Good First CNC Mill?....1996 Haas VF-3

I have been in the market for a CNC Mill for a year now and everything is 250+ miles away. I got lucky last week and via word of mouth, found a 1996 Haas VF-3 about 5 miles away from me. Here are the details:

-Has been sitting for 3 years
-Owner bought it as part of a set and uses the twin, has never powered this one on but is willing to hook it up for testing.
-No Tooling Included
-Machine is very dirty
-Originally asking $25k but not actively advertising it. (it sits in the back of a large warehouse where nobody sees it, out of site, out of mind)
-Control is in great condition (no button wear)

Iam not sure where to start with an offer, he wants to sell it as-is, however, I told him that if i cant see it run and test it, the offer will be very low due to the risks involved...

What do you all think? This is going to be my first VMC.
What would you offer? I was thinking 18K if upon inspection it has no issues, or $13k AS-IS

Thanks for your help!
-Geoff

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If it powers up and moves around without much backlash or spindle noise, low 20s would be reasonable IMO.

Sent from my G-Tab Quantum using Tapatalk

Is there an easy way to identify if the machine has Brushless Servos and Ridgid Tapping without turning it on?

You may be able to get information from Haas if you call them with the machine serial number.

If the keyboard does not indicate much use; as you say no button wear and the paint not worn off around the green button I would be tempted to go for a low offer As Is. Especially if all the way covers are nice and straight and there are no signs of things being thrown around inside the enclosure. I have many Haas machines and I find they are very reliable.

Its cheap and easy to reface a keyboard, not a good indicator. BTW

Seller will not take less than $20k and they did end up powering it on for me. Servos and Spindle work fine. Spindle is quiet.

Serial # is 6875 (Built 2/96) and Haas doesn't keep build data past 10 years. Local HFO has no service records on it but I believe the machines were shipped in from the east coast so tracking down service records could be a pain.

They seem to be selling for mid to low 20s so $20k seems fair ...

Geoff, there should be a build sheet taped to the inside cabinet door. It will tell you how the machine was configured.

You can get into debug and see how many hours have been recorded however keep in mind you can reset these counters. Most don't not know how too but some do.

The build sheet should tell you brush or brushless. Mine shows rigged tap too and the code to reset if necessary.

Another way to tell brush/brushless is to look at the big axis/encoder cables coming out of the cabinet. If there's just one cable per axis it's brushless. Brush models have 2 cables side by side. Not sure what stickers a 96 had but I know HAAS was proud of the brushless models and I know 97/98s had brushless plastered on the front. So I'm thinking that one may not be. But the cabinet and cables would be the tale-tell

Pic looks good though things get dirty just by shop dust floating around in a busy environment.

oh what a difference a year makes!!!

Haas' got good in '97. i personally wouldn't touch one before then.

hold out for a post '97 model. sometimes "more expensive" is cheaper in the long run.

run away!

97 is the year they changed from what i call the "squirrel drive" to their very good vector drive.

HUGE differrence

I have a 97 and a 96 right next to each other. Both are brushless and both have Vector drive.

Mike

^^^^^good info, maybe they started shipping in 1996(?). does your vector drive 1996 model have squared-off sheet metal or the newer rounded?

IIRC, the weak spindle drive was from Mitsubishi. check inside the control cabinet to confirm.

Believe 96 was the transitional year for the vector drive.

Mike does your 96 have the Brushless Servos sticker on the front?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mkd

^^^^^good info, maybe they started shipping in 1996(?). does your vector drive 1996 model have squared-off sheet metal or the newer rounded?

IIRC, the weak spindle drive was from Mitsubishi. check inside the control cabinet to confirm.

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Still square.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by dresnerm

Believe 96 was the transitional year for the vector drive.

Mike does your 96 have the Brushless Servos sticker on the front?

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Yes, both have the stickers.

Mike

I ended up passing on the VF3 and instead found a 98 Haas VF2 with 3600hours on it for $16,250

What do you think?

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The VF3 is still available so I might end up trading him for it...it would be nice to have another machine.

More Pictures of it

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