Machine Down for Retrofit

[JakeL]

Dare you to step on the pedal when the spindle is running
The 1st Siemens lathe I bought had some necessary PLC tweaks to be done - we had Siemens in for 3 days checking, changing and implementing things because a previous customer had stepped on the chuck foot pedal when running and the jaws opened....

Now that could be really expensive... luckily the machine has to be in handle for the foot pedal to work. I'm surprised it wasn't something similar on the lathe?

[Newbeeee™]

Now that could be really expensive... luckily the machine has to be in handle for the foot pedal to work. I'm surprised it wasn't something similar on the lathe?

It was after the PLC Mods were made! The original ladder/PLC was originally written by the apprentice!

[jstell]

Why the first things I check at a Haas control is
1) Is the tool release button on the panel disabled in parameters?  (It's right next to the Tool Offset and Next Tool buttons - way to easy to have the tool get spit out right onto your touch-off block if you are not using the probe.)
2) Is the .1" handle mode disabled in parameters?  (Too many pulses for machine speed - and it buffers!  This one will wish you had a spare pair of shorts in your toolbox or locker.)

Most machines wont let you open the chuck or release the tool when the spindle is on.  But I've run a couple older machines that had tool release and tool capture buttons - you didn't have to hold tool release button when putting tool in.  They wouldn't let you turn on the spindle with the tool release on, but they would buffer a spindle start button command.  I was lucky and just had hold of a large body endmill holder, and the set screw came around and thumped my thumb a bit.  Turned me white as a sheet and I had to go sit down outside so I didn't throw up.  Mostly because one of the tools in that machine was a indexable 6" saw blade on a stubby arbor and the only way to load it into the spindle was to have you fingers in the relief gullets between the teeth.  The other guy on a different machine in the same shop with the same buffer trap was not so lucky.  He had hold of a corncob rougher 2" shell mill and that pretty much shredded the palm of his hand and fingers.

[MIL-TFP-41]

Why the first things I check at a Haas control is

2) Is the .1" handle mode disabled in parameters?  (Too many pulses for machine speed - and it buffers!  This one will wish you had a spare pair of shorts in your toolbox or locker.)

Yikes on the buffering! I could see that ending very badly

[YoDoug]

Weak sauce. C'mon Doug, you're way better than that!
Compatibility and standardisation are what should be the number one thing between machines - the more they can be "the same", the less smacks happen in the factory.....
"Standardisation is a wonderful thing, If only Doug would do it"....

I agree on standardizing as much as you can. We have 22 Okumas here and 19 ABB robots. They all run very similar and it is easy to train people to move around. I disagree with a distributor going to far outside of realistic effort to make different controllers and different MTB implementations operate the same.

It's funny how everyone from operators all the way up to programmers love to talk about how skilled they are and how they are worth more money, but you give them a controller that is different than what they like or are used to and they cry like someone peed in their cheerios. What happened to all that skill?

[CNCAppsJames]

Everything else may be your fault... but this sure aint.

"New machine. New probe. New code. Me worry. No way. Just send it we got this apps guy here i'm sure he's got it all dialed...Let me just check my phone real quick... BOOM!"

In the future maybe disable all but 10% rapid until after you leave....

The way I look at it, they had a proven process prior to me putting my hands on it... I did not check their process to see if it met the "best practices" standard. That's 100% on me. Since 1992-ish... when I was taught probing, I was taught some specific things. You always do these things and you'll be in the post position for success. All the guys I've known over the years that are hard core into probing do things pretty much the same way maybe some slight differences here and there but pretty much the same. In my hubris I did not even think to check that because "everybody does it this way". Whelp... I found one place that does things differently and I did not check. So... on me. 

[CNCAppsJames]

...
It's funny how everyone from operators all the way up to programmers love to talk about how skilled they are and how they are worth more money, but you give them a controller that is different than what they like or are used to and they cry like someone peed in their cheerios. What happened to all that skill?

The "skill" is sometimes imaginary, or VERY narrow in focus. People are skilled in what they are skilled in, but venture outside that and things go sideways in a hurry. They may be top notch programmers, setup people, or machinists, but getting under the hood, working with parameters to alter machine behavior, and that's where skill ends and sideways begins.  

The truly skilled can see outside their current skill set and get to where they need to be relatively easily.

[TylerBeer]

I watched a guy with the last name "Butt" smash a 100k laser scanner into a casting with a robot going at %100 Joint speed.