Finally got my CNC mill!

[theperfessor]

My Haas TM1-P CNC mill was delivered to my shop Tuesday morning. The carpenter came today and closed up the opening in the garage where we had to remove the door and part of the header across the doorway. I have an outfit coming to install a new roll-up type garage door Friday morning. (The old door was the type that runs on tracks and goes horizontal when you raise it, which would run into the machine.) If I can get the power run to the machine by Friday I can get the Haas tech to come Monday and finish the installation. I might be cutting parts Monday night!

It's fully enclosed with a powered chip auger, a ten tool changer, and the rigid tapping option activated. It has a USB port for communication, color monitor, and all the other standard Haas goodies. No chips on the floor to sweep up, etc. Bought a starter tool holder set as part of the package, I need to buy some additional tool holders but what I have is enough to get started.

I have a lot of ideas and a list of jobs all ready to run, including some die retention nut drivers for Lyman lubers and hopefully a lead head hammer sale as a site benefit. (I need the mill to engrave the handles on these.)

Woohoo! It's been a little hard to sleep the last few nights I'm so excited.

[BrianL]

I know how you feel! I remember waiting for my 3 -axis Prototrak mill to be delivered 15 years ago. Still going strong.

[shoot-n-lead]

Congrats...that is some new toy...uhh, I mean tool.

[DougGuy]

Congrats Keith! My son runs a bunch of hi $$ CNC stuff in Florida, he is INTO it LOL seriously cool stuff with theirs, I know you will be turning out some of it too!

[MtGun44]

Very cool. Sounds like it will be a wonderful tool and a great learning
experience. Good to see you having so much fun and putting the troubles
behind you. Very good news in all ways, sir.

Bill

[GSM]

Pictures?

Please.....

[theperfessor]

I'll post some pix as soon as I get time and get all the junk out of the way.

[Artful]

Here's some video's of Hass TM-1P CNC Mill

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Haas+TM-1P+CNC+Mill+

[LynC2]

Excellent, I know you will put it to good use! I bet you have been feeling like a kid on Christmas eve waiting on Santa. :-P

[w5pv]

Good luck with your new tool,hope it is a joy to operate.

[oldred]

This is just like a new gun, it ain't nothin but a tall tale till we see pics!!!!! :razz:

[km101]

Glad that you have something new to keep you interested. It's been a while since we have seen you excited about anything!
New tools and new projects are great ways to keep you going. Hope things keep going well for you!

[ph4570]

Very nice machine. I have drooled over it at the Haas website but it is way beyond my financial means.
What CAD/CAM software will you use?

My modest means let me do a CNC modification to a Grizzly G0704 mill. It is a nice hobbyist setup with CamBam and Mach3 software.

[Alexn20]

I want one!

[theperfessor]

I use Cadkey 98 (17 years old and runs under everything from Win 98 to Win7 just fine!) for CAD and any good text editor to write the actual CNC code. Normally that's Notepad in Windows but I have used my iPad and iPhone both to write code in an email and send it to myself. Lathe code is usually pretty simple, and unless you need to do 3D sculpting so is most mill code. I'm thinking about getting a simple tablet or cheap laptop with a USB port so I can write directly to a thumb drive memory stick and not have to run in the house to my office computer to edit/write code.

My code is usually leaner and a lot less buggy than what most post-processors generate. Haas firmware has some pretty good macro commands for all kind of standard machining functions, and I take advantage of them when I can. And that is just the G&M codes. There is also a built in high level programming language that can do all kinds of things during run time that I haven't gotten in to yet.

One of my long term ideas is to develop one or more "font files" that can be used in conjunction with the mill's engraving function to generate different type faces (italic, script, etc.)

[kfarm]

I bet you feel like a kid in a candy store and yours is much better than mine. I had a friend who has a friend that had a grizzly mini Lathe, mill and band saw with boxes of tooling who wanted them out of his garage and sold them to me for get this $350. So far I've made a neat little doodad and a cartridge minimum length gauge. Haven't had them for a week yet and already wanting to upgrade to bigger. This is almost as intoxicating as reloading. Just wish I had a DRO on mine. The first thing that I have learned is to really make a mess with all those chips. Hope things are looking up.

[Nueces]

Hooboy! Now you can start cranking out tons of cool stuff so we can help pay for that machine!

[RED333]

So much congrats!!!

[smokeywolf]

Anxious to see pics of your new machine tool with chips in the pan (those that the auger misses).

[DR Owl Creek]

Keith,

Congrats! Glad things are working out for you.

Dave

[theperfessor]

It's lunchtime and the electrician just left, I have power to machine. After lunch the garage door people will come and put in new door, then I can turn heat back on and secure building. I have to go to local hardware store and get 1/4" NPT to 3/8" NPT adapter so I can hook up air line. Machine requires air supply to function and won't run w/o it.

Haas tech supposed to come Monday to finish installation, so far so good. Should be fully functional by Monday night. The same day my first loan payment is due...

[BrassMagnet]

It is great to see a good plan come together!

