Calibration time on the Haas VF-2SS!

Since taking off the five-axis table, we had to remove the tool probe to prevent potential damage while extracting it from the machine. Which meant it needed to recalibration after reinstalling it onto the table.

Wayne didn't know how to do this himself as he always had it calibrated when a Haas technician came to work on the machine. So I was on my own for the most part with this one. Thankfully Haas has amazing tutorials, both on their YouTube channel and forums, very clear and straightforward.

There are three major components to setting this all up, and they consist of the spindle touch probe, Renishaw OTS probe (for measuring tool length), and OMI receiver, which connects the two wirelessly.
The whole calibration system mostly consisted of using a dial indicator to adjust everything to make sure it's in as close alignment as possible. As you can see in the video, I got the runout on the probe to +-0.00002" which I'm delighted with!

I then adjusted the tool touch off probe and leveled that manually to get about +-0.00005" in both X and Y. After that, I used a pin Guage and followed the instructions on the setup tutorial. You can see in the last video where it did its calibration sequence after I put in all the information.

Shop cleaning time!

My boss was out today, so I was tasked with cleaning the place, primarily, the floors. It's been a minute since they had their last deep cleaning, and today is the day they get to shine again! I spent four hours sweeping, mopping, and sweeping once again. These chips, coupled with light coolant on the ground, are incredibly stubborn to clean up, and I had to switch from sweeping to mopping, then sweeping again to pick everything up.

Nothing too exciting today, but it's certainly nice to have a clean shop to work and learn from!

Today was focused on the VF2ss, cleaning, and sending the VF 2ss 5 axis table off to Haas to get it worked on. It had some issues a while back and hasn't been very operational.

My boss had a custom mini gantry crane made to slide next to the VF2, its got one leg bolted to the floor on one side, and the other leg is on wheels which pivots on the first; this allows for smooth movement and rigidity. It makes taking vices in and out very easy and safe. I believe he said this one weighs 500lbs, and he's tried lifting it with two other guys before, but it wasn't very reliable/safe.

Today I was primarily working on sorting all the endmills in the shop with these new plastic bins.

Nothing too fancy, just labeling the different trays with the size and type and separating them into two rolling toolboxes. One with 2-3 flutes (for softer materials, like aluminum) and the other with 4-7 flutes (mostly for steels). I also threaded a bunch of holes for one of the client's parts, wash them down, and prepare it for shipment.

Today I got to set and pick out load and set all the tools for this operation by myself off of a worksheet. I'm starting to get the hang of some of the controls on the machine!

Also got to make soft Jaws for it as well, nothing too special, just a block of aluminum cut down with about a 0.25" square lip on both sides. Throughout all this, Wayne is sharing a lot of interesting tips he uses for making better quality parts. One is when making the soft long soft Jaws like this, if you put a piece of thick paper in at the edges when clamping it, it will leave a slight bow in the center after you cut out the outlines. Then when you load your stock, the outer edges will have some clamping force rather than just the center. Another is with milling groves where the material might be floating slightly on its own; he uses clay to pack into the air to prevent vibrations that could cause surface finish issues.

I'm unfortunately not allowed to show the part itself, so it's blurred. It's a large plate with a few holes in it, not entirely sure what it's purpose is—pretty essential two-part operation.

Another thing he taught me how to do was locate the part when flipping it over using the holes in the plate. Got to use a dial indicator and brought it down to about 0.0004" intolerance with the center of the tunnel. It took a bit to get the hang of as I wasn't entirely sure what I was looking for, but after I got it going, it was quite fun seeing how close I could get it.

Today I got to finish up the stock shelves and got them looking real pretty. 

Today's project was working on reorganizing the old material stock shelf, mostly consisting of 6061 aluminum, with some steels, plastics, and titanium. 

It took me about 3.5 hours to do just the plastics shelf. A lot of the time, I had to figure out what the materials where. Jsut about all the black plastics were almost identical as far as looks and weight go, though there where slight differences in the texture and feel to them. Thankfully the metal one should be easier as most of it is marked by the manufacturer, and everything that's not is pretty significantly different.

Today got much more exciting and got to learn some of the basics of Mastercam programming, plus part setup. Wayne got a basic contract to make a series of parts for a company mostly for teaching purposes as they aren't nearly as intricate as he usually takes on. The pieces we worked on today where small clamp fixtures for a larger project made in Delrin. He wanted to make six of them and had them all in a row in a piece of bar stock to minimize wastage. The whole programming side of it was very similar to Fusion360, and only requires a little more setup time for the tools.

Used a 3/8" 3 flute sq endmill to do the facing, then used a drill to peck down the center and cleaned up the walls with a smaller 1/4" tool. For the finishing passes, Wayne used a 1/8" ball parallel at 45° angle. He explained that it wasn't entirely necessary with such a simple part, but when you get into more complicated pieces, you would get a better finish and reach into areas that you couldn't usually get to.

The entire operation took approximately 30 minutes, which was a bit high for such small parts in Delrin. He said since he is a prototyping shop, it's not worth getting specialized tooling to save on a few minutes for something that he would never see again. He programmed the entire thing in under 30 minutes, and trying to optimize the toolpaths wouldn't have been worth the time.

The minimill didn't have a touch probe, so he showed me how to load and set the tool length offsets on the Haas. Used a 0.1" Guage block to place on top of the stock, then move the tools down until it could move freely with light pressure on it.

Overall the Haas machines are so much easier to use and interact with than I initially thought they were. The main thing with them is understanding that all the buttons mainly presets for speed and efficiency.

Another one of the side shop projects I've been working on is reorganizing and sorting the endmills and drill bits.

These are a set of micro drill bits for machining super small holes, going all the way down to 0.005". Wayne (shop owner, aka my boss) gets them from a guy who recycles them from other shops and grinds them down to then sell as complete sets. This one is horribly out of order and missing a bunch, so I'll be sorting through them a bit to make finding the right one easier.

Today I was tasked with cleaning some of the manual machines and sweeping the shop.
The manual machines consisted of Samson CNC, Hardinge lathe, and Clouding lathe. I got to learn how to jog the machines around and oil the joints. I have just about no knowledge or experience with lathe's (apart from the basics), so cleaning them helped me better understand how they work.

He also had a bunch of used endmills, drill bits, taps, counter boars, and center drills to sort through.

My boss permitted me to post images and videos of some of the non-proprietary parts/machines, so I'll be able to explain and show a lot more of what I'm learning!

Today I was tasked with cleaning two more Haas machines, the VF 2ss and Minimill. These machines took much longer to wash as there were harder to reach places, and some tools loaded part of the time. It consisted of removing chips and coolant from the insides of the machines to have a clean workspace. 

Wayne (my boss) also showed me how to boot up, jog, and enable the coolant hose for washing things down. I got about three 5-gallon buckets full of chips that have been sitting there for some time.