New Toys at Work

[b.lindsey]

Today saw the deliviery of our 2 new CNC machines...a Haas TL-1 lathe and what they call the Mini-mill VMC. Just a few pictures of each...not great pictures but excited none the less to have them both in house now. The local rep will still need to come in and finish the installation and check out of both machines as I am also waiting on the first order of tooling for them to come in. Hopefully should be up and running in a couple of weeks though.

The first 3 pictures are of the lathe. Both machines were VERY well packaged and crated. The rigging was part of the quote and these guys had both machine unwrapped and in place in 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Photo 1....there's gotta be a lathe in there somewhere :big:

 

[b.lindsey]

These 3 are of the Mini-Mill from the truck bed to in place on the shop floor

 

[rhitee93]

Nice toys! The local vocational school has a machine shop that is set up as a Haas show room. Makes me drool when I go there...

 

[Ramon]

I was just about to close down and saw this - couldn't help but reply.

Oh I remember this feeling well. The machine shop I ran had a Haas VF? twenty tool machining centre delivered just as you describe. Beautiful machine - our first 'automatic' everything conventional before. It truly was revolutionary for us - and I truly loved every minute I ran it.

Seven months later a change of MD and four months after that he closed the machine shop down and sold the machine, it's kit and all the tooling for less than 25% of it's (the machines) cost. Six months later the entire company production went to Slovakia

Enjoy your Haas - I won't say I envy you but it's very close

Regards - Ramon

 

[mu38&Bg#]

Oooh, if I had the cash for a Minimill...... one day.


Greg

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

Just think, some guy that wears a younger man's clothes right now will someday buy those fine machines for next to nothing at an auction. He'll take 'em home to his garage and make model warp-drive spaceship engines and wish for the good ol' days when rocket engines ran on liquids. ;D

 

[johnmcc69]

Just like Christmas.
What kind of work are you going to put it to?
Or will this just be for model engine builds?
(Snicker)

 

[b.lindsey]

Well of course they belong to the university but fall under the machine shop lab which is in my area Actually the funding for them was largely motivated by some of our industrial partners (potential employers of our graduates) who tell us that there is still a great need for competent engineers familiar with digital machining techniques. Not that we plan on training CNC ready operators...but we will include CAM now in Solidworks classes, let the machine shop students at least run a small "proven" part or two on each machine, and there is some talk about adding a more in depth elective for those that want even more depth in the subject. If an occasional engine part happens to get made...well...show and tell samples are always good to have around :big:

Bill

 

[mu38&Bg#]

Those will be fun to work with!

I saw a couple listings on Ebay for an Emco CNC lathe and mill that came from a vocational school locally. Both had but 5 hours on them. The price was ridiculous though. For a few more bucks you could get yourself a Haas Minimill, if you were ready to spend the 35k they were asking for these tiny 10 year old machines.

Greg

 

[b.lindsey]

Greg, you are right...my boss was more familiar with Emco from prior experience and we had them quoted. I was astounded also at the $/size ratio and pushed hard for the Haas machines. Much larger work envelope among many other advantages.

BIll