman on a stool.
 
Re: Seymour.
In the EU according to how haas interprets the laws, they need the enclosures.
I must not comment -- gentlemen don´t.

But also when Haas does such on enclosures, they demonstrate "safety-first".
 
Re: Seymour.
In the EU according to how haas interprets the laws, they need the enclosures.
I must not comment -- gentlemen don´t.

But also when Haas does such on enclosures, they demonstrate "safety-first".

No, they do not!
What they are doing is wasting production floor in Oxnard, plain and simple.
The Haas TM mills are in reality a stripped-to-the-bone VMC. Nothing more, nothing less, and as such they only exist to fill a niche area
where price matters.
Other than that they are anything but Tool Room machines!

Like it or not, there is still, and will always be a need for real toolroom equipment, which simply can not ever be enclosed.
And on those machines brain and knowledge is first, second, third. If you have both, safety is implied.
 








 
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