HAAS VF-1 CNC Mill
The Haas VF-1 CNC Mill is a CNC vertical mill with travel of 20x16x20 inch (510x410x510 mm). This VF-1 was manufactured by Haas Automation in California. FamiLAB purchased it in non-working order. Dedicated members have put in a lot of time and expense and have also made some alterations and improvements so that it is the expensive and capable machine tool you see today.
Contents
Usage
Training is required to use this machine. You must be certified by the Metal Shop POC or Nick Polanosky before operating it.
Contact either one or the Ops Team for information on how to receive training and certification.
Learning
Again, whatever your learning, training, and experience, you must be certified by the Metal Shop POC or Nick Polanosky before operating the HAAS.
Haas has a good website for learning about CNC machines. It does cover the basics of running the CNC machine but does not cover the basics of metal working (workholding design, programming, tool selection, machine maintenance, etc.), which should be a foundation for anyone trying to automate metal working. But it's a good starting point.
You must be proficient with the manual machine tools first. It's much easier to make an adjustment with your hands on handwheels versus changing numbers you may not understand yet on a computer. (The 4x4 CNC Mill is easier to use, in that you're cutting softer materials that tend to be more forgiving and that it's a low-power, lightweight machine. Depending on your project and experience level it might be a good thing to learn first, since many of the concepts transfer. It's just a step or two above the laser cutter in complexity whereas the HAAS is a whole staircase up.)
Experts and References
Certified Users/Instructors
- Nick Polanosky
- Dave Smith
- Mike King
- Chuck Peterson (in training)
