We have 11 Haas machines dating back from 1999 to 1993 and have repaired 3 monitors. Notice how I say repaired. HFO Anaheim wants @ $600 for a monitor. See if you have a local mom & pop electronic repair shop in your area and see if they can fix it. Our last repair on a monitor was $120 and took 3 days.

Charles, I feel your pain... We have the same problem in Orange County, CA. I live in a townhouse that is 2 story, end unit (attached on 1 side) and is only 1147 sq. ft. I bought it at $115,000. This home is now selling at $315,000 in our tract ! I would have problems qualifying for it if I were just starting out. My Wife and I cannot buy a detached house because, for example, a house with a backyard that is 13 feet from the back door and 32" space on each side, 1310 sq. ft. is going for $469,000. This was a fixer-upper which I estimate will cost about $25,000 easy to clean up and that is if the roof and plumbing is good. My question is where do we move . I have coworkers who commute 82 miles (one way) everyday. That is a five hour commute. We are going to stay for a while longer I guess. The real kicker is that values are supposed to go up another 18% by October 04: how do we move up ? Maybe instead of inversting in something I can't afford, perhaps a trip or two is in order...

We have had alot of problems with corrosion due to copper mixing especially with aluminum . We run a ton of berillium copper and we have found that REGARDLESS of what coolant we try, we have to clean the machine, DUMP the previous coolant (or put in another machine or 2), then refill fresh coolant for the next job. We have had several jobs where not dumping the coolant has caused corrosion & discoloration with the standard rejection of parts pending customer review. Your machines will suffer corrosion as well (we have 11 Haas machines and a few have had a problem with corrosion). Email me and I will try to see if I can get you some pictures of what we are experiencing. HTH

VX will make some nice pictures and supposedly will do some CAE as well as "CAD that rivals AutoCad". I demoed it; I compared it to Mastercam; I compared it with AutoCad. My result: I drop kicked VX (btw, I really don't use AutoCad any more; I just use Mastercam ). HTH

The good news: I finished my shopping for my wife by Halloween . The bad news is I haven't wrapped a single thing and her stuff has sat next to my desk for close to 2 months . A quick suggestion: my wife and I save our money for Christmas in a credit union account (Christmas Club) and we have agreed that we only spend $100.00 MAXIMUM on the 4 of us and $50.00 on each parent. Everyone else gets cards. Call me crazy but going into debt for a bunch of gifts and some will not even last till next Christmas, bah humbug! OK, now you can call me Scrooge Have a great holliday everyone

The Haas will work great for you (we have 3 VF-4's, 3 horizontals and 4 HL-4's and they've been very consistant ), but I've helped with a VF-5 in particular at a friends shop and the Y axis motor used to give them all sorts of problems. The motor was not strong enough for the weight of the table (same motor as the VF-1 thru VF-4) and they would have service out frequently. Make sure that this issue has been rectified by Haas and you should be in great shape. HTH

+1,000,000 to James and Rekd... and NO, Rekd, YOU ARE NOT BEING TOO SENSITIVE. Speaking as someone who could only sit next to a long time vendor and friend and watch his "little slice of paradice" burn to the ground (just outside Running Springs) and then to listen to these highly insulting @$$h0les complain about not enough money and resources What is also detestable is the fact that the military has equipment that could have been used in a matter of minutes. These guys (the Marines at Camp Pendleton) are trained to be the first in, take care of business, clean up and get out. I have to admit that James' response of "RECALL THEM ALL" really does make sense. Or, if not the politions, at least the assinine red tape that encourages disaster versus protecting the populas. JM2C PS: Rekd and Charles (and anyone I missed) I am very thankful your ok. QUOTE ========================================== If any of you heard his statement, please tell me how you thought it sounded; maybe I'm too sensitive, but to me he sounded mad that he was questioned about why resources weren't being allocated in a timely manner and flatly and un-arguably blamed it on citizens who complained about taxes. ===========================================

Friends for 1 1/2 years Dated 9 months Engaged 6 months Married 13 1/2 years to one fantastic lady 2 girls (ages 12 and 7) And they said it wouldn't last 2 years Godzillia teh "Here's to staying together"

+1!!!

Thanks James

James, what school do you teach at; I might be interested in signing on

Congrats Trev I have a 93 Toyota pickup with 147k and all I need is a new paint job, with flames of course I'm keeping it "til the wheels fall off"...

