Problem with Haas VF2

We bought a brand new VF2 in september. The first week of june using a 2" face mill taking .002 off a face of a part in hand jog lock mode so square up a detail it began to chatter really bad. I pulled the tool, cleaned the taper, changed the inserts, cleaned the face where the cutter body and holder meet. And continued to have the same problem.

The next day i was setting up a HSS drill in the keyless chuck. on the new controls Haas has removed the spindle orient hot key, so what i usually do to make sure the chuck is tight is turn the spindle on at 10 rpm and grip the chuck body for a second. only this time I was able to stop the spindle completely.

Haas came out on june 7 and took a look at it. They verified with a machine that they had at the HFO and theirs would not do the same thing. They replaced the Wye-Delta Contactor and the problem persisted. The tech noticed a lot of noise coming from the Vector drive at this time.

Part by part, they replace a different part each day trying to find the problem and since Haas wont let them order more than 1 at a time we spent a lot of time waiting. Today, July 5th our machine is still down. 3 vector drives have been put in, main power supply, gear box and motor, I/O boards, keyboard, many different wiring harnesses and a few parts im forgetting. We had our incoming service checked and that was good, Put a ground rod in per Haas.

one thing that was found in memory mode and mdi mode the spindle lopes, from 16 to 8 RPM when set for 10rpm and you can grab the spindle and stop it. and as soon as you hit hand jog mode the spindle is steady at 10 RPM and it has full power.

I have made a test cut after everything has been replaced and it seems better but something is still wrong. and now the spindle orientation keeps changing and it has a hard time changing gears.


It seems at this point Haas corporate is really dragging their feet to come out and look at it. Which is really disappointing.

Have you checked into your state's Lemon Laws?

Milland said:

Have you checked into your state's Lemon Laws?

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I looked and didnt see anything here in Michigan related to equipment.

Is that the Haas making all that noise in the vid?

no, thats the air compressor.

Ok kinda thought so...I was gonna say, if it's making that much noise there's a real issue in that drive lol

first do "EVERYTHING" in writing ...

your looking at Magnuson-moss Warranty act ... AKA Federal lemon laws

they have 3 to 4 times to FIX the same problem and after that "YOU" have the power in your hands ,,,, I have had TWO new machines get taken back in the last 3 years .. both of them I really needed and all in all were good machines but the dealers could not get off there butts and fix them for MONTHS

If I was in your shoes and I have been twice I would sent the head guy at the HFO a letter and tell them to have the machine fixed or removed by a set date .... yes they have to deal with haas so you well need to give them a couple months and not just a couple days to get it done ... but
"YOU" need to give them a set date in writing and be fair about it ...

The other thing you can do is call Ted Carp at Haas in California and have a chat with him ,,, he is head of sales for the US and trust me when he calls your HFO and talks to them they get there ducks in a line FAST .

It sounds like your running into the same thing I did were its a hold up between the HFO and Haas ... I found out really quick that haas well throw the HFO under the bus and you end up at the bottom of the shit.

So just play nice but be firm that you need it fixed by a set date ...

D.D.Machine said:

first do "EVERYTHING" in writing ...

your looking at Magnuson-moss Warranty act ... AKA Federal lemon laws

they have 3 to 4 times to FIX the same problem and after that "YOU" have the power in your hands ,,,, I have had TWO new machines get taken back in the last 3 years .. both of them I really needed and all in all were good machines but the dealers could not get off there butts and fix them for MONTHS

If I was in your shoes and I have been twice I would sent the head guy at the HFO a letter and tell them to have the machine fixed or removed by a set date .... yes they have to deal with haas so you well need to give them a couple months and not just a couple days to get it done ... but
"YOU" need to give them a set date in writing and be fair about it ...

The other thing you can do is call Ted Carp at Haas in California and have a chat with him ,,, he is head of sales for the US and trust me when he calls your HFO and talks to them they get there ducks in a line FAST .

It sounds like your running into the same thing I did were its a hold up between the HFO and Haas ... I found out really quick that haas well throw the HFO under the bus and you end up at the bottom of the shit.

So just play nice but be firm that you need it fixed by a set date ...

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Thank you for the advise, I will look more into the Magnuson-moss Warranty act. this is beyond frustrating being a small shop with 2 machines and having one of them down over a month.


Just googled Ted Carp, It looks like he is no longer with Haas. now with Trident Machine Tools, LLC

Scott Gasich is current head of sales for Haas

This is why for my own machines , Haas is the last one I'd ever buy . The place I'm working at bought a SL-30 new and we had horrible chatter issues , couldn't turn anything that the tailstock is needed . Even the VP of Haas came out and couldn't get simple stuff to turn without issues and all they said ,"you'll just have to play with different tools to fix it" , even though we had already gotten every chatter reduction tooling we could come up with and multiple tooling rep attempt it , all with fail . Basically left us high and dry with a 60% usable machine .I told them to remember the 2 F's , "Fix-it or Flatbed" , unfortunately the my bosses were dumb enough to allow it and since they sit in the office , don't/can't figure the losses by not forcing them to replace it . A few years later one of the Haas techs involved came by ,now working for another company, informed me how Haas knew that particular model had massive issues and we weren't the only ones but wouldn't stand by it ,told the dealers to blame tooling ,then changed the whole machine the next year to fix the problems .

