Haas Vm3

[ATG]

Just wondered what people thought of these machines. Do you have one and what are the benefits and disadvantages that you see..

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

Seth

[Guest]

quote:

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disadvantages

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It's a HAAS.

 

What more needs to be said

[Guest]

I have a vf3

and my day job has vf2 vf4 and vf6's

they have made us much money but you get what you pay for.

throw up any specific questions you have and

we will give it a shot.

 

Doug

[Thee Dragracer1951]

I didn't hesitate to buy a Haas. Two of them in fact. The SL10 I have is a POS. Breaks all the time and is not accurate.

But besides that...it ain't got no power either.

I have a Mini that just pisses me off cause I can't say anything bad about it. Except for the fact that it ain't got no power either.

You could not EVER talk me into another Haas. If you're on the west coast beware of serious service issues.

[Programinator]

newchsmcam...

 

It really depends on what you are planning on doing with the machine. Production or not. Steel or alum. These things matter when it comes to the Haas machines.

[peon]

We have a VM3 and VM2 we use in our mold shop. Colin is right. Accurate to within a .001 IF you keep the feedrates under 100 ipm. Reliability? Don't even go there. They are both the worst pieces of junk I have ever operated!

[T_MALENA]

I have a VF3 here that has been one of the most reliable machines we have EVER run. Its a 1996 model, if that says anything. It still holds within +/-.001 easy. And we’ve spent less than 4000.00 in repair costs, total. What model year are the machines you all are referring to? Maybe there is something to that.

I also have a VF2 at home that I hold 16.000 +/- .0005 hole locations. Been doing that since 2002 but the machine still has less than 2500 hrs on it.

[chris m]

I think that individual machines are different with Haas, which isn't a good thing, and it makes them difficult to 'rate'. What are you comparing it to? Even the biggest 'made in USA' fan cannot argue that any Haas machine is in the same league as a Matsuura or Okuma or Mori or whatever, but I have run Haas machines at several companies and we own one here that is a decent machine. I have heard Haas horror stories about spindles that blow up every couple of months, or horrible repeatability problems, or sticky toolchangers; the list goes on and on. On the flipside I know guys that have 10-year old Haas machines that have been very reliable and good, solid machines. If you only have Haas dollars to spend, then I think your goal should be to make certain that you get all of the options you need to make the parts you manufacture, and to make sure that the purchase is structured in such a way as to give you some security against them selling you a lemon. I don't know much about the VM machines, never seen one, but I know that anything over 100 IPM without their 'high speed' option is a real adventure, and buying a '20HP' spindle without a gearbox will not be a happy experience if you are doing any heavy stock removal because I can stall the belt drive machine roughing aluminum without pushing all that hard.

 

Know what you want, buy what you need, is my best advice

[MACHINEMASTERG]

we have 8 haas mills and 2 lathes, good machines for the money $$$we did have some accuracy issues with the sl-10 lathe in the begining but was corrected under warrnty .The other machines no real issues the service in our area is great and there simple to work on your self .like others have said there no Mori but they not junk either

good bang for the buck, but high feed look ahead is a must .We cut 316 /304 stainless steel all day long and aluminum and plastics its also nicely tied into there rotary products.Weve looked at other more pricy$$$ machines in the past but still continue to go back to the Haas for ease of use and good price for the work we do +-.001

[Don S at Barefoot CNC South]

We have Haas VF 8s with trunions (2) Vf 3s with trunion (3) VF 2s (4) Toolroom mills (3) Lathes SL30s with C axis (3) SL20 C axis Toolroom lathe and Haas EC2000 Horizontal with trunion and rotary. We do aircraft work Alum. power generation parts stainless to Haspaloy inconel and so on no real problems we purchase gear driven when possable. With that said you have to keep your feeds within reason. We have excellent service mostly instalation. The Haas dealer is right down the street from us.

[peon]

I'm somewhat shocked to hear anything good about these machines. We have a VM2 for sale if anyone is interested. It's only two years old with the Renishaw Probe and very low hours. We also sold the EC-1600 Horizontal. That was only a year old before we got rid of that pos too.

[htm01]

we have 2 VM3's and a VM2 and could use a couple more 2's, not many problems here but i guess it depends on what work you do.

[Guest]

quote:

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it depends on what work you do.

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Yup, it does.

 

If you work don't use HAAS

 

[billystein]

In my opinion, the biggest problem with haas machines is they are not mori's.

the best thing is for the price and quality guys like me can have new cnc machines too.