+1 Rekd (I liked the wax or felt marker comment )We use alot of TIALN coated and get great tool life on various materials. Lars, ask the gentleman that you were discussing this with if he also felt as though Nitrous Oxide didn't do much for the temporary performance of cars

A good all-round machine; you'll like it

Up front I would say go for it . My only question is this: Where do you have the better stability? If the new gig is a better future and you can support the family (if your married and/or have kids) then head out as fast as you can because chances like this are RARE! If you don't have a wife/kids, then DEFINATLY GO FOR IT !!! I hope you have a great time at the new place. HTH

This may get me flammed ! What if we got someone in office who had to run the state, on budget, like a single income working family ? We don't get to "raise our wages (ie. the way the state raises taxes)" to cover extras that someone else told us they wanted us to buy (which benefits them) or we just thought would be fun. Yep, thats right; I propose that rather than "making cuts across the board", thereby wiping out part of necessities to save special intrest funds, we make MAJOR cuts in special intrest funding so that we the parents are not being hounded by the schools for general supplies for the classrooms . You know the education system that is supposed to be getting a ton of money from the Lottery . Raising taxes is not the answer: Implementing prop. 187 and cutting what is not needed, regardless of popularity, is what is desperatly needed. We are the 5th largest economy in the world and our education ranks near dead last in the country? More money in a failing system is not the answer. JM2C

+1 Charles The only thing that I would add is that it is very discouraging when so many special intrest groups (ACLU, ex.) are trying to hijack the constitution of California by saying that the method of voting (punch cards) in a few counties is unacceptable and/or that minorities will be adversly affected because they won't have time to look over the candidates. Personally, if someone, regardless of ethnic background, can't take one or two evenings to review the ballot to vote on the issues and for the leader of one of the most powerful individuals in the nation , then I DON'T want them voting . My biggest concern is that people will vote for a name and not for vision and goals. I am also worried about what is being batted around regarding property taxes and vehicle registration fees. Democrat or Republican, I feel as though gouging the populas more to continue finacial mismanagement is wrong.

Various mounting hardware for superchargers on Mercedes Benz (ex. E430,CLK55, ML500, etc.) for HPS Supercharger Systems.

If you are machining the copper version (Elkonite 10W53 for example), Valenite VNT 650 coolant works ok but you still have to clean the machine (especially the non painted surfaces, ie. way covers, etc.) and the coolant tank. We went so far as to line the coolant tank with fiberglass so we would not have problems on long runs (we ran on Haas machines). HTH

What materials and coolant are you using?

+1 Toolfab . I would not mind leaving California for Northern Arizona or Colorado to work later in life though. Here's to machining til we drop

I am using a 10 yr. old Nikken 5X1 speeder, that is purely a gear drive (no air) and it is nice because I am using it on a Haas that, like so many before have stated, has the spindles that can go south when cranked all day. I picked up mine from an auction for $275.00 (you may try Ebay ) and there are some limitations to it. 1) you have to lube it daily if not more often and 2)it has a maximum of about 25,000 RPM. If you can get one like this and indicate the tool concentric, you sould have pretty good success . I'm using it for milling a slot on Nitronic 50 with a 1mm endmill, .035" depth in 3 passes at 11,000 (2200 RPM spindle speed) at .002 IPM. Regardless of spindle speed, tool runout is a paramount; if your tool runs within .0004 or less, the better off you will be. HTH

Managment's notion that all you need is "a $10 per hour "computer geek" to type stuff in the software and get you the computer code for the machine just like that" . One manager actually tried to get the president of the company to buy into this stupid @$$ mentallity Thank God that he was laid off, the position NEVER refilled and we got MasterCam . Amazing how much more productive we are getting and how much money we have saved since his departure !

A GIANT step up would be a Haas or Fadel. If you really want to make a wise purchase, MoriSeki, Matsuura, etc... that is the way to go . HTH

On a slightly different note, has anyone ever delt with a boss who thinks you can purchase a computer and ANY cam software and "put some $9.00 per hour computer geek" on the system (with no cam or machining experience at all ) and crank out quality code (because all you have to do is press buttons on the computer). I told my boss that I still prefer having code that works. You know code that dosen't take the machine(s) into new and different directions (aka "crash mode") .