Hey, I am looking for whoever teaches or can train me to use the HAAS CNC mills for an upcoming project of mine. I have experience using Tormachs but not the HAAS machine.
We are in the process of the writing of the curriculum for the HAAS machines. We had a development meeting last Monday evening. This is for the CAM side of the machine.
What CAM are you used to?
I have used solidworks and fusion 360 CAM
I know this was 14 days ago. I’m also looking for help with the HAAS CNC. Is it possible to have a class (soon) for members and non-members? I have a small group of Aerospace students that need to learn to setup a HAAS Mill and print parts. They have experience with Autodesk design software, now they need to learn to setup the project using either Inventor’s milling software or the HAAS add-on for Fusion 360.
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I am also interested in HAAS CNC machine class as well.
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Sorry for the delay in responding to this; I’m one of the members of the machine shop committee who is currently working on the CAM education material that will be incorporated into the Haas check-off pathway.
We actually just recently got the VF2 in working order after it was down for several months for maintenance and repairs, and we’re now working on getting everything set up to where we can start checking people off on it again. We’re as excited as y’all are to get people using it, and we have a bunch of volunteers working to get it to where we can start scheduling classes ASAP.
In the interest of transparency while we work on that, here’s what the process of gaining unsupervised access to the Haas will look like. Keep in mind that the Haas is a beast of a machine, truly meant for industrial purposes, and is absolutely powerful enough to destroy itself if you accidentally tell it to. One mistake can knock the machine out of service for everyone at the space, so the barrier to entry is by necessity going to be higher than any other tool that we have at DMS. That said, we are really psyched to get people signed off on it, and a lot of work is going into making sure that the training pathway will be as smooth as possible, even if it is somewhat long. Here’s what the process will look like:
- Before beginning the Haas training pathway, there are two basic prerequisites/expectations. All of this is available for you to begin working on right now, if you’re not there already:
- We’ll expect you to have a basic level of familiarity with some form of CAD. You can use any design program you want, but the CAM classes will not cover the 3D modeling and design aspects of the process. You should already be able to model the geometry of whatever you’re trying to make before moving on to learning CAM.
- You should also be comfortable with the principles of manual machining as well as the operation of simpler CNC platforms. You don’t have to be an expert; most of us aren’t. However, you should probably be checked off on the Bridgeport manual mill and at least one of our desktop CNC mill/routers such as the Shapeoko, Nomad, or Sherline.
- The Haas ecosystem at DMS is going to be centered around Mastercam, which is a professional-grade CAM package that DMS has obtained licenses to. It will be set up to operate with any of the CNC mills and lathes at the space, so you will have plenty of opportunity to practice on smaller projects prior to finishing the Haas check-off.
- There will be several guided online modules on DMS Learn covering different aspects of CAM and Mastercam specifically. At least the first two (covering the absolute, bare-minimum basics) will be required in order to sign up for the in-person Haas class. If you are completely new to CAM, you should expect these two modules to take several hours to complete, and you will want to spend time practicing on your own with whatever geometry you’ve designed for your first project. Depending on how complex that project is, you may end up wanting to do the additional, optional modules as well to learn more advanced techniques. There will be opportunities to skip and test out of certain material if you’re already familiar with the basics of CAM, which could potentially cut down on the total time commitment for those coming from Fusion, Solidworks, etc.
- Once you’ve passed the online CAM courses, there will be an in-person Haas course held on a regular basis which teaches you how to actually set up and run a project on the machine, how to analyze your G-code for potential errors, safely monitor your project while it’s running, etc. This will check you off for supervised access to the machine.
- The final step will be to CAM up your own personal project and schedule a one-on-one session with a qualified instructor, who will look over your project for potential mistakes, help you get everything set up, and run your program with you. If everything goes well and it’s clear that you are able to competently operate the machine without any significant safety intervention needed, you will then be added to the list of approved unsupervised operators.
