What's new
What's new

Crazy idea to extend the Z-axis???

abbeyroad1124

Plastic
Joined
Feb 8, 2021
The Z-axis bearing block never comes all the way to the end of the rail: I supposed Haas was building in a factor-of-safety.

This means, in theory, if I moved my limit switch I could make use of another 1-inch of rail, and get 1-inch more of Z travel out of my Haas.

Now I checked the ball-screw and counter-balance piston-rod and I have an inch of space there too.

So.....

HAS ANYONE TRIED THIS? :drool5:

(BTW I have not measured, so when I say "1-inch" this is an eye-balling guess.)

20210424_222833-s.jpg
 
I think here is a plastic hard stop at the end of the ballscrew that would need moved or shortened and likely some parameters you would have to change or it would overtravel alarm an inch farther from the table. I would call the factory, you lilely are not the first wanting that.
 
the ball screw can definitely fit in a few more turns before anything makes contact.

i was thinking that THK Corporation might have specified their rails are not to be used right near the end for some reason..... but that's the only excuse i could think of.
 
I can't speak about your HAAS but many of my machines I have tinkered with and got much more travel than set at the factory.

A while ago I have a job running a really long part on a dual spindle lathe. Had a really hard time running it and programming it so the turret wouldn't hit the subspindle. So I removed the limit switch, turned off the machine. When turning on the machine I held P-cancel to cancel it's stored position memory. This was an older Fanuc controlled machine.

I carefully jogged the b-axis back while monitoring the B-axis load. Also looking at sheet metal, hoses, and anthing else that may hit or stretch too much. To my surprise I was able to get an extra 1.4" or travel. I redid a few parameters, set the limit switch to the new position. I was able to enjoy this extra 1.4" or travel for the rest of the machines life. A huge deal in my opinion!!
 
Ok, I have my answer:

The homing procedure is to raise the Z-axis 1/3 inch passed the limit of travel indicated by the limit switch; and then back off.

So although it looks like I have 1 inch of free rail, I actually only have 2/3 of inch to play with.

The Z-axis will hit the bumper stop if you move the switch even 1/2 inch. I had to remove my bracket and bend it straight again. They are only $15 on haas parts web-site: I am assuming they sell a lot of them!
 
I once had a dream (I'm not the only one who thinks about machining in my sleep, right?) that I had a machine with a horizontal spindle that overtraveled off the rails and somehow kept going. I hit multiple e-stops but it wouldn't stop and went across the entire shop floor. There were sparks and grinding noises.

The machine was blue. Make and model unknown.
 
Dreamt of machining. Never a crash or oops tho.
In high school I worked at McDonald’s. Everyone that worked there would dream about work. So repetitive that it was just there in your head all the time in your head.
 
I would think that most, if not all machines also have software limits. I changed the software limit on a Mazak and got just enough more travel to do what I wanted. If you do move anything mechanical, it might not help if you dont change your software limit.
 
I once had a dream (I'm not the only one who thinks about machining in my sleep, right?) that I had a machine with a horizontal spindle that overtraveled off the rails and somehow kept going. I hit multiple e-stops but it wouldn't stop and went across the entire shop floor. There were sparks and grinding noises.

The machine was blue. Make and model unknown.
Not a dream, but I once had a night terror, where i was trying to drill a hole with the probe..

Sent from my SM-A115AP using Tapatalk
 
I once had a dream (I'm not the only one who thinks about machining in my sleep, right?) that I had a machine with a horizontal spindle that overtraveled off the rails and somehow kept going. I hit multiple e-stops but it wouldn't stop and went across the entire shop floor. There were sparks and grinding noises.

The machine was blue. Make and model unknown.

Reading that legit made me anxious, like Steven King for machinists lol.
 
In trouble shooting an unmentionable CNC in my garage I had moved some axis connections about and had failed to connect everything back up with the encoder correctly. Sent the whole table off the machine into my air compressor. That was a time consuming and expensive mistake.
 








 
Back
Top