HAAS UMC 500 - Kremin CNC Machine Reviews

In our machine shop, we use a lot of HAAS machinery. A year ago we upgraded to 5-axis milling with the HAAS UMC 500. We even invested into some of HAAS' recommended upgrade, including the 90 Gallon Coolant Tank upgrade, 8 Station Pallet Pool, High Pressure Flood Coolant, Renishaw Probe Kit, and Renishaw Eye.

While this machine brought us amazing capabilities, the accessory "upgrades" have caused their share of headaches for our Engineering Manager.

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Who is Kremin Inc?
Kremin Inc. is an American machine shop in Frankenmuth, MI specializing in high-precision machining and advanced manufacturing including swiss turning.

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#Kremin #CNC #Machining #Machinist #HAAS #UMC500 #CNCReviews

[DuRöhre]

Had our UMC750 only 5 months.Most of the time there where technicians crawling in and around it. When they finally picked it up again, no one from the HFO came. We loaded it onto the truck ourselves, with a rented forklift. Never heard back from either the HFO or Haas. We bought DMG Mori instead and never looked back. It wasn't even much more expensive, but the built quality, precision and features on that machine blows Haas out of the water. Will never buy a Haas again.

[spresv]

So exactly like the Haas machines of 20-25 years ago, one of which i own. Decent performance, decent accuracy, very poorly designed down to a cost instead of up to a standard. Hey, at least they're sticking to tradition. Kudos to your honest review.

[Thepriest]

Good video. As far as the Renishaw tool setter I bought a removable base for my VF4SS from Exact Engineering. It might help one of your travel issues.

[briandavis]

I purchased a UMC500 in 2020 (covid machine) and it's bipolar. It's been the most productive machine in our shop and it's also had the most down time. We're fighting two issues: quality of design and quality of manufacturing. The biggest design issue is the chip management; lots of chips get past the conveyor and quickly build up in at the edges of the chip tray in the sump. If you don't keep the chips from building up, the coolant begins to overflow out of the chip tray. We have fabricated our own chip filter (to catch fines) and raised the walls of the chip tray. We have also made diverter wings to move the coolant flow towards the middle of the chip tray. No more overflowing coolant due to chip build up. The other major quality issues have been related to sloppy manufacturing and early component failures. Much has been covered under warranty but we've take big hits in down time. The B axis limit switch failed after 1 year and the took out the probe when the machine tried to home. There was a service access plug in the C axis casting that was missing. This allowed coolant to get in the casting under the vise and soak the electronics. Again, it was repaired under warranty. One week after the warranty expired, the spindle went out. Haas and our HFO took care of it under warranty. We had the exact same issue you showed with the pallet access door. No tolerance analysis was done on the placement of the door sensor. I've never had so much trouble with a new machine and we have purchased 7 from Haas so far. Haas seems to have the 'bang for the buck' portion of the CNC machine tool market dialed in. Haas machines have helped me build my business and I'm grateful for their service and products. That said, I'll have a hard decision to make if I ever consider purchasing another Haas product.

[ytfan]

Years ago I modified my conveyor on a cnc lathe that 99% runs aluminium parts, them chips are a pain in the _ss.
We made an airblast-pipe with small holes at the top of the outlet (spout) that is controlled by a M-code for the conveyor.
After the M-code for the conveyor (Forward) is activated a PLC comes in that opens an air-valve, after one or two seconds the conveyor starts running and a few seconds later it stops by M-code (Stop), the PLC stops the air-valve after a second so the conveyor-belt is always clean at "the end" when it starts spinning. It takes a few second per part but that prevents me a lot of extra work cleaning that conveyor, it prevent chips to go back under the belt and falling below on the coolant tank.
There are special relais that have timers or when your machine has a M-code for conveyor-return you can find out some other options.

[marknouj]

Your probe eye seems to be installed upside down. If you notice, the Renishaw logo is written both ways. Your Haas tech probably should have rotated it 180deg so that the cable goes directly up; thus avoiding any chips hanging on the cable.

[dnjmachine]

Wow Thanks for the video points out a lot of things I'm glad I know about now!

[Salvun]

We have a UMC500 for almost 2 years now and it has been nothing but trouble. The machine is really not stiff enough and even has repeatability issues on the Y axis

[inuyashacoolieo]

The Renishaw OMI is able to be rotated so it's angled downward to keep chips from sticking.

[darrylm]

Some cnc lathes have a removable tool setter, I wonder if that would be a cheap fix for the tool probe. I guess you'd lose breakage detection but not a terrible idea IMO.

[blakerichnow]

umc is a great start up for 5 axis. my umc750 has alot of the same issues. the control is simple to use and I love the MRZP DWO setting. but look into a grob G350 or 550 next. they cost more but they are great.

[toolmakerdave]

we have a umc 500. not sure if its same problem or not but when we first got ours end of October was getting a lot of chips out where the coolant drains and building up in the drain area of the base where the conveyor sets inside the machine that would cause over flows in front of the machine.
service tech was called in, right away says chips shouldn't getting in there.
removed the conveyor, discovered some parts installed wrong at the factory.
if you are standing at the operators door looking down at the conveyor you'll see some hex head bolts that holds a part shaped like angle iron with a real short leg on one side. the short leg is supposed to point up toward the bottom of casting to keep chips from from getting out of the conveyor.
on our machine these pieces were upside down leaving a huge gap for chips to get into the drain.
now we get very little chips out of the drain screen

[curtis]

Make you own bracket for the OTS. That way you can get the full swing of your table

[Qui_Gon_Ben]

Did yours throw tools at random during tool changes? Place I used to work for got one early 2020 and it would throw tools at random right against the sheet metal. sounded like a bomb went off in the machine.

[BlackChally]

Doesn't Haas recommend the chip disk filtration system to eliminate clogging with fine aluminum chips? Is this not what is happening here, clogging from fine aluminum chips and the lack of the CDF system?

[joep]

That’s funny, we got a 2021 vf2ss the coolant pump sounds exactly the same. I asked the installer when the new pump would be in cause obviously this one is broken. They sent another guy out that said nah that’s how they sound! None of our 2020 and older machines sound like that not even the umc500 we got at the same time.
I however like the umc500ss no pallet but runs great and holds great tolerances

[sheepman]

Would you get a mori then. I have talked with 5 other machinist who all said they moved from a HAAS to a Mori.

[joshualegault]

Still the best machines on the market for the price.

[Zlatkodemon]

Thats why I bought Okuma. Too much ptsd from Haas over the years.

[SCCTHINC]

So explain this to me. Since its a 5 axis why do you need large amounts of rotation on the B axis swing going both ways? if you need to swing wide going to the probe side, index the part 180 and hit it from the non probe side? Am I missing something here? Its like asking why a CNC lathe doesn't go very far past center. Just curious cause I don't know.