I worked in my Dad's company for a couple of years in my teens (trucking, not this trade) and for my best friend's dad's company during the same period (also not this trade) and was always hearing that kind of crap. You will usually find that it comes from whiny malcontent types, the kind who are generally looking for something to bitch about anyway and just settle on you. My method for dealing with it generally went "the seat fits any backside; take your best shot" [language cleaned up for this august forum] when someone intimated that they could do a better job and that I was only around because of my family connections. Because of your age you would probably have to deal with some of that even if your dad wasn't around; I know I do, and I'm 29. Just keep doing your best to get the job done, learn and better yourself every chance you get; eventually people will come around and see that you're doing it on your own. C

quote: By the way, the hot part with the dovetail that I was asking about. I found out Friday the job was cancelled!! Wow am I glad I'm not the only one

Valcool VNT800 works well for us; 5% charge and 3% makeup. It doesn't seem to like cast iron too much though, cuts fine but tends to grow skanky quickly. As for the Vactra 2, we use that stuff in everything and I haven't had any complaints from any of the guys about skin probs. Good luck and good health! C [ 08-21-2002, 04:32 PM: Message edited by: chris m ]

quote: 500 - [senior member] This good for the senior lunch discount at Sizzler No Sizzler around here; I feel gipped Won't really matter though; I'd be about 600 years old before I got to 500 posts anyway

Jeez, I just read this thing from one end to the other (too many fires in the shop today); there must be a full moon or something out there! I have to say; I was happy to get the "Junior" dropped! TGIF (even though I am working tomorrow)

quote: The tech just said " yeah, they wear out every once in a while". WHAT?!?!? Nothing should "just wear out" on a 15 month old machine! Are you kidding me?!?! Unless you are running Extrude Hone media for coolant there is no way that anything on that system should wear out that quickly. I will definitely need to think if I ever consider buying a Haas! For all of you guys with the Hurcos, I've got a 1981 Matsuura that gets flogged every day with all original screws and very little backlash comp in the control that has less than half of the backlash that you guys are talking about; what's the deal?!? Those Hurcos sound like my Okuma & Howa: .0008" backlash when it came off the truck, wouldn't bore two concentric holes no matter what you did, head .001 out of square no matter what we did... C [ 08-01-2002, 07:38 AM: Message edited by: chris m ]

mold100 I've got a nice Okuma & Howa you can have... Just kidding C

Let me guess; a waterjet guy...? Cutting steel with water is cool (I know there's abrasives in there, but still very cool)

Jack After reading your detailed post breaking it down I think I must agree with the gentlemen encouraging you to let it pass by. As a comparatively young man (29) in this trade I have had to deal with superior attitudes from many people in my relatively short career; they typically evaporate as my proficiency and willingness to learn and cooperate become apparent to those involved. Sometimes I am still irritated by certain individuals who think that they will always know better, but I just try to let it roll off my back; I feel that I am the better man for it. Just my take on the situation C

Pardon me, I didn't read the earlier posts closely enough; no help here... [ 07-23-2002, 07:05 AM: Message edited by: chris m ]

Hey Kevin, stop showing off; we all know you have cool photos of all your machines... jeez...

What control is on the machine?

Depending on your tolerances, if you have to shop it out I would suggest a waterjet over a laser if you need to do any machining afterward, I think that stuff would be rock-hard in the laser's heat affected zone after cutting.

quote: Any Suggestions?Yeah; make it out of 303! Just kidding, well... not really Is it made out of 304L because it needs to be? Do you have any say or input into material selection? Many design guys use 304 without thinking about it because it is one of those "buzzword" materials (like 6061-T6) that people love to spec without knowing how tough 304 is to machine. If you are actually stuck with 304L I have had some success with solid carbide endmills with LOW surface footages and very wimpy axial DOC. You should probably plan on wasting the roughing endmill, just let it chatter; if it chips the tool, oh well, just keep running the chipped endmill for a rougher and hope that your finish endmill doesn't get notched by all the junk that the rough tool leaves behind. Sorry

Considering that the mean age of toolmakers in the US is about 54 these days, there won't be many more left in a few years. Not all toolmakers are a**holes, though, so don't let one bad experience (or two, or eight) sour you on all of them. I've worked with some extremely sharp "manual" (I wouldn't consider a ProtoTRAK a manual machine, but they do) all-around machinists and there is a lot to be learned from them

I definitely feel for you guys in your situation. As I said in my earlier post on this subject, we went through a very similar mess on a milling machine that we bought in '97 (not a Haas, though); it took 12 full months for the machine tool builder to remove the piece of junk that they originally delivered to us and replace it with another machine (which is still an anchor, by the way, although it did meet our acceptance criteria). This only happened after HUNDREDS of hours of down time and much shucking and jiving on their end. quote: Either way it sucks, and I doubt I will buy a Haas again, even if they do get this straightened out. I don't blame you; we will NEVER buy another machine from the manufacturer that gave us our problem child (assuming, of course, that management asks those of us who work with the machine) Good Luck C [ 07-20-2002, 06:16 AM: Message edited by: chris m ]

There is a line in a movie I saw a while back that I liked- "If you hurt my daughter I've got a .45 and a shovel; I don't think anyone'll miss you..." I've got one 11 and another one on the way; Yikes! [ 07-18-2002, 07:42 AM: Message edited by: chris m ]

We battled for a full year to have a (brand new) machine replaced by the manufacturer because the one they delivered was basically unuseable. They tried all of the same BS that Haas is trying to pull on you and more hoping to blame the fact that their machine was junk on something that we did. The threat of legal action is sometimes the only thing that cuts the bulls**t. My advice is to immediately go up the Haas chain of command; ask for the name of the regional or, better yet, national service manager and send him a detailed letter reviewing the history of your machine and include copies of all of your service records for his review. If, after this, you are still not satisfied, it is time to go to court. BTW - I would be screaming at the salesman (regional VPs of sales are good too) who sold you the machine as they can sometimes put some weight on the service dept. I usually say "I'm going to buy a lot of machines in the next 35 years and there won't be 1 [insert name here] on the list if you don't fix this..." or "I'm going to rip you and your machine to everyone who will listen for the rest of my life if you don't make this right..." C

We looked at some air-motor spindle increasers last year that are pretty inexpensive (vs a new spindle) but I don't remember any that would go through a tool changer. C

My last shop had several Haas VMCs (new ones, at that) that we used almost exclusively for aluminum because our milling supervisor had bad experiences with Haas machines on steels and stainless in heavy machining. Okuma, Matsuura, and Mori make very dependable, rugged machines that I would have no trouble recommending, but I know that the $$ is much different. Whatever they do, don't let them buy an Okuma-Howa, my Millac 438V is the biggest mistake that our company has ever made. C

We had two 4020s and a 6030 in my last shop (both several years old); none of them seemed to interpolate a hole round better than .001" and we could never keep the heads square in any of them. Always had spindle problems, too. You do get a big machine for the $, but I always liked the Haas better (we had 4 VF4s and a VF2) for relatively even money. Now, if I could just get a Matsuura for $70,000...

Ain't it great how the control and machine tool makers standardize their G and M codes so we don't have to learn a whole new language every time we buy a machine; sure is nice of them Beautiful machine, by the way, do I dare ask what it cost?

Does it want something like "G183"? My Okuma is like that.

I'll have to remember that one How about "There must be some lost motion in the machine..."

I don't believe that they did that for V9; did they?