Grease discontinued. Switching way lube to oil?

[the average Joe]

Cut to me having old Haas machines that still use vactra 2 way oil : )

 

[Friar]

We had a lot of random teething issues with our DS30 that was placed July of 2020, to the point I knew all the selway techs by name Thankfully it's all sorted, except for the residual pressure alarms. I remember one of the techs telling me some people didn't like the grease and converted back to oil so I came here to dig around. Looks like Haas is going to make it easy on me.

FWIW, we run this machine a fair bit. It usually runs 5, 10hr days and will run overnight about 25% of the time as well. It does sit between jobs for a day or two every couple of months. So I wouldn't say this problem is limited to machines that are infrequently used. They cleared the clogged lines once under warranty about 18 month in and that lasted about 4 months before we saw it again. So right about the time the warranty expired...

 

[DSMWerks]

I've had awesome luck with my older Haas after dumping Vactra #2 for Mobil 1 10W-30 full synthetic. But I just picked up a 2013 with the red grease lube system. Had a service call to swap the Tool Change arm to CAT40 and he went over the mill and inspected the linear ways with me and said they look good and well greased but I'm scared!

 

[prime_mover]

I also have a 2013 Haas with the red grease. I would advise changing the auto lube interval to a much smaller value than the default which is like a million hours. My machine used 1/4 of one grease canister in 6 years.... These days I go to the lube page and hit F2 every day or two to cycle the auto lube. My machine didn't get enough lube in its early years because I wasn't as aware back then, and now it sounds like a slide whistle at 100% rapid. But it still cuts fine. One of the trucks in the X axis seemed clogged and there was a visible air bubble in the clear tubing to that truck. The bubble does move a little with every lube cycle, so it must not be entirely clogged.

 

[Garwood]

Sounds like Haas just uses shit grease. Everyone else does grease just fine. The stuff is $50/tube, but one tube lasts a decade.

Greasing the rails and screws everyday is massively over greasing. One pump every 3-6 months is normal for a production machine with a manual grease system.

 

[prime_mover]

I almost forgot I was cycling it that frequently to ensure that the bubble in the grease line was moving. That's the line that seemed clogged upon inspection.

 

[znicks]

I have owned and run HAAS machines for the last 15 years. We just purged all our purple grease and we were going to switch to tan grease when we herd that the “new recommendation was to convert to oil. We have been getting a residual pressure alarm for about 8 months but couldn’t afford the down time so cleared the alarm and kept on running. We finally pulled all the covers and pulled all the fittings at all 12 trucks and all three ball nuts as well as the side mounted tool changer. EVERY SINGLE FITTING WAS CLOGGED!!
The grease had solidified and came out like a worm under 120psi of air pressure per individual fitting. Some required “poking” with a piece of guitar string.
See pics and don’t think that you can use the $100 oil conversation to fix this issue.
This is a major FUBAR and HAAS should be ashamed of themselves for charging customers for the parts to fix this F-UP!!
You must pull every fitting, purge all the grease from the lines, install NEW FITTINGS and change to oil lubrication.
See attached pics, purple grease worms

 

[Ryan at Sparrow]

I have owned and run HAAS machines for the last 15 years. We just purged all our purple grease and we were going to switch to tan grease when we herd that the “new recommendation was to convert to oil. We have been getting a residual pressure alarm for about 8 months but couldn’t afford the down time so cleared the alarm and kept on running. We finally pulled all the covers and pulled all the fittings at all 12 trucks and all three ball nuts as well as the side mounted tool changer. EVERY SINGLE FITTING WAS CLOGGED!!
The grease had solidified and came out like a worm under 120psi of air pressure per individual fitting. Some required “poking” with a piece of guitar string.
See pics and don’t think that you can use the $100 oil conversation to fix this issue.
This is a major FUBAR and HAAS should be ashamed of themselves for charging customers for the parts to fix this F-UP!!
You must pull every fitting, purge all the grease from the lines, install NEW FITTINGS and change to oil lubrication.
See attached pics, purple grease worms

I've seen those same grease worms with the red grease. I have a machine that has purple in the lines still and has still been greasing well luckily. It just got an oil refill a few months ago though, we swapped over all of our machines to oil. One machine was an older 2012 machine and I personally had to pull out every orifice and line and purge them all with an air gun. Major pain. My back was in a lot of pain lol, and ruined a few pairs of clothes. Not sure how those techs do that all the time. About a 1000 dollar kit when all was said and done. I recommend swapping to the oil though to anyone who cares about their machine.

