Bought a 2008 OM2 mill

JVM · Nov 1, 2020

Hi everyone. Long time member but haven't posted in the past. I have had a 2002 Mini Mill for the last 3 years and I have loved having it. It's has been flawless as far as performance and reliability. I've been machining only aluminum and plastics on it. I have been struggling with the slow 6k rpm spindle as often times I have orders for parts that have features with as small as .010" radius and needless to say the 6k spindle has been limiting. I came across a Haas OM2 with 30k rpm spindle and a HRT110 4th axis. Came with 23 tool holders, most of them are original haas holders and the remaining are Techniks. The spindle was replaced by Haas in 2018 and the new spindle has about 500 hours on it. It was also thoroughly checked and calibrated a month ago.
I am not expecting the thing to be able to take any heavy cuts but in general I wanted to see what others' experience has been running one of these and if there are any pointers or tips.

Tjugo7 · Nov 2, 2020

The thing to remember is that the spindle is quite fragile, do not bump it. Also follow Haas recommendations for cutter length(where possible) and diameter.
For roughing plastic and aluminum get a short really sharp aluminum specific 10mm cutter and use it at 30krpm with low depths of cut. For milling these materials I the only spindle speed I ever used is max rpm.
I regret I "upgraded" my OM-2 to a CM-1...

/Staffan

JVM · Nov 2, 2020

Tjugo7 said:
The thing to remember is that the spindle is quite fragile, do not bump it. Also follow Haas recommendations for cutter length(where possible) and diameter.
For roughing plastic and aluminum get a short really sharp aluminum specific 10mm cutter and use it at 30krpm with low depths of cut. For milling these materials I the only spindle speed I ever used is max rpm.
I regret I "upgraded" my OM-2 to a CM-1...

/Staffan

Thank you. I am definitely not used to feed rates required to move a 1/4" endmill when spinning it at 30k rpm

. My mini mill and it's 6k rpm will seem quite slow

Why do you say you regret getting the CM1? I thought they are very similar machines.

mhajicek · Nov 2, 2020

I would be interested in learning about the difference too; I've been looking at maybe getting one.

Tjugo7 · Nov 3, 2020

From what I can tell the OM-2 to CM-1 the mechanical differences are small. The controller is the big thing and probably what causes my problems.
Mechanically the differences from my 2009 OM-2 to my 2019 CM-1 are changed drawbar design (higher clamping force, electrical umbrella tool changer (geneva wheel gone),other lubrication system (same as on all Haas mills), air system in a separate cabinet on the left side. Otherwise it is identical as far as I can tell.

The NGC control have lots off bells and whistles but seems to lack basic stability. My machine has dropped tool, tool changer crashes, skipped probe moves, etc. If I remember correctly it was 7 service calls in about 100h run time.. Mostly software changes. Unclear if it is fixed have not used it much lately and consider my self cheated by Haas, by the way HFO do not answer any more. I even called Haas headquarters, the result of that was a call from Haas Europe the next day where I was served a 20min monologue about Haas excellency and how satisfied their customers was. Total joke, which effectively converted me to the Haas basher side.

/Staffan

JVM · Nov 3, 2020

Tjugo7 said:
From what I can tell the OM-2 to CM-1 the mechanical differences are small. The controller is the big thing and probably what causes my problems.
Mechanically the differences from my 2009 OM-2 to my 2019 CM-1 are changed drawbar design (higher clamping force, electrical umbrella tool changer (geneva wheel gone),other lubrication system (same as on all Haas mills), air system in a separate cabinet on the left side. Otherwise it is identical as far as I can tell.

The NGC control have lots off bells and whistles but seems to lack basic stability. My machine has dropped tool, tool changer crashes, skipped probe moves, etc. If I remember correctly it was 7 service calls in about 100h run time.. Mostly software changes. Unclear if it is fixed have not used it much lately and consider my self cheated by Haas, by the way HFO do not answer any more. I even called Haas headquarters, the result of that was a call from Haas Europe the next day where I was served a 20min monologue about Haas excellency and how satisfied their customers was. Total joke, which effectively converted me to the Haas basher side.

/Staffan

That's understandable. I have never used a haas machine with the NGC as both my machines are older than 10 years. So far my mini mill has been working flawless except occasional Y-axis servo over current error that seems to go away with a simple reset. I am not sure what is going on there but it wouldn't do it for months and then it would do it a couple of times in a row and then dissapears for weeks again and so on. I haven't machine any real parts on the OM2 as I just finished setting it up and populating all the tools in the tool changes. I noticed that there is a severe coolant leak between the door and front sheet metal. Looks like I need to put some kind of weatherstrip to keep it from leaking. Is that common?

Tjugo7 · Nov 5, 2020

Since I do not use coolant I forgot that. The door design is different on the CM-1 to fix that. And yes that is how they are.
The controller on my OM-2 did not have a single glitch in 10 years.

/Staffan

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Bought a 2008 OM2 mill

JVM

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Aluminum

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mhajicek

Diamond

Tjugo7

Aluminum

JVM

Plastic

Tjugo7

Aluminum

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