The Collected Wisdom
of the Haas Answer Man

Care & Feeding
of Your Haas Machine

(early 2005
vol 9 # 32)

Dear Applications:

I just started a shop with a couple of Haas machines. I live in the northeastern
	U.S., and I haven’t been heating the shop. It’s going to get pretty cold in there this winter – what’s the lowest temperature that I can safely run the machines? Chuck Ryder   Dear Chuck: The operating temperature range for Haas machine tools is 41°F to 104°F (5 to 40°C). You should run a spindle
warm-up program on a daily basis anyway, and it’s especially important if the temperature in your shop has gotten below 41 degrees. Let the spindle warm up for at least 20 minutes. You should also run a program that moves the axes – again, for at least 20 minutes – to warm up the ballscrews before you start cutting. Finally, keep an eye on your coolant. The freezing point will depend on what mixture you’re using, but if it gets cold enough to make the coolant slushy, you need to make sure it has thawed before you use it.

Sincerely,
Haas Applications

(Summer ’02)
vol 6 # 22)

Dear Applications:

Why do CNC machines need to be calibrated?

     Dan MacMedam

Dear Dan:

All Haas machines are fully inspected for linear accuracy and three-dimensional squareness prior to shipping.

CNC machines, like all types of equipment, are subject to change over time. The thing most likely to change with a machine tool, and most likely to affect accuracy, is the machine’s level. The quality of a machine’s level is crucial to the quality of the parts produced. For this reason, checking a machine’s level should be part of a regularly scheduled preventive maintenance program that is appropriate to the machine and its operating environment.

     Sincerely,
     Haas Applications

(Winter ’02
vol 6 # 20)

Dear Applications:

If we turn our machines (a VF-2 and a VF-3) off at night, do we have to run the spindle warm-up program each morning? Also, is there a timer or some other mechanism to turn the machines on automatically at a specified time?

     Doug Messersmith

Dear Doug,

It is recommended that you warm up the spindle each day. The warm-up program should be on the disk that came with your machine. There is also a sleep function that will start the machine after a specified time and run a program of your choosing – a warm-up program if you desire.

If you have the function available in your machine, you will find it in the operator’s manual under the M-code listings: M95, Sleep Mode.

Sleep mode is essentially a long dwell, but with power to the servo motors turned off. Sleep mode can be used when the user wants the machine to begin warming itself up early in the morning and be ready for use upon the operator’s arrival.

The format of the M95 command is:  M95 (hh:mm). The comment immediately following the M95 command must contain the number of hours and minutes the machine is to sleep. For example, if the current time were 6 p.m. and the user wanted the machine to sleep until 6:30 the next morning, the command would be: M95 (12:30). Up to 99 hours can be specified, thus allowing the machine to sleep for more than 4 days. If the time is specified using an incorrect format, Alarm 324, “Delay time range error,” will be generated.

When the machine enters sleep mode, it will turn off power to the servo motors and display the following message:

HAAS SLEEP MODE
REMAINING TIME nnn MIN

The message will be displayed in a different position on the screen each second, to prevent it from being burned into one spot on the screen. When less than one minute of sleep time remains, the message will change to: REMAINING TIME nn SEC. If the user presses any key or opens the door, sleep mode will be canceled, power will be restored to the servo motors and the active program will wait at the block following the M95 until the user presses the Cycle Start key. For the last 30 seconds of sleep time, the machine will beep and display an additional message: WAKE UP IN nn SECONDS. When the sleep time has elapsed, power will be restored to the servo motors and the active program will continue at the block following M95.

     Sincerely,
     Haas Applications