[Errokk]

So, we should be seeing some CASTBOOLITS 2lb hammers soon! Woohoo! Congratulations keith!

[theperfessor]

The Haas tech came today and set up machine. I ran the spindle break-in program and then shut it down for the day. My apprentice took the day off, I spent the rest of the day cleaning up shop and re-organizing things. I have no space at all left. As it is I had to get rid of my 4' x 4' steel welding table.

We are going to finishing organizing the shop tomorrow and then resume production. We've gotten really far behind the last couple of months because of my health issues, starting up a corporation, the weather, and (for the last two weeks) having the shop torn apart to make room for a new machine.

Hard to explain exactly how I feel right now, I've been through a few life changing challenges the last couple of years and have been waiting for this day for a long, long time.

[RED333]

So glad you feel things are looking up for yall. Nothing feels better than you know life is better today than yesterday.

[Wayne Smith]

Congrats again, Keith! Just take it at a deliberate pace and don't over do what you can do. You need to be more the idea man and teacher when you still want to be the doer. Limit yourself now and you will continue much longer.

[Blanco]

Haas makes a fine machine. I have worked on a few.
Probably best machine for the money.

[mold maker]

Progress, in the face of, and in spite of, adversity, is the way you rock. We expect no less from you. Rock on.

[John Allen]

Oh boy, I can just imagine some of the new stuff coming.

[MtGun44]

Just reading the specs on that mill. Wow that is a neat machine.
7.5 HP, and the 10 tool changer sounds amazing. 6.5 sec chip-to-chip
time! Keep your mitts clear of that!

Sounds like you are really doing very well, congratulations.

Bill

[Bad Water Bill]

I worked at many machine tool shows and had to clean them before the show opened.

You need to post a couple of photos so many others can see just what the size of your new machine really is.

IIRC a 10 tool head is about 4' in diameter and can change tool heads in a blink of an eye.

[theperfessor]

Finally got the time to post some pictures of the move-in. The first photo shows the mill still crated up. (It rained all the time we were installing it and had to leave a plastic cover over it.) You can see where we had to remove the garage door and cut away a chunk of the cross beam above the door frame. That was enough to move it in and then it got turned to about 45 degrees to use the space better. You can see where we had to cut away the ceiling truss cross member to raise the ceiling about 5".

The last photo is the Haas tech doing the final installation. The machine enclosure is a little over eight foot across and the depth is around seven foot, plus the room needed to open the electrical panel on the back. It takes up a lot of space in the shop, so we have spent a couple days reorganizing.

I really like the full enclosure and chip auger, it really cuts down on the coolant splash and the chips never hit the floor.

135032135033135031

[Bad Water Bill]

Looking good sir.

Now the fun begins :bigsmyl2:

[Lance Boyle]

I'd like a Winchester type high wall receiver please.

[woodbutcher]

:grin: Very nice.Now the fun begins.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[Bad Water Bill]

I watched one of them puppies work.

Picked up a rough aluminom block 1"x 3"x 6" and in about a minute trued all 6 sides drilled 4 holes for pencils and a dish for paper clips then burnished the tool manufacturers name on the finished block..

You know they gave away hundreds of those blocks.

[Blacksmith]

Remember don't prebook 100% of the time on that machine because someone always wants a rush job at the last minute and will pay premium to get it done. When the word get around you can handle the rush orders they will line up at your door.

[ph4570]

Very nice.

[cga]

Future bullet mold manufacturing facility.

[minmax]

congratulations on such wonderful machine, I guess now you'l have to make abigger shop so you can get your welding table back.

[theperfessor]

Plan to have a much bigger shop (and a different handicapped-friendly home) within a couple of years.

I did think about getting into making bullet molds at one time, even made up the fixturing and tooling to lathe bore them (and wrote a story about the process). But quite honestly there are some really talented folks out there making bullet molds at very reasonable prices so I think my life's path will go a little different way. Not ruling out making a mold or two for my own use, but not for resale.

Also, unless my insurance agent would want to give me a break, I don't plan on making gun parts.

While my apprentice is running the manual and CNC lathe making the parts needed to catch up with back orders for push through sizers, I'm writing mill code to do the operations on the CNC mill that I've always done on a manual mill. There are even some parts that have been done on a lathe that can be made using the new mill's capabilities. Lots of ways to be creative in work processing.

By the way, one of the better features of my mill is that you can have as many as six user-definable X.Y origins (0,0). I can mount several fixtures or vises on the table and have a home location for each one. I can run multiple parts with one program or break into a production run and run something else and then switch back to the first job very quickly.

[GSM]

Wow!

Impressive piece of equipment.

[smokeywolf]

Big goals Kieth. But, perseverance and determination are in your case, proven attributes. There is absolutely no doubt that those goals are well within your reach.

smokeywolf

[Bad Water Bill]

Reliable sources report that he has 0 to worry about in his future.

His employer is offering him an early buyout of $800,000,000.00 just to get him out of their building.

Also they will have to provide him with a lifetime supply of PB.:bigsmyl2: