Im using the Multi-surface - 5 axis now and that's generating a pretty good tool path.

Thanks for the pointers.

Now having better results with Rotary 4-axis........

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has any experience in machining a 3D model head. I have been asked to machine a 3D model head out of some sort of NYLON material (exact material to be decided yet). I have been using Mastercam to program 5axis machines for 12 years now in the aerospace industry so there isn't much I haven't come across, but this is new to me. Its will be one of those fancy demonstration pieces that you see machine manufactures showing off and machine exhibitions. It will be pretty much a full size head. My plan is to rough it out all over 3+2 method the try and 5 axis machine the rest in a rotary motion. Has anyone got any experience with this sort of thing and could point me in the right direction as to which tool path would be best to use. Im currently playing about with 5 Axis Parallel cuts. Getting some ok results but not exactly how I want it. It will be cut on a DMG HSC55 5 axis, 22000 spindle speed. Something a little bit different and it keeps thing interesting. Thanks for looking.

When simulating my cut within the simulator my cutter isn't showing the chamfer it has on the end? But when I backplot it within Mastercam the Chamfer is on the cutter? (which it should be) Why is my chamfer not showing on my cutter within the simulator? Is there a setting I have to change? I have attached a screen grab of both situations, exactly the same cutter doing the same operation. Thanks for looking.

Thanks JParis, ive tried that and it is faster but it looks xxxx! The Accurate Zoom is good but on the old MCX you didn't need that it just worked!

Ive been cutting a lot of Ti Turbines lately, not easy to rough out in Ti as its mainly small gaps between the blades on the turbines, but the best cutters ive found for these have been Walter Titex cutters, (Great website + speed/Feed calculators) and Franken taper mills. (very expensive but seem to last for ever!) But I generally stick with Iscar and Walter.

Hi, I skipped MCX7 so went straight from 6 to 8. Im finding the new Simulator very slow to machine the components. Im doing some pretty complex turbines using the blade expert add-on but it is just SOOOOOO slow on verification. I had a word with my I.T. guy and he had upgraded my computer now so Im running AMD FX-9590 Eight-Core Processor (4.69 GHz) with 16GB of RAM and The Nvidia Quardo Graphics card with 1024MB dedicated. Now this should be enough, but its still slow! Any help or advice please, its driving me nuts!

Hello fellow Blade Expert users. I was just wondering how everyone was getting on with it? Ive been using it for a couple of months now and I love it, but I do feel that there is a lack of information, tutorials, guide documents where it comes to actually using the product (UK). I have programmed a few Impellers using it now, they have all come out fine, but I did feel it was a bit of a case of......ill try this and see how that works........ok, ill thry it like this now.........ok that didnt work ill change this...and so on. Like I said I got there in the end but it was a lot of trial and error. I was wondering if any of you would like to swap some programmes between us. We can then take a look at how they might differ from our own. Hopefully putting our heads together we can perfect it, or maybe you already have! Message me if your interested, and add your name below so others can message you regarding this subject. Maybe we can build up a little community of Blade Expert users. My boss was trying to organise a possible blade expert training course with Mastercam(UK) but that hasnt come to anything yet. Thanks for looking.

Sam, thank you again, the info you have provided is brilliant.

Thankyou, The info here is brilliant, just the sort of thing im looking for. Do you know what sort of depth of cut was planned for for the 10mm and 8mm ballnose cutters.

Hi, ive got a new project to get my teeth into. As the title says its a Titanium Impeller. I have programmed plenty of jobs out of Titanium and I have also programmed a few Impellers, but they have all been out of Ally. I know this is a bit specialist, but if anyone has done this before any tips would be more than welcome. I will be programming the Impeller using Mastercam X6 Blade expert. I like this, does most of the hard work for me! buts its the speeds/feeds, cut depths, roughing startagies ect. im experimenting with at the moment. I just dont want to go breaking too many cutters as the coated Taper mills im using arnt cheap! Also would love to have a chat with some fellow blade expert Impeller programmers to swap tips and any info we can share. Impeller details:- Material - Titanium TA11 Hub is 120mm at the bottom, up to 30mm at the top. 42mm in height. 7 blades with splitters, so 14 in total. Not too tight. When I make ally ones I use a 4-6mm 3 flute to very quickly remove most of the material around the blades and splitters, (surface high speed, OptiRest) I thinking I will be using soild carbide tapermills (TIALAN-T21 coated) to do most of the work on this one. Thanks for looking, keep up the good work.