Hot Bob
Cast Iron
- Joined
- May 10, 2008
- Location
- Sanger, Texas / Westcliffe, Colorado
I have been contemplating buying a small cnc lathe for a while and am starting to get a little more serious about it. The new Haas CL1 chucker lathe would be about perfect but, I probably shouldn't spend that kind of money so, the Mini Lathe is where I'm looking. I will not ever need to turn anything that won't fit in a 5C collet. Mostly, my parts will be under .5" diameter. Most will be CP Grade 2 titanium and occasionally some zirconium.
I looked on the Haas website but, they have no documentation for the Mini Lathe. My first question is about bar length. With a spindle liner, how long of a bar can I hold without adding a bar feeder? That, of course brings up the question of where to get spindle liners. I feel like they could probably be made significantly cheaper than buying from Haas.
Next question is about programming at the control. At one time, I was familiar with basic code on a mill and am confident I will pick it back up again as I get into programming parts but, until that time, how useful is the Haas Visual Programming System (VPS)? Would I be able to do most basic programming with canned cycles and not pay an extra $2k for VPS?
I'm sure I have more questions but, that should get me started.
Thanks,
Bob
I looked on the Haas website but, they have no documentation for the Mini Lathe. My first question is about bar length. With a spindle liner, how long of a bar can I hold without adding a bar feeder? That, of course brings up the question of where to get spindle liners. I feel like they could probably be made significantly cheaper than buying from Haas.
Next question is about programming at the control. At one time, I was familiar with basic code on a mill and am confident I will pick it back up again as I get into programming parts but, until that time, how useful is the Haas Visual Programming System (VPS)? Would I be able to do most basic programming with canned cycles and not pay an extra $2k for VPS?
I'm sure I have more questions but, that should get me started.
Thanks,
Bob