I think he is asking if he goes back on the maintenance will he have to buy each versions upgrade . I know we let it slip for a couple of versions and had to buy each version to get back up to date .

Thinking out loud , with a C axis one would think you could keep the same Z zero position and index the spindle 90 deg for each lead .

12 TPI for example would be a 3 tpi thread .

1st start  would be a C "0"

2nd start would be  C "90"

3rd start would be C "180"

4th start would be C "270"

We  have 2 18i controllers with C axis use , we use a G87/G88 and have used a .005" feed rate when drilling . I don,.t see why you could not use that slow of a feed rate for milling .

does the TL have the intuitive package ? if so simply procedures and programs can be easily and quickly programmed right on the machine .

If the machine is a box way design I bet it's way oil mixing in with the coolant  . We run 6061-t6 on our lathes and if a part gets any way oil on it mixed with coolant we get similar staining . Seeing that you have swapped out the coolant and cleaned the system and the problem disappeared I suspect it's tainted coolant with traces of way oil . We have a coolant supplier come in every few months and take samples , they send a report on what they find in the coolant .

do you have live tooling on the lathe ?? have you considered thread milling ??

On ‎6‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 4:16 PM, Foghorn Leghorn said:

Haas, without a doubt, has it's place in manufacturing. To deny that is to deny reality. If you live within it's place, they can make you a pile of money. Try to live outside that place and you'll find pain and misery the likes of which are excruciating at best. 

 

Yup we can't all live in million dollar mansions and drive Rolls Royce,s around now can we LOL . Last 3 shops I have been in all had a Haas , and they all made $$$ . The TL series lathe is a tough machine to live without when doing small parts runs and 2nd op procedures that require CNC work .

Myself  I  would not be blowing the stuff around  .

I would use a vacuum to suck the waste up from it , less contamination to the machine and environment . I have manually machined tons of the stuff used to make bushing and thrust washers with the reddish brown version of it . If the stuff is hard on tooling , imagine what it will do to the ball/lead screws and the ways .

I would also use some form of a respirator as well , early versions of the material where known to be carcinogenic and contained asbestos . Always nice to find out years after you spent many a hour in front of a mill or lathe getting covered in the stuff .  

Tool manufactures must love it when a ceramic tools is required for a job , they have such a sort life span for what they cost .  Manually they don't last and even when used on a CNC lathe the life is not much more , plus when they chip they typically facture the whole insert scrapping it , so IMO they can be a big waste of money .

On the HAAS TL series you can use a M code to change the end of the thread from  angle out to  no angle out for threading into a run out undercut at the end of the thread .

M23 command angles the thread out at the end , and M24 command will not angle it out . 

As far as turning is concerned a good way to get more tool life and rigidity out of your set-up is turn the cut-off tool backwards and run the spindle backwards at an M04 instead of an M03. This forces all of the tool pressure into the bed of the lathe rather than pulling up on it, works like a champ.

Up turning is what they called it in a class I took , work well for real heavy cuts , as you stated applies pressure onto the ways rather than lifting the turret off the ways .

turned pure carbon once and won't do it again , was horrible to work with , dust everywhere , could not touch the part with bare skin , it was a mandrel for producing chemistry beakers for a lab .

had to machine it dry as well it could not get wet in any way or it would explode when put in the autoclave or what ever contraption they where using to produce the parts .

what grade of SS is the part ?? we drill 303/304 with a 1" KSEM drill all day , run about 900rpm with .012" feed rate . last shop I was at we pushed a 2.375" U drill thru 4140 ( can,t remember if it was ANN or HTSR ) on a HAAS ST-20 with no issues so I would think a PUMA should do similar assuming the material is not 316 or better grad wise .

from my manual days I used aluminum grade insert tooling for turning , and for milling I used a standard solid carbide endmill/slotdrill and slowed  rpm the feed rates down to suit procedure .  I also remember having to spring cut some turned diameters to get the size needed .

simple question , what's so fast advancing in this trade that you need to continually update MC or any other cad/cam package on a yearly basis ??  too it,s a big $$$ grab .

We have 3 twin spindle DAAWOO/DOOSAN,S on the floor , they typically run 23 hrs a day 4 to 5 shifts a week , are they perfect "NO" but when compared to HAAS and such they are a way better machine . I have been setting them up and running them for close to 3 yrs now and they have been extremely efficient and productive working with 303/304 bar stock . Any issues we have had are age related between the 3 machine they have produced just 1.4 million parts , one of the machine is approaching 741,000 parts , they other is over 400K for parts and the newest machine is just over 300K in parts production . Most issues are little like limit switches , and valves and solenoid's having issues .

Jesse James has been producing 1911 hand guns with the material for a couple years now , he makes his own material in his shop

In that last few months we switched all the machines over to this style filter , so far so good , they last a lot longer , don't  implode like the paper one did .

My next question is how does one properly clean these to get the most life out of them ??

Have to agree with tapping , buy a longer shank spiral point tap and let it eat , I prefer 3 flutes designs much stronger cutting profile

We work as a sub contractor to a medical instrument company and machine a lot of 17-4ph stainless for them. Two batches ago they supplied us some material for a job that we have been running for the last couple of years and we saw awful tool life and rigidity issues. We complained about the material and were told and shown certs to say the material was correct. After costly cutter wear and slowing the feeds by 30% we decided to get the material tested. It was done by a local university and came back as being in spec but certain alloying elements were high and others low in comparison to some "good" material we had. Basically all added up to the material being 30% tougher in tensile strength !!

Sounds similar to our material issues , we sent a few samples out to be tested just waiting the results .

We had 2 lathes running a 50% feed and speed to burn thru the material .

And I feel the material is not harder just tougher as it really only causes a issue on the drilling cycle , that was the red flag when the drill started the hole and alarmed out the "Z" axis for torque overload .

At 1st we thought it was the machine , but when the 2nd lathe had the same issue we discovered the material was not the spec as the other material currently being run .

We get material certs with every job , still does not prove that the material is what they say it is , that is a issue . We purchase 8 to 10,000 of material at a time and sometimes but the whole mill run depending on the size .

What testing procedures do most shops typically do to insure the material matches the heat code and material composition ??

Typically we run 303/304 SS for our products , but every once in a while we get a bad batch  that destroys tooling and causes issues , yesterday was one of those incidents .

Anyone ever use one of those hand held units that fire a laser and then analyze the fumes to determine the material composition ??

need a M14 prior to the G95 , also has to be run in G99 and a M15 at the end , the M14/M15 is the spindle clamp lock/unlock

HAAS shows the G95 as a end facing live tool rigid tap , unless you are running a Live tool , this is the wrong command G code , as other have stated it should be a G99

Does the coolant help increase chip breakage on smaller cuts ?? .

We do a fair amount of .010" finish cuts just to true up the OD of the part on aluminum and SS and we always get bird nesting/stringy hay from the small cut .  If possible I'd like to reduce the hay and get a little chip being produced instead.