I truly hope that the amount of commitment that’s needed to learn how to use the Haas safely and effectively isn’t a deterrent to anyone who is interested in getting checked off. We want everyone who wants to use it to get that opportunity, and we have some great folks on our committee who are super committed to helping teach anyone who wants to learn. The barrier to entry is high by necessity, but we’re all dedicated to helping you get there!
I’m always available on Talk to discuss if you have any further questions, and our monthly committee meeting is this weekend if you’re interested in attending to find out more about what we have in the works—everyone is welcome! 
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I can teach any CAD that needs help with with, just let me know when you want to meet. Any time Monday - Friday after 6 pm ( not Tuesday) and on the weekend. We are currently working on getting new Solidworks licenses but paramatic modeling principles transfer across many platforms so we can figure what other platforms to use
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Thanks so much to you (and everyone else involved) in making this a reality!
Will we be able to use anything CAM’d in Fusion360 or must it be CAM’d in MasterCam?
The plan (at least initially, as far as I’m aware,) is to require Mastercam to be used for all projects run on the Haas. Using one standardized CAM suite allows us to ensure that all of the post-processing has been configured correctly and that no mistakes are sneaking into the G-code that might potentially cause a crash to occur. It’s possible that we may eventually relax this requirement, but to be honest, the free “hobbyist” tier of Fusion has several restrictions that make it not particularly suited to use with a machine like the Haas. There are ways around it, but the hackiness of those workarounds only increases the chances that something unintended is going to sneak into your G-code and cause problems.
I personally learned CAM in Fusion before I started Mastercam, and while I’ll admit that it’s more user-friendly for beginners, the amount of control that Mastercam gives us over what ultimately gets output to run on the machine is hard to ignore. We really just want to avoid someone accidentally dorking up the machine by running sketchy G-code on it, and requiring that G-code to all come from one place is one of our strategies for mitigating that risk.
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To be clear , you can design your 2d/3d geometry in fusion, solidworks, on shape, freecad or whatever. You will not have to use the mastercam CAD functions . I believe it’s the committee’s intent that the toolpaths and post processing be completed using mastercam. Part of the ultimate training deck will include how to import your solid part file or step file into mastercam for machine processing for the safety and consistency reasons Ryan outlined . We are working to get mastercam post processors lined up for the carbide machines and the sherline cnc mill so that users can learn mastercam roll pathing and post processing on lower-stakes machines .
Thanks for the response. I understand.
I’m using a full subscription version. No hacks required.
But if I can’t use it at DMS, it kinda lowers my motivation to continue my subscription.
In that case, I don’t suspect that the committee would have any issue with you using Fusion’s CAM functionality for your toolpath programming, provided that we’re able to get it set up with appropriate configuration and post-processing beforehand and verify that everything is working properly. The intent has never been to limit the software tools that people are allowed to use, just to ensure interoperability with the machine for safety reasons.
And yes, Kevin is definitely correct… please don’t try to do your CAD in Mastercam. It’s technically possible, but not even remotely recommended. 
Use whatever you’re comfortable with for the design/modeling work, and then just import it to Mastercam to set up your toolpaths. lol
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Is there yet, an estimated timeline on when y’all might start offering the classes for learning the machines and mastercam?
Also interested in taking a class. Happy to pay for a private lesson. Who is approved to sign-off someone?
When I took the HAAS class 4-5 years ago it was restricted to DMS members. The reason was that only DMS members are allowed to operate the HAAS.
I would think it would be OK for non-members to take the class as long as there was no expectation that they could actually use the HAAS. And as long as it didn’t fill up the class and prevent DMS members from taking the class.
Clarification from machine shop stewards will be much appreciated.
I have been a member, on and off, for years and will return as one. I want to return with a scheduled plan to get trained and approved on specific machines. I am exhausted from waiting a year for someone to teach a class, only to find out its full in 5 minutes and there is not another one on the schedule for the foreseeable future.
My plan this time…Get Private Class scheduled on all machines within a week of each other and rejoin.
If you or anyone know who I should contact to train and sign-off on wood and metal CNC, kindly advise. I will pay for the Private Course. I would love to get moving on this.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH 