Haas blew up again

[RaiderX]

1 hour ago, PAnderson said:

Your machine needs to be releveled.

I agree this could aleviate a few issues listed and maybe some undiscovered.

correctly supported level, trammed machine  is way undervalued or assumed by most.

[?Mark]

On 5/10/2019 at 4:54 AM, Machineguy said:

New spindle put in 70 days ago. Yesterday it started screaming about noon. 10000 RPM got real loud. TSC couldnt keep the spindle cool enough so even the tool change was LOUD.

Haas was called, be in today or Monday. Spindle # 5 comming up!

VM-3 2010 version.

By the way. It's on Hass nickle. 90 day warranty applies.

We take care of this machine, but it breaks down way to often.

 

Hows a Doosan hold up?

 

Get a DMGMORI

[JeremyV]

Funny this happened to our HAAS VF-6 yesterday..... LOL.... spindle locked up completely - seems like the bearings are shot.   Go figure.

[Ewood42]

From what I've see, you have to kinda baby them when running anything other than aluminum. We have two of our haas machines down right now. One needs spindle motor and gearbox, other needs spindle bearing and motor.

[Machineguy]

THe main cause of our failure was the spindle oiler wasn't working.

THe second cause was the crashes on night shift that were kept secret.

Machineguy

[Ewood42]

On 8/28/2019 at 3:52 AM, Machineguy said:

THe second cause was the crashes on night shift that were kept secret.

A wildcard factor that you should almost always factor in. Was so bad on one of our machines that runs nothing but one part all the time, that I saved the file as a 9xxx and the "part program" was just a macro call with a couple adjustable parameters for speed/feed etc. Turned out the night shift CNC supervisor kept trying to pick up in the middle of a 5-axis program and was trying to train RANDOM-A$$-TEMPS-OFF-THE-STREET to do the same, crashing the machine, then saying that the program was doing it on it's own. What's worse, he had the off shift plant manager convinced that this was possible, and he was too inexperienced to know any better. Right. program makes good parts all day on day shift, then it has a macro embedded to insert crash codes during off shift hours based on the "current time" parameter.

[gcode]

32 minutes ago, Ewood42 said:

A wildcard factor that you should almost always factor in. Was so bad on one of our machines that runs nothing but one part all the time, that I saved the file as a 9xxx and the "part program" was just a macro call with a couple adjustable parameters for speed/feed etc. Turned out the night shift CNC supervisor kept trying to pick up in the middle of a 5-axis program and was trying to train RANDOM-A$$-TEMPS-OFF-THE-STREET to do the same, crashing the machine, then saying that the program was doing it on it's own. What's worse, he had the off shift plant manager convinced that this was possible, and he was too inexperienced to know any better. Right. program makes good parts all day on day shift, then it has a macro embedded to insert crash codes during off shift hours based on the "current time" parameter.

I ran an old machine back in the day that liked to run for home right in the middle of G02/G03 moves

Proven files, no rhyme or reason for it... the boss was convinced I was doing something to cause it.

I was a heartbeat from getting fired when I figured it out.

The machine was on the same circuit as the air compressor.

If this old machine was making a G02/G03 cut and the air compressor came on the power spike sent the machine running for home

smashing tools, parts, fixtures and anything else in the way.

They had a electrician come out to work on the power box and the problem was solved.

[Colin Gilchrist]

14 minutes ago, Ewood42 said:

A wildcard factor that you should almost always factor in. Was so bad on one of our machines that runs nothing but one part all the time, that I saved the file as a 9xxx and the "part program" was just a macro call with a couple adjustable parameters for speed/feed etc. Turned out the night shift CNC supervisor kept trying to pick up in the middle of a 5-axis program and was trying to train RANDOM-A$$-TEMPS-OFF-THE-STREET to do the same, crashing the machine, then saying that the program was doing it on it's own. What's worse, he had the off shift plant manager convinced that this was possible, and he was too inexperienced to know any better. Right. program makes good parts all day on day shift, then it has a macro embedded to insert crash codes during off shift hours based on the "current time" parameter.

My favorite excuse that people use is always "the machine just did something weird", when a proven program has been running for years. While I have seen things like tools pulling out of holders, or encoders that miss a pulse (or jump a Revolution), I'm always suspicious of that excuse.

[Newbeeee™]

I had a 0iMC VMC where a timer was on the threshold of working/not working, and the toolchange swapped out the next waiting tool, rather than put that tool away, index and then toolchange.

This was after running 20 parts okay, and after the smash, I realised that the preselect tool number was wrong (and the tech increased the timer). Machine was 2 months old.

 

Also, (same control/different machine) I had a the Z go home and hit hard stop twice for no apparent reason (3 days apart).

Then after making 20ish parts okay, it crashed, and there were 4 tools in the wrong pockets (according to the tool table). The machine had toolchanged for a wrong tool, carried on (tool was shorter and cleared part), toolchanged again and continued (shorter tool again) and again, and then toolchanged and longer tool bang alerted me.

Machine was 9 months old so Fanuc had to come and look, and the big yellow cappy in the main servo unit (the big module in the back!) was faulty.

 

I also had a Warner Swasey 0TA lathe that done something weird but I really can't remember what it did. I could do searches I guess...

[Thad]

On 5/22/2019 at 1:30 PM, jlelievre said:

I wonder how often y'all are running Haas spindles at 100% of their capable RPM? Or if you're familiar with the phrase "just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

I see youngsters revving up their spindles like hot rods, 10k all day everyday on a 10k spindle. If you want to run 10k all day everyday, perhaps look into a 12k spindle. Don't beat the thing an inch from it's life,  you might be surprised from the results. If you can't afford a higher RPM spindle adjust your adjust your feed rate accordingly.

.. Been using Haas since the 90's and have only seen one spindle failure along the way.

-j

I'm creeping up on 7 years with my Haas VF2. The only maintenance issues I've had were replacing the tool touch off pad and the coolant level float. The plastic plug for the float got corroded and fell apart from coolant eating away at it over time.

I've got an 8,000 RPM spindle and it doesn't run at 8,000 too terribly often. There are also hours during the day where the machine sits since I'm the only programmer/operator. We don't run production and we only have one shift. I'm sure that's greatly contributed to the machine's life.