Honestly wish they would've just had oil to begin with. I'm not a fan of oils in my coolant but its not like its box ways just dumping a pint in every day like some other machines do.

 

[Garwood]

Has anyone just said fuck the Haas grease and switched to a good quality grease?

I like grease, but it has to be good stuff.

 

[cj.abraham]

If you have a Haas running their red/purple/tan grease, do the conversion now. Best time to fix a roof is when the sun is shining, best time to fix a Haas grease system is when it isn't clogged. If you have a clog, particularly if you have a smaller machine, unclogging and purging the lines is multiple days of billable labor.

 

[znicks]

I've seen those same grease worms with the red grease. I have a machine that has purple in the lines still and has still been greasing well luckily. It just got an oil refill a few months ago though, we swapped over all of our machines to oil. One machine was an older 2012 machine and I personally had to pull out every orifice and line and purge them all with an air gun. Major pain. My back was in a lot of pain lol, and ruined a few pairs of clothes. Not sure how those techs do that all the time. About a 1000 dollar kit when all was said and done. I recommend swapping to the oil though to anyone who cares about their machine.

Honestly wish they would've just had oil to begin with. I'm not a fan of oils in my coolant but its not like its box ways just dumping a pint in every day like some other machines do.

I have red grease still running in my ST25. I will be purging and switching that machine to oil asap. I had no idea this was a problem until I got a 2082 alarm. Thanks HAAS for the PSA as you have probably known about this problem for years, that’s why I have three different colors of grease in my shop and now a canister of honey oil. No thanks!! I will go back to good’ol fashion oil. The problem with the whole system is that you might be greasing one truck or ball-nut or any combination of the 16 different lube points but there is no way to tell which ones or how many are actually getting grease to the bearings. This whole system is a joke!!! If you want to use grease then you need a bank of zerk fittings, one for each line, otherwise oil is the only way to fly.

 

[Speedie]

The soaping agent is what is being bound up and forced to chain. You cannot keep force feeding tight tolerance parts without the soap squeezing the oil out and chaining like a worm. The only company I know that can do this is mazak. For some reason never a clog
..just blowout seals

 

[Speedie]

I will also add there were plenty of mfgs in the 90s that had multiple lube meter failures from clogging but they never had a retrofit kit. At least it is being addressed. Oversight....yup....end of days.

NOPE

 

[chuckley]

we have has lube issues even with the oil and now run check valves on all the grease lines at the grease manifold/ pump.

 

[chuckley]

I have owned and run HAAS machines for the last 15 years. We just purged all our purple grease and we were going to switch to tan grease when we herd that the “new recommendation was to convert to oil. We have been getting a residual pressure alarm for about 8 months but couldn’t afford the down time so cleared the alarm and kept on running. We finally pulled all the covers and pulled all the fittings at all 12 trucks and all three ball nuts as well as the side mounted tool changer. EVERY SINGLE FITTING WAS CLOGGED!!
The grease had solidified and came out like a worm under 120psi of air pressure per individual fitting. Some required “poking” with a piece of guitar string.
See pics and don’t think that you can use the $100 oil conversation to fix this issue.
This is a major FUBAR and HAAS should be ashamed of themselves for charging customers for the parts to fix this F-UP!!
You must pull every fitting, purge all the grease from the lines, install NEW FITTINGS and change to oil lubrication.
See attached pics, purple grease worms

i like to blast it out with the port-a-power. you can do it with out taking everything apart but Be careful to not pop you orifice. did that and it sucked. if you took the line off the orifice you could give it the beans.

 

[Ryan at Sparrow]

we have has lube issues even with the oil and now run check valves on all the grease lines at the grease manifold/ pump.

Do you have part numbers for the check valves you're running? What issues were you running into? Our lines will slowly drain themselves, I assume the check valve will fix that?

 

[chuckley]

i was told to do it for low residual pressure. if one channel is leaking down such as in the case of a gantry router where the ball screw is lower than the z axis and all the grease will leak down. was also told it only can help keep that pressure there to force it out the trucks or linear guides. these are a match for the haas ones with out the big kit they sell you. imi norgren c050501 you can find them under 8 bucks each online.