I ran big cnc's in the 80's. they are beefy and have plenty of power.

around 1990 a freind of mine went out and bought a 60x20 ooya-1m. very good quality even used. he hocked his house and quit his job and started his shop. his payment was 3k per month.

2 years later he bought a 40x20 ooya-1m and that was $2400 a month. the payments almost broke him and he finally lost the 2nd machine.

the only good thing was he was able to pay off the 1st machine and stay in business for another 5 years only to sell out and move to apple valley.

for me the worst case seems to be that I will move out of my shop, hopefully share space with someone else and continue to pay $700 a month for my brand new mini mill.

 

billy

 

time to leave for westec

[htm01]

quote:

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If you work don't use HAAS

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jp,

you can say what you want but haas machines put my paycheck in my pocket,and i'm sure it does for a lot of others!

[ATG]

It sounds pretty mixed. It would be brand spaken new. 30hp 12,000 rpm spindle inline drive. with 3d look ahead, 1000 psi through spindle coolant, chip auger, ect.

[Rick46]

+1000 to htm01

[JNO]

Have a VF4 here. Works great for R+D stuff. Like Doug said " You get what you pay for"

We only had 100K to spend and needed a pretty big work envelope, with 4th axis, so the HAAS fit well for us. Have had very minimal problems, and the service center is only 1hr away.

[Teh Bear without Brains kinda idiot]

We have 1 VM and 2 VF

VM is tougher .

Both are not Mories .

We use them for 5 axes with huge success .

You will buy 3 haas for one or two Mories same size .

Good machines for start up .

May be next time we may find something better but Haas is not bad at all .

You need to understand your limits and just not push it too much

[chris m]

quote:

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30hp 12,000 rpm spindle inline drive

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If you don't need the RPM I'd really look hard at the gearbox; my VF2 gearbox machine will stomp all over my buddy's VF2SS with the 12K spindle and not even start to breathe heavy. If you're moving tons of stock I'd also think about a real chip conveyor with a rear discharge because that auger setup isn't the best.

[Kevangel]

quote:

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If you don't need the RPM I'd really look hard at the gearbox; my VF2 gearbox machine will stomp all over my buddy's VF2SS with the 12K spindle and not even start to breathe heavy.

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I don't own a Haas , but the geared head option for a few bucks and look at all that torque! has always caught my eye.

[mgsanchez]

You can say all the bad things that you want to about Haas machines, but the fact remains that Haas sold 13,663 units in 2007. Not bad for such a young company!

 

Some of you think of Haas the same way Japanese car manufactures were thought 1960's. I am will to bet that most of you drive Japanese cars now! Haas continues to improve their machines much the same way that the Japanese inproved their cars. It took the Japanese forty years to get their cars to where they are now. Give Haas another twelve years and everyone will be "driving" a Haas and all the "Mori's, Mazaks, etc." will become the GM's and Ford's of the industry.

 

Buy American, the job you save may be your own!

 

.

[mgsanchez]

quote:

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The Haas will hold .001 all day long, but you would be streching it to try and get tenths repeatability.

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I run a Haas with glass scales and it will hold "tenths" all day!

 

Buy American, the job you save may be your own!

(this is where you hear "Stars and Stripes Forever" playing in the background)

 

.

[Troy Gossett Indepak Inc.]

My boss just came back from a tour of the Haas facility in Oxnard CA.

He was amazed at the fact they would let the group loose to go anywhere they wanted in the facilty, They could talk to anyone and ask any questions they wanted. They spent time with the engineers and the engineering dept. at Haas seemed to be empty, not because they were not there but they were working on the floor with the machinists to see the projects through. HAAS is replacing the brand X machines that have been used to build the components on with HAAS machines. The company has come a long way and with customer support and company values HAAS has they will continue to grow and improve. I suggest anyone who wants to get work done look into buying a HAAS. If you want to hassle with a control designed in Japakoreachinese and then dial the country code+ # to get a part when it breaks buy something else.

 

BTW we have 5 VMC's here that all run lights out 3 of which are HAAS 1996-2004 and one of the other brand machines is down today for repair.

[chris m]

quote:

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Haas continues to improve their machines much the same way that the Japanese inproved their cars

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I hear a lot more complaints about Haas now than I heard five years ago, so I'm not sure I'm buying that. Still good bang for the bucks though.