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My Haas has run with no lubrication since new

Joined
Jul 3, 2010
Location
Melbourne Australia
I recently read a post about lubrications issues on a Haas
I will let you know of my experience
Purchased a near new Haas OM2a mill had not even done 200hrs
The mill had a small battery operated grease pump on the side
After a short period of time the grease pump failed ( plastic housing cracked ?? ) and Haas for some reason could not supply another unit.

I purchased a hand pump and used a high quality Kluber grease recommended by a CNC expert. The small lubrication line burst after a short period. I had a feeling that something was not right as the original pump had cracked and now the line. The force used to push the grease seemed excessive.

The mill is not a production machine . I use it for my hobby/ business . Since I have had it I have done less than 2000 hours over 6 years. Serviced the machine 3 times . Spindle belt failed twice ?? Every time I asked is the lube system working and was told Yes yes yes.

I recently moved to a workshop double the size and can now get to my machinery properly. I decided to make sure that the system is working . Pulled all the covers off etc and got the service tech to come again. We spend 4 hours together and the conclusion
No grease getting to any ball screw or rail.

Haas had used fittings that had only 3 threads that screws into the plastic block on the linear rails. The connection also had a push in fitting for the copper lube line.

Grease was just coming out around the fittings and most of the lines seemed glogged with old grease that compressed air could not shift.

I have had to strip the hole machine down to get to the linear rails , ball screws etc to replace every fitting line etc.
I have upgraded the system so that there are three lube lines running to my grease pump.
To rub salt on my wounds while lifting the carriage off the rails I accidentally picked up the ball screw. BENT LIKE A BANANA.
The ball screw is bit longer than needed so I cut the end and machined it. Seems ok
Waiting on so more lube fittings to complete the job.

IF you have a small Haas office mill I would be checking that the lube system is working the fittings / grease may not be right
 
I’ve had 3 older haas machines that used grease (2005-2007 tm-1, tm-2, tl-1)
All of them had grease issues with plugged lines.
Grease sucks
The big problem is they need to be used and used often. Greased often To prevent issues. But the little machines often end up with few hours and the grease waxes in the lines :(
Lame sauce for sure.
 
They discontinued the purple liquid grease because of this problem. The new replacement is tan.
The OM-1 and OL-1 didn't use that grease, they had battery operated standalone ********* Champion auto lube units. The ********* unit on mine kept flashing the overpressure alarm so I've removed it and currently have a manual grease gun connected up, I've pulled the way covers back and there are signs of old grease being pushed out in a lot of places and fresh grease coming out behind it so I'm hopeful and when I got my OL-1 it had 10 hours of running on it.

I've also got an SKF autolube system ready to try out soon which is nearly identical to the original but way easier to get and source replacement grease carts for.

The worst bit is the access, who thought it'd be a good idea to put the lines in the most inaccessible spot needs a slap. It's easier to pull the covers back periodically and manually grease each block through one of the side ports than pull the cross slide off, in the short term that is what I'll probably do where I suspect grease isn't getting through. I only run a fairly small number of hours on the OL-1 so if I grease them manually every 40 hours as I have to on my Emco Turn 325 it's generally going to be a once a month job.
 
I love greased ways, but then I have been using Kyodo Yushi for 17 years now without issue. Careful with greasing too much, it's real easy to blow one of those plastic ball returns off. If you grease manually I think you only do it every 1000 hours or so, a little goes a long way.
 
News takes a long time to get Down under
Just told that the red grease discontinued and I bought the purple grease
By the way the hand pump use to need a lot of force now the handle can be depressed with one finger
Grease is oozing out of everything ��������
 
we have 3 om2's at work. they were all bought new in 2006/2007. they ran 3 shifts plastic cutting until 2019. the mfg dept gave us one for making prototypes. I had the spindle and all linear guides and ball screws replaced. the spindle was the main issue. I also had the tech redo the grease system, and i've come to the conclusion that it just doesn't work at all. he rigged up a manual grease pump and pressure gauge. the lines are really only rated for 150 psi, and it took more than that to move the grease in the system before even getting to the trucks. the good thing is that the trucks were actually in fairly decent shape before they were replaced, and the ball screws as well. I had them replaced because they weren't getting grease and taking them off and rebuilding them wasn't much cheaper than getting new ones.
 
the good thing is that the trucks were actually in fairly decent shape before they were replaced, and the ball screws as well. I had them replaced because they weren't getting grease and taking them off and rebuilding them wasn't much cheaper than getting new ones.

Was there a confirmation of accuracy (like a ball-bar test) to make sure linear and orthogonal specs were good after the rail change?
 
I have a similar situation - bought a secondhand 2007 OM-2A recently and the grease lines are totally clogged. I was able to clear the lines for the Z axis since they are relatively easy to access. When I apply pressure with a hand pump, grease comes out at the lubrication push fittings for the rail carriages. It's not entirely clear to me if any grease is actually getting into the carriages. The X and Y lines are seemingly impossible to access without disassembling the table. Until I can come up with a solution, I just occasionally remove the way covers and manually spread some grease on the rails and ballscrews. Not sure how effective this is, but I just use this machine for prototyping so it doesn't see a lot of use.
 
Not sure how effective this is, but I just use this machine for prototyping so it doesn't see a lot of use.
Somewhere between not very and not at all.

The blocks have wipers in them to keep gunk out, they'll also do a decent job of stopping grease getting in.

What you can do is pull the way covers back and remove one of the 6 grease port screws, get an appropriate fitting and then pump some grease in manually, my OL-1 has still barely done any hours but I plan to knock up an adapter to connect to my grease gun to manually lube the rails from time to time. I don't think all my lines are clogged but some probably are, I just hope the X axis ballscrew line isn't if anything as that's the hardest to get to.

There is even a video on how to properly (manually) grease the rails in the office mills and lathes,

[EN] Bosch Rexroth: How to - Lubrication of Linear Guides with nozzle tube - YouTube
 








 
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