We're shopping around for quick change fixture systems to fit an A2-8 spindle. Requirements are minimal setup time, fast change over, and the ability to mount our own fixture plates in addition to a hydraulic chuck. For a pair of STS35Y lathes with hydraulic chucks, we're looking to spend a fair amount for the right system, if I can show that we'll get a good return on our investments. I've already been shopping around a bit, but does anyone have any suggestions?

IIRC, can't grayed out toolpaths mean you don't have an available license for the module that toolpath uses? I see that every so often where I'm at now, we all share licenses between mill/router/lathe.

Duty cycle is supposed to be 100% at 4500 rpm or less, but ours heats up pretty rapidly at 4k. First thing I looked at. Duty cycle is only 15% at max rpm of 6k. Though I did find out there have been a couple instances of operators loading tooling blocks and trying to tighten them down without backing off the jack screws first, so probably a little of column A and a little of column B.

The company I work for purchased a new Haas ST35 3 years ago, and have had to rebuild the live tool (BMT) drive system numerous times. There was a pretty severe crash early on with it, but it had a complete rebuild all the way back to the torque tube. Has anyone had repeat problems with these? Looking back through maintenance logs, it looks like they tried to just replace the right angle gearbox first; still sounded bad so they replaced the torque tube; then reassembled but had debris under the turret preventing proper alignment and tried to test it. Would trying to run with improper turret alignment damage the torque tube? It does not appear to have been replaced again, and we've had issues with noise/excessive heating at 4k rpm ever since.

I ended up using a a helical endmill, don't recall exact series. I think it was called a "Prototyp" but when I search that it comes up with a walter tool. The tool rep (Chris Mason from walter) that was supplying it did specify that they were still in prototyping stages and it's designation may change later. Ended up using a 6 flute tool, approx 5 deg postive rake, low helix (I think it was 25 deg). It worked better in that specific application because the part didn't allow for anything but questionable work holding, and the material was flapping in the breeze. The sharper tool and lower helix reduced the vibration, which seemed to be the worst for the tool life and edge finish.

Good call.

What would be an easy way to determine whether or not a machine is using a global variable (#800-#999 on legacy haas control)? My first thought was "if it's 0, it's probably not in use," but the more I thought about it I realized that may not always be the case, especially if the machine has probes or an add on axis. Just looking for an common empty variable across 3 machine to be able to flag which machine it is for macro use. Really, I just need any identifying parameter I can read that would be different (and static) across 3 of our machines.

I saw an operator doing something kinda brilliantly lazy the other day I'd never seen before, and I'm weighing whether it would be worthwhile to incorporate into our post as a MI triggered routine for holes we know are going to be trouble. We machine nothing but plastic here. As any of you who've worked with it know chip management can be a pain even with the right cutter sometimes. On some programs, if the cutter is getting dull and the chips are wrapping up, between helical bored holes he hits feed hold, spindle reverse, flips coolant on and off, and start spindle back in the other direction. He does all this in like 2 seconds with the manual overrides, so I know with code we could go just as fast if not faster. Works nearly every time to throw chips off the cutter. My main concern would be about how hard that is going to be on the spindle. Any thoughts on whether this is worth implementing?

Thank you! That was the nudge I needed in the right direction. It worked on the VF5SS, just took a bit to figure out the MCAM side of it. Got it set up and working first try on one of our older haas machines. How difficult is it getting the multi-axis functionality working?

Oh, I see. I wonder if that was my problem. I tried to set up the .renmf file to point to the same calibration data being used by inspection. One of my co-workers said they thought that's how it had been set up in another shop they worked at - so I assumed I could at least get the two sets of software to share that data. So I need to find a set of variables not being used by inspection plus or any other functions to use for the prouctivity+ calibration data? Also, should I be using the inspection plus power on code in my .renmf file (p9832), or the M59/M69 Pxxxx codes being used by inspection+?

Trying to set up Productivity+ here at my new job. Hitting a pretty big snag. The sub (originally labeled 2109) turns on the probe, but does not seem to confirm the probe is on. Keeps trying to make a G31 move looking for a skip signal, doesn't get it because it's still up just below machine zero, then repeats the power on code. Any thoughts? The install was halfway done when I picked it up so I'm guessing I may need to go back and change some settings that were made before I picked it up, but not sure where to start. Any ideas? Just trying to run the calibration cycles, but 9109(2109) is the first thing it calls. I did take the time to match up all the probe calibration values from the existing probing cycles, but it won't even verify the probe is on at this point.

Ended up going with a MB266 from Walter. Worked well. Actually took a .01" finish pass on that .06" floor and came out perfect.

