New to me 2001 Haas TM1

[slodat]

As the title says, this is a new-to-me Haas TM1. This is the photo I took when I went to look at the machine. I also bought his lathe and all associated tooling. I have a thread about the lathe on HM.



Loaded up, getting ready to head home.



I rented a small telehandler to get the mill off the trailer and into the shop.



Close to having it in position in the shop. I bought the machinery skates from an ebay seller that makes them. They make short work of moving machinery. I can move my 5,000lb+ Pacemaker by myself with them.


Mill sitting on the cast iron feet. This is where it will live. The Tree Journeyman 425 CNC milling machine got all new controls about two years ago. It has been an awesome machine.

 

[slodat]

Started cleaning up the Haas today. The dirt, grime, and dried up coolant come off quickly with purple power cleaner/degreaser. The paint on the main casting started failing long before I got it. It's coming off. The rest is cleaning up nicely. The tool changer umbrella was particularly nasty.



Removed the carousel to clean it.



Looking a lot better:


Ready to install:


Back in place. Chip and coolant free, lubed and ready for use:

 

[Firebrick43]

You do realize that Haas only supports their machines for 10-12 years right? And nearly everything is proprietary.

 

[slodat]

Not concerned, at all. The machine has about 3000 hours of power on time, and around 600 hours on the spindle. And, Haas has nearly every part for this machine. And, there are several third party companies that support them. One of which is in Spokane, less than two hours from me. The machine is in exceptional mechanical condition and will live for a long time. There are a lot of these first generation TM1's out there still making chips.

 

[Firebrick43]

I am more talking about the controls. I know of several first gen haas machines that have bad controllers. Only solution from haas is to upgrade to a current controller for about 20k. I have people approach me all the time to work on their deal of a machine, only to find out how much it will cost.

 

[eugene13]

Looks like fun to me, good luck with your new toy.

 

[slodat]

I am more talking about the controls. I know of several first gen haas machines that have bad controllers. Only solution from haas is to upgrade to a current controller for about 20k. I have people approach me all the time to work on their deal of a machine, only to find out how much it will cost.

I went into this open to the reality I may have a control issue at some point. I'm not overly concerned. Worst case scenario, it becomes another Centroid/DMM machine.

 

[markba633csi]

Fixing a controller issue would be fun, I think. For less than 20K it would be even funner
-M

 

[slodat]

One of the limitations with the 20 year old control on the Haas is its limited memory and associated program limits. Another is it uses a floppy disk for programs or RS-232 serial communication with a PC. The slick setup is a small controller that “drip feeds” the program to the Haas control via RS-232 using tape commands. This evening I installed that setup.

Calmotion’s setup is really well done. It has a panel mount USB port for sneaker-net file transfer, and it has an ethernet port to send files over the shops network. Then you select that file on the controller and it sends the program to the CNC control one line at a time aka “drip feed”.

I decided to sacrifice the spindle load meter to give panel space for the Calmotion.




Drew up a drill template and cut it out of 1/8 mdf on the laser. Makes quick work of this and makes it easy to get good results.


Mounted up:



Replaced two mounting screws with standoffs. Attached din rail to standoffs and board clips onto the din rail.


Looks like it was born there.



Powered up:

 

[Firebrick43]

I went into open to the reality I may have a control issue at some point. I'm not overly concerned. Worst case scenario, it becomes another Centroid/DMM machine.

And I do suppose my view point is somewhat biased towards machines that are in active job shops/industry. Where there simply is not the time, nor pay some the time, to tinker with things. I suppose that an oak controller would do ok if the need arises.