Watch your feeds at the Fort Worth shop visit last week

I stopped by a buddy's shop in Fort Worth last Thursday and noticed chips piling up weird on his Haas. He said he had to re-tram the head after only 6 months of new machine use. Turns out his coolant nozzles were aimed wrong and washing chips back into the cut. He lost 3 parts before catching it. Anyone else double check their chip evacuation after a tool change?

2 comments

2 Comments

rayc897d agoTop Commenter

Oh man, I gotta push back on that one. Honestly, I think you're overthinking it. Chips piling up on a Haas is just part of the deal with those machines. They're not precision Swiss lathes, they're workhorses that need a bit of babysitting. If the coolant nozzles were aimed wrong, that's on the setup guy, not the machine or the tool change. I've run Haas machines for years and never had a chip evacuation issue cost me a part. You just watch your feeds and speeds, keep the chips clearing, and it's fine. Re-tramming after 6 months sounds like a separate problem too - maybe the floor wasn't level or the base wasn't bolted down right. Blaming chip flow for lost parts seems like looking for an excuse instead of just fixing the real issue.

brookekelly7d ago

Wait, are you seriously defending coolant nozzle placement as "on the setup guy" like it's some minor detail? Chips recirculating into the cut is a massive deal, it wrecks tool life and surface finish before you even see the damage. I've seen a coolant stream bounce off the wrong spot and turn a 30 minute job into a scrap pile real fast. Sounding like you've never had a chip weld itself to an insert because the stream wasn't hitting the cutting zone right.

-1