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Getting a 2007 OM-2A up and running

piGuy

Plastic
Joined
Mar 16, 2021
Hi everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster. I recently purchased a 2007 Haas OM-2A with approx 4500 hours on it, and I'm in the process of cleaning it up, checking it out, and getting it up and running. This is my first "real" CNC mill, although it's probably considered a small toy to some of you. :-)

There are a few things about this machine that are a bit unique, and I'm hoping my post might catch an experienced eye or two:

The machine was originally spec'd with a grease autolube system using a battery-powered ********* Motion Guard Champion pump. When I got the machine, the batteries in the pump were dead. After taking a look at the lube lines in the machine, I noticed that the lines were mostly filled with oil and then closer to the pump the contents switched back to grease. It looks like the previous owner was probably using oil lube (there is visible oil on the ballscrews) and switched back to the original grease system to prepare the machine for sale. Any concerns I should be aware of when switching back to grease? I'm worried that it won't properly stick to the oiled surfaces and just fall off.

Spindle - this has the standard 30k Haas spindle. I haven't spun it up yet because I want to make sure I understand how it is lubricated first. I don't see any oil/grease lines going to the spindle assembly, so I'm assuming it is permanently grease-packed. Anyone familiar with this year/model of machine can verify?

Control - I have the Coldfire 1 control which apparently Haas no longer supports. I've read some scary posts about the expense of repairing these controls or replacing them with NGC controls. Any updates on this topic for 2021? Is it still horrendously expensive to repair or replace the Coldfire 1 control?

Thanks for your time!
 
That grease system did not work and was replaced with an air powered grease gun. It is for the axes only.

The spindle is lubricated with oil mist from the large oil tank just behind the ********* thing. Note that a warm up program should be run before the spindle is used if it has been stationary for more that 2h, takes 20min. If it has not been used for awhile I would recommend to run the break in program which takes 2h.

The spindle is very sensitive. Do not bump it, use too long tool with out very light cuts, etc., etc. Don't ask me how I know....

/Staffan
 
I bought a 2008 OM2 about 6 months ago. It's a great little machine for plastic and can also cut metal fine with the right strategy. You need to use high speed machining to get some material removed. Shallow but fast passes. Do the proper warm up every time. Also make sure wherever you install the machine you balance it using it's feet on the bottom. Put a tenth indicator in a holder and stick it on the spindle with its magnet and do a sweep of the table. Before I balanced mine the table was not fully square to the spindle. After some playing with the leveling feet I got it to within .0001" square over 6" radius full sweep. Before leveling it there was up to .003" variance.
That's about it. Shallow cuts, no long tools. If you want to get very nice finish on aluminum or plastic look into the Datron cutters. Expensive but the finish is amazing and they are made for high rpms and fast cutting.
 
Hi guys,
Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it! Still trying to fully understand the lube situation on my machine. Here's a shot of the lube panel, which is just the ********* grease pump and an air filter/regulator. There's no oil tank anywhere to be found on the machine. The only line I see leading to the spindle looks like a small air line. Hmm...

I kind of feel like an idiot trying to figure this out, haha!

F0E88ACA-DEF3-4A65-8D6E-EAAC685EBE30.jpg
9A5FA29A-FE0C-4817-B27B-09DBFA5C60EE.jpg
 
I picked up an 07 OL-1 last year and it has the same autolube system, I found the batteries in mine were fine however it can't build enough pressure to force the grease through the lines so I currently have a manual grease gun rigged up to get it moving. If the previous owner has run oil that may be a good thing because there shouldn't be any clogs in the grease lines.

I've found that replacement ********* cartridges are increadily difficult to get hold of, but SKF make basically the same unit which is far more common and I may eventually swap over to. Obviously you have to be careful with mixing greases, SKF LMGT2 on paper seems a match to the ********* grease and I have mixed the two together IN A TUB to see what happens, so far nothing has changed.

This is the SKF autolube unit, a straight swap in terms of fitting sizes for the ********* unit.