The thinnest surfaces are not restrained in any way aside from being attached to the frame I'm leaving in the stock. I'm looking for something low helix, high positive rake, little/no corner radius. I'm thinking I might end up having to make a finish fixture, I'll see how that rev worked out tomorrow. Job is still in testing phase so I have a little time to screw with it still before we have to run them in production. Cutting from top to bottom in sections leaving .01" to finish and facing all the flats with a square endmill instead of the bull I was using (has radius in all corners). I think that alone will help immensely. I already had RPMs somewhat low, I think around 450 sfpm. Did I mention It also has an obnoxious multi-axial curving flange hanging off the top supported by the very thin walled section?? That part actually came out fine on my first test part. Was just the chatter marred finish on all the thin stuff that failed. I may end up having to hand draw a bunch of wire to face it in the exact order I want it done, but that'll be an enormous pain in the butt since there's steps all over and I'll have to be constantly switching depths to work top-down.

Have a part in a picture frame orientation that gets pretty thin out away from the frame cross sections between .11 and .06". 7050 AL. Need something free cutting that I can use to finish the last .03" to down to size, 63 finish. Not super tight on thickness, +/-.01", but having issues with chatter. Any suggestions?

Look to see if there's any text/characters that don't belong? I saw a post once that spit out characters in the header that a haas did not like, though it didn't corrupt the whole file just caused alarms on loading. Try a clean, re-formatted memory stick too. Also, define corrupted. Showing us an example of what it's doing when the files get corrupted might help trace a source. Not much info to go from.

Haha. Yeah I know it's kinda counter intuitive, but better relief and sharper positive rake seems to work better for inconel due to it's tendency to work harden.

I've had pretty good luck with Nachi SG-ESS PM drills in inconel, but I mostly work with inconel sheet these days. I have a 4.15mm drill that I get about 500-600 holes out of before I have to change it. Only feed it at 1.5 IPM, but it runs all day. Can even get away with pecking if you have your parameters set right. I guess if you're doing billet work, your setup is solid, and you're using appropriate entry/exit feed rates carbide is ok, but have to make sure you're dropping feed on breakthrough or you're going to lose the lip of your drill real quick. Any sort of vibration and your drill is toast too. Tried many different carbide drills in sheet metal parts, keep coming back to the powdered metal. Though regarding husker's post, once you get up to sizes where you can use through coolant, replaceable tip drills work alright. Have a narrower range for speeds and feeds, but not hard to dial them in. Slightly less susceptible to chipping out on breakthrough due to the HSS body having a little give to it. I think we have a couple parts with larger holes I have a ken-tip set up for.

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.

It gets people to re-read an old very helpful post from Rizzo, then be depressed that he's gone.

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.

That's exactly what I eventually found and printed out. That would be a lot of Zs to change... I had a hard time finding and adjusting all the R planes to use a variable. Did I mention it was an oscillating contour in a 5 axis mill program and only 2 of the 6 cuts are actually a straight line? No worries about causing problems with other parts though. This one part is literally all that machine ever runs, and all it ever will for at least another 4 years. That's why I get to spend so much time on process improvement for that one part- there's still plenty of time for it to pay off.

I already am, but the short length of some of the contours and the ramp angle imitations of the tool (not to mention the excess chatter when you use a high osicllation angle) it is of limited use and can't be set higher than .06" across .60" without adversely affecting tool life. I just tested out an endmill that outperforms what we had been using, but it does not come in stub length as a standard. a custom stub is about the same price- so why not try to get full use of that 3/4" flute length? I thought about outputting 4 versions of the file and just cycling through them as sub program calls, but then if I want to tweak any of the parameters I have to go back to my desk and repost. Now, if we want to test another tool or different step increment/frequency, I just change a couple parameters at top of file and it's done. I got it sorted out. Having it adjust the wear length offset instead of tool length to avoid having to track the original # and avoid any potential problems if it gets reset midway through. Also added some idiot proofing so if I fat finger a parameter it will alarm before running. I have another part we make tons of that I do something similar with. We were getting 25 parts to an endmill, but the minimum flute the tool had was about 10x material thickness. So now we step down half the material thickness every 10 parts and use the whole flute length, getting about 200 parts per tool instead now.

Sorry if duplicate post, but does anyone know what # range these use? I'm trying to get more tool life out of a 1/4" x 1/2" flute endmill we're profiling sheet metal with. Really only using about .1" of the flute, seem like a shame to not use more. Going to set up a counter to increment the length .05" deeper each cycle until it hits the last of the flutes on the 7th cycle and reset. Need to be able to write directly to offset register with a macro to do so. Edit - legacy #2001-#2200 for length, #2201-#2400 for wear (L)

That looks like a sharp insert. Do you know what you guys paid for the body and inserts? I got the 1.25" AB for $200 with 2 extra sets of inserts.

Worked about as well as I remember, but the operator was scared to run the tool at the programmed feed rate. Sound hardly changed when I walked up to his machine and bumped it from 50% to 100. Thanks for feedback!