DethloffMfg
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2018
- Location
- Portland, OR
I've seen a lot of opinions here regarding the WIPS setup from Haas (Toolsetter and Workfinder), but the opinions either seem to be "YES it's the best thing since sliced bread" or "NO it's a waste of money, buy a 3D Taster and you're better off". What seems to speak the loudest to me is that by buying the WIPS system you get something like $9000 in software options PLUS the system, all for a financeable $5500!! That's a screaming deal, and with WIPS optional on all the Haas mills I wanted to ask for logical opinions here. That said, $5500 buys a lot of tools.
These questions are all coming from me being an OEM of my own products, there will always be some misc work and I've been asked to do some simple 2D work from my laser shop (drill/tap/countersink), but for the most part my parts are and will be multi-part fixtures. I think there are a lot of guys in this scenario.
If you are consistently making parts from roughly 5 fixtures, with common toolsets, would you buy WIPS? Do you use it for in-process quality control? Do you use the broken tool check? Are there other features WIPS gives that you use all the time?
If you're doing Job Shop work, would you spend the time to do the simple program to run WIPS or would you use something like a Taster?
If these are dumb questions and the answer is "WIPS is heaven", just say so. I was surprised at the big contrast between lots of guys with hard YES and hard NO answers.
Edit: I have always used edgefinders and tool setters for the conversational CNC and manual machines I've run. I did spend a bit with an Applications Engineer working on a Haas VF2SS with WIPS and saw how easily he ran that system. I'll never run an edgefinder again now that I know the options on the market, but the 3D Tasters seem like a very good tool for ~$400.
These questions are all coming from me being an OEM of my own products, there will always be some misc work and I've been asked to do some simple 2D work from my laser shop (drill/tap/countersink), but for the most part my parts are and will be multi-part fixtures. I think there are a lot of guys in this scenario.
If you are consistently making parts from roughly 5 fixtures, with common toolsets, would you buy WIPS? Do you use it for in-process quality control? Do you use the broken tool check? Are there other features WIPS gives that you use all the time?
If you're doing Job Shop work, would you spend the time to do the simple program to run WIPS or would you use something like a Taster?
If these are dumb questions and the answer is "WIPS is heaven", just say so. I was surprised at the big contrast between lots of guys with hard YES and hard NO answers.
Edit: I have always used edgefinders and tool setters for the conversational CNC and manual machines I've run. I did spend a bit with an Applications Engineer working on a Haas VF2SS with WIPS and saw how easily he ran that system. I'll never run an edgefinder again now that I know the options on the market, but the 3D Tasters seem like a very good tool for ~$400.