LAGE250/WA2 | SKF Lubricant Lithium 250 ml System 24 Lage 250 | RS Components
 
On a 2008 machine it looks like this.

DSC_0466.jpg

The mentioned oil tank can be seen through the right opening.
They must have changed the spindle to the 2008 model then. Your airline should be for tool release.

Do you have the warm up programs on the controller?

/Staffan
 
Well I had no trouble finding the replacement ********* grease cartridge since it's right there on the Haas parts website, but I can't believe I forked over $225 for it. The spec sheet on the website references *********'s Multitop grease, but the cartridge I received from Haas was labeled Mobilith SHC 100, which is pretty easy to source. I also discovered that the ********* pump was dead, but I had already bought a cheap replacement ********* pump on eBay that works.

The only program that came on the control is the spindle warm up program for the 40k grease pack spindle. I was told the machine has the standard 30k rpm spindle, and in the parameters list the max spindle speed is set to 30k rpm. So it is leaving me with a tiny bit of uncertainty about exactly what spindle I have and how it's lubricated.

I measured the spindle taper runout to be about 1.5um.

(I know this is probably a lot of boring information that nobody cares about, but I think it is good for more information on these Office Mills to get out onto the internet)
 
The only program that came on the control is the spindle warm up program for the 40k grease pack spindle. I was told the machine has the standard 30k rpm spindle, and in the parameters list the max spindle speed is set to 30k rpm. So it is leaving me with a tiny bit of uncertainty about exactly what spindle I have and how it's lubricated.

My VF-3SS with a 15K spindle came with the warm up program for a 10K. They said run it with spindle override at 150%. I'm sure you could run yours at 75% or thereabouts and it would work fine, or edit the RPMS.
 
I spoke with tech support from my local HFO (Selway Machine Tool) and they were super helpful in answering my questions. It's a 30k permanent grease pack spindle. The tech support guy gave me some helpful tips on warming up the spindle after prolonged inactivity. He suggested running the spindle at 1000rpm overnight, and then doing the spindle run in program gradually increasing the speed by 5000rpm increments and checking the spindle temperature in between speed steps with a non-contact IR thermometer pointed into the taper. If the temperature gets too hot, step down in speed and spend more time running in at lower speed.

He also talked to me about switching back to the original grease lubrication system, various periodic maintenance activities, etc. Can't speak highly enough about tech support at Selway!
 
At my work we have 3 of these machines, they ran plastic parts on the production line 3 shifts a day since 2006, with minimal maintence. When they finally upgraded the process to a horizontal machine, they gave us one of the machines to use for machining parts for R&D. The spindle was so clapped out, at the taper it had .003 of slop, so any tool length made it worse. I basically had to compensate for it not cutting enough, and it chattered like hell.

So I called the HFO who is Ellison, this was in october of 2019. The Tech came out after idk 3 months of trying to get him out. The tech was great but the scheduling manager basically kept putting us on the back burner. He found that the greasing system was basically not working, and the trucks were packed with plastic shavings, and a bit sloppy all the way around. A lot of the parts I make need to hold tight tolerances, and because we got the machine for free I figured it was worth just doing an overhaul of the machine. They ordered the parts, and then I called them more often than I called anyone in my life trying to get them to come in and install the parts. 2 months ago after calling them for two years I nearly ripped off the head of the scheduling manager, and she finally sent the tech in.

It took him 70 hours to install and align the linear guides, install a new spindle, and redo the grease sytem. I had to bring in my hand fork lift to remove the table and reinstall it. He modified the grease system with a t that allows it to be greased with a grease gun, and the automatic grease canister. Be careful as the plastic lines can and will burst from too much pressure. He put a pressure gauge inline, and interestingly it takes weeks for it to move from 100 psi to 60 psi. but it does move, I think. He used a micron test indicator and got everything within a few microns of straightness, and squareness for the x and y. The z axis casting was tilted forward about .001 over the 12in travel, and it wouldnt be worth trying to shim the casting for that. The spindle sounds great, it sounded like rocks in a blender when we got it. Theres apparently no service manual for this machine, so he had to figure out the order to remove and install everything from experience alone. The hardest part was the cable chain for the y axis grease line. He cursed at the machine for about 4 hours trying to align the button head wuth hole, while fighting the grease line. I finally suggested he dissasmble the chain then clip it back together underneath.

