This week a Haas VF-3YT vertical machining center came off a lowboy and onto our floor. It is the first CNC mill in the building, and it fills the gap between what our manual mills do well and the production work we had been sending out.
The VF-3YT has 40 inches of X travel and 26 inches of Y, which is the reason we chose it over a smaller machine. That extra Y travel lets us cover a 24 inch plate in one setup, something our knee mill cannot do. It has a 50 taper spindle for heavier cuts and rigid tapping, so tapped hole patterns in stainless and steel run unattended instead of one hole at a time.
In practice: repeat parts with hole patterns, pockets, and profiles can now be programmed once and run again whenever you need more. Plates, brackets, frames, and fixture components that used to carry a vendor lead time get made here. Lead times on production runs come down, and we keep control of the quality.
The manual mills and the lathes are not going anywhere. One off repairs, large diameter turning, and odd workholding still happen on those. The Haas takes the work that benefits from being repeatable.
Have a part you have been running somewhere else? Send the print and we will quote it.
Back to all news