We've had issues with our ST40 as well that I gave up trying to get fixed knowing they won't do anything till out of warrantee . Haas will not fix it so YOU must force them !

jjxtrider said:

This is why for my own machines , Haas is the last one I'd ever buy . The place I'm working at bought a SL-30 new and we had horrible chatter issues , couldn't turn anything that the tailstock is needed . Even the VP of Haas came out and couldn't get simple stuff to turn without issues and all they said ,"you'll just have to play with different tools to fix it" , even though we had already gotten every chatter reduction tooling we could come up with and multiple tooling rep attempt it , all with fail . Basically left us high and dry with a 60% usable machine . The owners were dumb enough to allow it and since they sit in the office , don't/can't figure the losses by not forcing them to replace it . A few years later one of the Haas techs involved came by ,now working for another company, informed me how Haas knew that particular model had massive issues and we weren't the only ones but wouldn't stand by it ,told the dealers to blame tooling ,then changed the whole machine the next year to fix the problems .

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we are waiting for a quote from Mazak, I ran a variaxis before I went on my own, loved the machine. I have heard bad reports with Mazak trying to get help when the machine is out of warranty. not sure if its true though.

If I had to guess, I'd say you've got some incorrect parameters or outdated software (or both). Which version of software are you running? (Diagnostic->Diagnostics->System) NGC Mill is pretty well developed by now.

If you want to PM me your serial number I can look into this with a little more detail. Also, put in a USB drive, hit shift-F3 and grab an error report and send it over.

Wow that is a crazy problem. Mazaks are a really good machine, and I haven't heard of any issues like you described with the service on the machine.

coyoinu said:

If I had to guess, I'd say you've got some incorrect parameters or outdated software (or both). Which version of software are you running? (Diagnostic->Diagnostics->System) NGC Mill is pretty well developed by now.

If you want to PM me your serial number I can look into this with a little more detail. Also, put in a USB drive, hit shift-F3 and grab an error report and send it over.

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Coyoinu, if you're a Haas service tech you're going to want to PM your contact details to jm0502.

coyoinu said:

If I had to guess, I'd say you've got some incorrect parameters or outdated software (or both). Which version of software are you running? (Diagnostic->Diagnostics->System) NGC Mill is pretty well developed by now.

If you want to PM me your serial number I can look into this with a little more detail. Also, put in a USB drive, hit shift-F3 and grab an error report and send it over.

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PM sent.

Software was updated, then changed back to original. Haas keeps trying to blame our electric service, Power is with in 2% of required.

Sorry for all the trouble you're having.

My first and last Haas will leave my shop in a couple of days.

Unfortunately nobody can beat Haas doing the best they know: Blaming anything around them, instead looking first at their selves.

I had a problem with a new machine, I wrote an email outlining all the things I found disappointing, I sent it to my dealer, my salesman and this fellow
John Nelson

Product Specialist

Haas Automation Inc.

[email protected]

(805) 278-8679

the problem was resolved to my satisfaction

One really disappointing thing was we had one large detail to cut with a lot of shape on it. the VF2 has high speed machining on it for this reason. we have a 2003 vf3 here that doesnt have HSM activated. Haas refused to give us a temporary code HSM code so we could get this part cut in the vf3. It was painful to watch a mill running this so slow. took about double the machining time to get it cut.

Haas no longer sees a return on offering long-term support for their products. I think that's a dreadful mistake.

On the other hand, Gene's not much older than me, owns a successful, very large manufacturing company and is jetting across the world to F1 races so he can play with his racing team.

So what do I know? Not enough, apparently...

Milland said:

Haas no longer sees a return on offering long-term support for their products. I think that's a dreadful mistake.

On the other hand, Gene's not much older than me, owns a successful, very large manufacturing company and is jetting across the world to F1 races so he can play with his racing team.

So what do I know? Not enough, apparently...

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I guess I dont see the harm in turning HSM on. It would have cost Haas nothing at all, and it would have made us a hell of a lot happier, and we would have made money on this job instead of doubling our machining time and I wouldnt be working Saturday and Sunday and the 4th of july trying to stay caught up.

jm0502 said:

I guess I dont see the harm in turning HSM on. It would have cost Haas nothing at all, and it would have made us a hell of a lot happier, and we would have made money on this job instead of doubling our machining time and I wouldnt be working Saturday and Sunday and the 4th of july trying to stay caught up.

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Start of week 6, HFO came out and did a few more things that haas corporate wants, Hopefully we can get somewhere soon. I feel bad for the techs at the HFO they tried everything they can, and they are the ones here stuck dealing with a pissed of customer.