NUMBER 02 - Haas Automation, Inc.

Real Time
“The nice part is that I now have crossover between all
my Haas machines,” says Quinn. “Pretty much the same
program will work on any of them. And, I keep my tool libraries
the same from machine to machine: Tool two is always a drill;
tool seven is always a quarter inch endmill and so on. With
this broad interchangeability, it’s amazing what we can do.
“There was a day here, a couple months ago, when I had
wheels running on four of my five mills, even the (smaller)
VF-2,” says Quinn. “A lot of Senior’s old-school bikes take a
16-inch rear wheel, instead of the usual 18s and 21s we put
on most of our new choppers. I said, ‘you know what? . . .
I think this will fit in here!’ I’d never even thought of cutting
wheels on the VF-2 before, but I needed four sets going out
that day. Happily, the 16-incher fit the VF-2’s cutting envelope
with a bit to spare, and I didn’t have to change a thing in the
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program. To be able to just throw it in and cut wheels on all
those machines, all at the same time, was just amazing.”
Every Haas machine at OCC is fully networked, and has
either a 20- or 40-gigabite hard drive, which Quinn accesses
from his office. “I use my desktop to post the programs
through Mastercam ® ,” he says. “I output that post, and send
the NC code directly to the machine tool.”
The flawless finishes Quinn achieves on OCC’s famous
appearance parts are the result of both his machining skill and
the flexibility of this network setup. “The chaining tolerances
I use in Mastercam are always evolving,” he admits. “I’m
now down to about five-millionths. This makes the programs
extremely large, but you couldn’t ask for a finer finish. Since
the programs are too big for resident memory, I do most of
my wheel and surfacing files through DNC,” he explains. “Our
chromers and polishers really love the finish we’re getting off
the Haas machines.”