Grease discontinued. Switching way lube to oil?

Apparently Haas is discontinuing way grease and switching to oil. I know some folks have had trouble with solidifying and clogging, but my impression is that's mostly on machines which sit idle most of the year. I really like the grease system, because unlike every other mill I've worked on it doesn't pee way oil into the coolant all the time. Am I going to need a skimmer now? I tried to get more liquid grease for my CM-1 and they sent me this conversion kit instead:

Try ZELLER +GMELIN Divinol L800 grease or Divinol L000 grease. You can buy online from [email protected] -

Talk to an expert here in the USA. I use these guys' when I have a lubrication issue. .https://www.mobil.com/en/lubricants/for-businesses/industrial/contact-us

I run oil (2009vf2) and have no problem at all with oil in the sump.
The only oil that seems to get in the sump is from the spindle air/oil lol be system. So very little.
The truck oil runs through the casting channels and is deposited in a bucket in the back. There is a oil/coolant separator In”line (oil floats right?)
Seems to work well.

Ive had a few greased machines before. Always clogged somewhere it seemed.
At least oil signals in the controller if it is clogged or a broken line.

mhajicek said:

Apparently Haas is discontinuing way grease and switching to oil. I know some folks have had trouble with solidifying and clogging, but my impression is that's mostly on machines which sit idle most of the year. I really like the grease system, because unlike every other mill I've worked on it doesn't pee way oil into the coolant all the time. Am I going to need a skimmer now? I tried to get more liquid grease for my CM-1 and they sent me this conversion kit instead:

Haas Axis Lubrication Oil - Conversion - AD0629

www.haascnc.com

Click to expand...

So are you saying they are now going away from the tan grease 93-3168? Hell, I just changed over to that from the purple stuff earlier this year. At this rate, by the time I need to buy more there will be another change, or 2.

I took a lubrication class years ago at Trico MFG. in Pewaukee, WI and the instructor said to never mix greases as the soaps could have a chemical reaction and clump up. He said if you change over to clean thee parts first. You probably need to ask someone at Haas or Mobil oil.

I have always used Mobil bearing and lubrication oil for my screw machines. I got a pail of Vactra 2 last year for another machine that I bought and noticed it had a "tackifier" added to it specifically for the ways, so it sticks to the surface and works better.

I usually have to run my machines for 15-30 min in the morning to get the lubrication up to the ways from the sump. I guess the tackifier is the solution to that issue. On all my ways and slides, the lube oil will seep to the lowest point overnight.

I just got a drum of similar stuff to Vactra 2 (NOS). I have not opened it yet, but I got it for a little barter deal and it probly cost me $600.overall. I guess it would be about $2500 new.

Look into something with a "tackifier" in it. I know Vactra 2 is very hard to get right now.

This is what most Japanese machines with linear bearing ways use. This stuff will never dry out or clump and I've never seen a machine that even one pump of this stuff in the ways have a problem- It lasts forever.

On linear bearing machines I prefer grease. Seems to work very well.

I just went ahead and swapped to the oil like they wanted me to. It's a thick, gooey oil.

mhajicek said:

I just went ahead and swapped to the oil like they wanted me to. It's a thick, gooey oil.

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What did that cost, if you don't mind me asking. There wasn't a price for the conversion when I looked it up.

[email protected] said:

What did that cost, if you don't mind me asking. There wasn't a price for the conversion when I looked it up.

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Forgot to ask, and haven't seen the bill yet.

The purple grease was a blend of Mobil SHC 007 and SHC 625. I'm not sure what the tan was.

Nye Lubricants may have a proper substitute.

[email protected] said:

What did that cost, if you don't mind me asking. There wasn't a price for the conversion when I looked it up.

Click to expand...

The conversion kit is around $95

Like RCS Machine, I'm a little annoyed that I just did the conversion from the purple stuff to the tan this summer.

Now I'm annoyed that the oil lube conversion instructions for the conversion on a classic haas control machine (CHC) appear to be incorrect. According to the Haas instructions, they want the parameter 1401 and setting 252 changed to new settings...my 2015 machine does have a parameter 1401 OR setting 252.

I called the local HFO, but have not got a callback yet. Has anyone else here ran into this problem?

For those with the classic control, it's parameter 861 (AX LUBE TIME INTRVL) that needs to be changed. The original value is 480 minutes (8 hours) and the new value should be 180 minutes (3 hours).

Garwood said:

Buy LRL 3 Kyodo Yushi Multitemp Grease - CNC Specialty Store

Buy Kyodo Yushi Multemp LRL Number 3 Grease 400g. In stock ships same day. Grease for machine tool applications-07-228. CNC Specialty Store 414-881-4493

cnc-specialty-store.com

This is what most Japanese machines with linear bearing ways use. This stuff will never dry out or clump and I've never seen a machine that even one pump of this stuff in the ways have a problem- It lasts forever.

On linear bearing machines I prefer grease. Seems to work very well.

Click to expand...

I agree, most linear systems actually have an increased load capacity using grease vs oil according to the spec sheets. Our Matsuuras use the MT1. It never gets hard and is still flowing strong on our machine with 40k spindle hours on it. I always keep an extra tube at my desk to wave around at people if they start getting on my nerves.

This Haas grease system is a catastrophic failure between the exploding plastic grease cans on early NGC machines to the clogged lines. At least half of our machines (with tan or purple grease) have residual pressure alarms indicating something is clogged up. The orifices at the trucks can get permanently clogged and even pumping hydraulic oil backwards with a hydraulic pump wouldn't do the trick. To make matters worse, some of the orifices are impossible to get to and change like the factory recommends. I've made notes to manually grease those spots on those machines once a year and just leave grease zerks installed opposite from the lines. The reality is, no Haas is that productive in comparison to real machines so they will last a pretty long time with virtually no lubrication since the hours accumulated in that time is low.

The ISO VG1000 synthetic gear oil they are recommending to replace the tan grease with is very thick. It doesn't seem like a readily available product from the average supply house yet but at this point I'm not so sure that's the right solution anyways. Haas has screwed this up enough time it seems like some back-yard engineering might be in order. Some oil is better than none and I'm considering doing some testing on our latest 2016 VF2ss acquisition since it's still on the 2016 bomb cartridge system.

I like the recommendations here even it's just a gauge of what everyone else is up to. The Divinol is probably a good product but it states a shelf life of 2 years on the product page. If it's the average Haas, that could be a problem. Most Haas machines live job shop or home shop lives and barely run. The grease sits a lot. Divinol might just spec that 2 year to cover themselves but it's still concerning.

Haas is so bad at engineering that they can't design a proper grease system after decades of experience, and with all the help in the world from grease manufacturers being a phone call away, and with all of the other machines in the history of the world available as a reference. Maybe the grease system is designed to fail and is a method of planned obsolescence. Now this would require some skill to engineer and I am willing to give credit where it is due. Think of how many variables must go into calculating when exactly the grease canister will explode.

They miscalculated the exploding point on our VF4. I'm sure it was intended to explode when someone was sitting at the desk a few feet from the cabinet, or when someone was poking their head in to check lube levels.

yep, our machines are 5 months old and still under warranty and when we went to purchase more grease they politely informed us we had to BUY the conversion kit as it is only a recommended upgrade not a necessity. I am the most pro-American product guy you'll ever meet but I've had it with Haas.Multiple other problems albeit small with brand new machines too ( example-no warning when the grease is empty, TSC that loses charge between every tool change etc..) Instead of that stupid race team no one watches or even cares about how about some customer service Haas ? We as a company who have purchased over 30 Haas Mills in the past will never again.