haas setup

[acormack]

doing some programming for a small very inexperienced shop. they have a haas vf1 with no tool setter so they are touching all of their tools off on the top of the part so there g54 z level reads zero and are doing this with every setup. This can't be normal! if this is right how do you have multiple setups.is there a better way to do this? our shop only has mazaks,so i'm not very familiar with setting up a Haas. any help would be appreciated.

[Tony35]

if they have a height gage and 40 taper tool holder(female) you can measure the tools for positive offsets. setup a master that you know the height of(6in for example) for the G54 touch off (to get to gage line). go into settings on the control and change it to positive tool offsets. now all you have to do is touch off and add your master(offset will be minus value)load tools offsets.

the machine is now set from gage line like the tools

i hope this helps and good luck

[iowajim62]

quote:

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if this is right how do you have multiple setups

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by using G55,G56,G57 etc. Haas also has extended work offsets on the newer models. and by using multiple tool offsets, in other words T1 uses H1 on 1st op and uses H51 on 2nd op and H101 on 3rd op.

hth

[Lars Christensen]

You could touch all your tools of a known block on your table (2"gage block) then use a indicator and measure from gage block to setup 1 and plug that in Z level on G54, then measure setup 2 and plug that number in Z level on G55. You could touch all your tool on Setup 1 and measure from Setup 1 to Setup 2.

The machine need to know a given point for each tool, you ain't getting away with anything less.

[Santa Fe]

You should measure all the tools from a fixed plane. For example put a 123 block on the table and measure all your tools from there. After that just measure from the 123 block to the z origin of the part (top of stock, bottom of stock or whatever your z is at) and writhe that number as the G54 Z.

[Lars Christensen]

wow it most be late in the day, typing takes way to long..................I am picking up the ball and going home

[acormack]

thanks.

[Guest]

I would discourage them from doing it the way they are but if set in there ways they can simply put the incremental difference in z to the next op in op2-g55? etc... make sure you have good clearance going from op to op. also, i repeat also DO NOT USE G49 between ops. z will move up or down acording to difference between setups.

[MotorCityMinion]

Yes its normal. It's the most easily understood concept for setting tools. Top of the part the is Z zero. Distance from home to the top of the part is the offset, expressed as a negative value in most cases. Does it get any simpler than that? Use a pre-setter or 123 block, gage lengths, etc, and your adding variables here. That $8.00 an hour parts loader gets messed up pretty fast. A lot of shops don't use multiple set ups in the same machine. Is there a better way? Yes indeed. Are these people paying the bills in a timely fashion? If so, collect your moola then grin and bear it, or STOP programming for other shops if this concept gets you upset.

 

This diatribe brought to you in conjunction with Makers Mark.

[acormack]

Thanks for all the input. trying to speed up their setup times for them hopefully this will help.

[Justin Beebe at Folsom Tool]

We do it the way Santa Fe described. The main reason being we leave the tools in the machine and we rarely have to pick up new offsets. It is much faster to indicate from the top of a 123 block to Z0 one time than it is to set multiple tools everytime you have a new job on the machine. Just my two cents.

[Rob B]

We also do as Santa Fe suggested, for the reason Justin said. My set plane is the rail on the vise. We use a vise 90% of the time. We also have a electronic tool setter from which we touch tools off so you don't break the small or carbide EM.

 

I don't use the touch off the top of part because if it is 3D or profile you no longer have point from which to reference the tool from.