The tech was great, but the scheduling manager just needs to go. It took more than 2 years to get the machine fixed. It was a running joke between everyone at work, oh yeah the haas guy is coming next week...

I highly recommend the SMW steel fixture plate for the tormach 440, it fits great on the table, although the holes only sort of line up with 2 of the t slots. I also replaced the operator door with Polycarbonate sheet, and I setup a couple kurt dx4 vise's with pins so they can mounted easily to the plate, and still not run into the door. The Haas guy pointed out to me that the head will actually crash into the vise If the head is low enough and in the right spot. luckily if you are machining a part in the vise it will never crash, but it could crash if you were machining something close to the fixture plate and had the vise installed. I also have that eagle rock 5c collet chuck which is great for round parts.

Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk
7e8e0a52bf5a465c61123a015557e593.jpg
 
I really appreciate everyone's replies in this thread. Good info all around!

I've still been working on getting my grease system in working order. I've purged the Z axis lines by using a grease gun to force grease through (I only ruptured the plastic lines twice, ha!). When I see grease coming out at the ball nut or linear guide blocks, I disconnect the corresponding lube lines that have been purged from the z-axis lube manifold and plug them so that I can purge the other lines. This worked, although 3 of the 4 linear guide blocks were oozing grease at the lube port, and I was expecting them to ooze out around the linear rail. I've attached a picture of one of the Z-axis rails showing this.

14443AA9-2CC9-4CB0-9245-B21B2EA1A2F4.jpg

Without a lot of experience on linear guide lubrication, I'm not sure if this means the lube ports in the blocks themselves are clogged, or if the blocks are simply full of grease and the excess is coming out at the lube port.

My technique for isolating the lube lines and purging them seems pretty straightforward for the Z-axis, more difficult for the X-axis, and I haven't even figured out how I'll reach the lines for the Y-axis yet. I can't even see them without a mirror!

I've also got a fairly unpleasant sound coming from the Z-axis that is periodic with the rotation of the ballscrew. I suspect maybe it's the bearings for the ballscrew.

I've had this machine for 2 months now and haven't made any chips yet. Ugh!
 
I really appreciate everyone's replies in this thread. Good info all around!

I've still been working on getting my grease system in working order. I've purged the Z axis lines by using a grease gun to force grease through (I only ruptured the plastic lines twice, ha!). When I see grease coming out at the ball nut or linear guide blocks, I disconnect the corresponding lube lines that have been purged from the z-axis lube manifold and plug them so that I can purge the other lines. This worked, although 3 of the 4 linear guide blocks were oozing grease at the lube port, and I was expecting them to ooze out around the linear rail. I've attached a picture of one of the Z-axis rails showing this.

View attachment 319431

Without a lot of experience on linear guide lubrication, I'm not sure if this means the lube ports in the blocks themselves are clogged, or if the blocks are simply full of grease and the excess is coming out at the lube port.

My technique for isolating the lube lines and purging them seems pretty straightforward for the Z-axis, more difficult for the X-axis, and I haven't even figured out how I'll reach the lines for the Y-axis yet. I can't even see them without a mirror!

I've also got a fairly unpleasant sound coming from the Z-axis that is periodic with the rotation of the ballscrew. I suspect maybe it's the bearings for the ballscrew.

I've had this machine for 2 months now and haven't made any chips yet. Ugh!
Any progress with your machine?

I recently picked up a 2006 OM2A and I'm trying to get my grease system working too. This is the most relevant info I've found anywhere so far..
 








 
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