How easy is it to kill a Haas VMC spindle?

[mhajicek]

That Hangsterfer 5080 sounds pretty good. What does it smell like and how strong is the smell? Does it have water separation issues? I wonder if they'd give me a bucket to try.

There is a bit of a solvent-like smell, especially when fresh mixed. It bothers some other non-shop people, but doesn't bother me unless I stick my head in the machine and take a deep breath after a 50,000RPM tool. I've never seen it separate. You can buy a 5 gal bucket.

 

[Shipp]

That Hangsterfer 5080 sounds pretty good. What does it smell like and how strong is the smell? Does it have water separation issues? I wonder if they'd give me a bucket to try.

The shop I'm in uses it on Mazak machines. The only swampy smell comes from the machines they got when the owner started out not knowing anything about machining and they never could get all the original ecology out of. The machines that have always had good filtration and aeration aren't offensive at all. I haven't experienced any issues with water separation at all. Would recommend.

 

[prime_mover]

In regards to answering the title of the thread, my experience is that the spindles are generally pretty robust. I know of several Haas VMCs that got crashed at 100% rapid moving in the Z- direction, one of which was a VF-4, and the spindle bearings did not seem to be effected. I've seen end mills as large as 3/4" snapped off, and the shock from this did not seem to damage the bearings.

I've only heard of spindles dying quickly from DIY rebuilds where the bearings were not pressed in properly.

My spindle is chugging along fine, it's just not as quiet as it was within the first 30 hours or so.

 

[Houdini]

I have MM & MM2 10k grease,, I have ran them hard, from injection mold cavities running 10K for 70+hours straight, but for the past 5 years I have used both of them with Korloy 1.5" Pro-X indexables.
They have been chewing 70-100 gallons of chips a day for most their lives. Running real hard, new inserts are programmed at 80% spindle load, they last about a month coming up to 100% load.
And on endmills, depends on ones opinion, I have worked at shops where they run them until they break, which is years.
You can run them until they start to leave burrs, ,which doesn't take that long.
And on a YG1 with the polished flutes, it leaves a smooth mirror like finish, if you want to keep that finish you will have to change them more often.
But also depends how you program, I use a 35-37° for HSM/roughing then a 40-45° for finish, So depends on if your using the same endmill for everything.
Coolant I like Oemeta Novamet 910, why because we do make 7075 Aluminum Injection molds, and this coolant is non staining on aluminum, but also
we have a Nakamura lathe with box ways, this thing chews through way oil, and I didnt want to deal with all the oil in the sump, Oemeta makes a ISO slide way oil that is made
from the same formulation as the coolant oil, So when it gets in the sump it just increases you coolant concentration, you just add lower concentrations on fill up.
One thing that could help also is the length of the tools, try to go short, decreases the leverage of the tool to the bearings.my longest tool holder only has a 1.75 gauge length.
I would say for a short hydraulic holder use the Schunk Tendo, but the carousel slide covers will hit your tool shank its so short.
hope this helps.

 

[Houdini]

Recently the spindle in my 2013 Mini-Mill went out. I got 8 years of use out of it, maybe a few thousand hours of spindle run time. I don't know exactly how many hours because the mobo battery died and the hours reset. It still shows total hours in parameters but not spindle hours, I think. The first sign of trouble was when the sound signature suddenly changed from normal to something more akin to a table saw being fed some plywood. It would bounce back and forth between normal sounding and the table saw sound before eventually always sounding like the saw. Over a couple of months it sounded worse and worse until eventually sounding like a plastic bucket filled with rocks, and finally one day the surface finishes on my parts degraded, and so I decided it was time for the rebuild. I had the spindle rebuilt by a reputable spindle rebuilding company for $5k. It's been up and running again for two weeks now, maybe 30-40 hours spindle runtime, and has started making the table saw sound again.

I am hogging aluminum with a stubby 3/4" 3 flute end mill, but it's only pocketing and profiling at less than 1x axial depth, and usually 10-20% radial, and .004 to .007" IPT, depending on how much radial engagement there is. Always 6k RPM. The end mill is being held in a Schunk hydraulic holder with 2.5" gage length. The spindle load is always well below 100%, usually 40-60%. As the cutter wears the sound of the cut gets louder and there is a fair bit of vibration going through the machine, then I swap the cutter for a fresh one. The other roughing I have done is slotting aluminum with a 3/8" end mill. ~.270" depth of cut, .005" ipt, 6k rpm, sk16 holder with 2" gage length. It's a moderately loud cut and the spindle load is at about 60-70%.

I would not think that those cuts in aluminum would cause spindle bearing damage, especially after 30 something hours of run time. The rebuild has a 1 year warranty, so presumably I am covered if it is on its way out again. I've still got 1500 parts left to make to complete the current job, so hopefully it makes it at least that far....

Also why rebuild for $5k, when a new one is only $6 https://parts.haascnc.com/haasparts/en/USD/search?q=*:*:allCategories:Spindles_Mills_30308

 

[prime_mover]

Well I saved a grand and was up within 9 days or so. Time will tell if I made the right move.