How do you like your Haas tool room lathe

[Sandybar]

We are looking into purchasing a TL2 Haas Lathe for our prototyping \ model shop. Would like to get some feedback from the industry on how you like or dislike this machine.

 

Thanks in advance

[Josh Kinney -Elite Engineering]

I hate manual tool changers. So unproductive even in short runs.....

 

We have a TL1 and it's an ok machine but I dread making parts on it because of the manual tool change.

 

-Josh

[jbreth]

We have a TL1 and have no complaints. Great machine for the money. If your looking for a production machine, go in a different direction. If your looking a prototype machine and an occasional run. Go for it! Remember- it is what it is! We are a very "precision" based machine shop and we don't sell our company as a Turning shop, But we have had some jobs come thru that we have ran Very tight tolerances on and we were Shocked at the repeat-ability of the spindle.

[mkd]

watch out for the 3/4 hp coolant pump up sell. more harm than good, if you opt for the open machine;

place machine over a drip pan with its own bilge pump. suckers are COMICALLY leaky ( if you're not the one running the mop).

 

otherwise pretty nice product

[mkd]

when i requisitioned a TL1 i opted for the 4 position turret. it cuts down on the maximum turning dia. if that is important to you.

 

turret has plenty of clamp set screws so you can make your own gang-style tool holders (for drilling in my case) if 4 positions aren't enough.

[BOATDUDEGUY]

watch out for the 3/4 hp coolant pump up sell. more harm than good, if you opt for the open machine;

place machine over a drip pan with its own bilge pump. suckers are COMICALLY leaky ( if you're not the one running the mop).

 

otherwise pretty nice product

 

Ya the tl2 and 3 I rannare the same total pain

[bogusmill]

We like our TL-3. I'm not all that happy about the post we have for it but machine works fine. I'd like to change some things on the tailstock but we don't use it very often.

[lifetimewarranty]

I agree with "It is what it is"...or to put it another way..."It isn't what it's not"...

 

I second the drip pan.

I'd second the auto tool changer - I beta'd it when it was first introduced and as much as I liked it, it was made horribly out of square so mine was garbage.

Gangtools on them worked well.

 

I also hate Dorian (or any) manual tool posts. I don't know what they are spek'd to hold for tolerance but I wouldn't expect better than .001" when changing tools a lot.

 

All in all, they are a cool "better than a manual" type of lathe. I ran a 1 and a 2 for a while.

 

Oh - get yourself a rain slicker...

[BOATDUDEGUY]

The dorian gang tool did not work well with 316 tools wear and pull the whole thing out of alignment

Dont know if it twer the tool or the dudes running it but didnt last too long

[Ben Wood]

One major drawback of the manual tool changer is the possibility of loading the wrong tool. I did it for the first time on Friday. It could have been bad but the drill I should have loaded was longer then the one I did so it didn't crash. Ours is surprisingly accurate but also drips coolant all over the place. I consider them a nice upgrade over buying a manual lathe but not a replacement for a real CNC lathe. For a prototype shop it might be a good fit but if you are going to run multiple parts you will really begin to hate the manual tool changes.