your age?

[Bill]

I was just a little curious as to how old most of us cad/cam people are in this forum?

Myself, I am 35 years young. I started doing this this I think when I was 22-23.

------------------

B. Henderson

OMEGA PlASTICS

[email protected]

opinc.com

[Kenneth Potter]

Bill I,m 47

Been modeling 12 years

 

cadcam/ cnc work 8 years

self employed contract programming 3 1/2 years

[This message has been edited by Kenneth Potter (edited 07-06-2001).]

[Brendan O' Regan]

I'm 26 and just started cam a few months ago. I have been wireing for the last 4 years though.

------------------

------------------

Brendan aka ruffmut

Faul Precision Eng.

"Remember pressure is for tyres."

[Guy]

I'm 21.

I've been working for 2 years and went to school 2 years long. So I began at 17.

I'm now the foreman ,programer, designer...

------------------

Guillaume Côté

Hexco inc, Montreal Canada

[wendy]

I'm 29 but have only been introduced to Mastercam in the past few months. I'm our company's Systems Administrator and was forced to learn about MaterCAM to help support it.

~Wendy

[Tony]

Hello

I am 37,

Three kid's,one wife,one dog ,two cats,one fish,seven birds.....

I Have been building molds and Blanking dies

since the early 80's (The Regan era) !!!

I started programing with MC at vs 6.0

Because the other guy got fired for sleeping

all the time!!!He was using vs 5.5?

Must of been pretty dry stuff...

we have two jobs left here they are due sept 1st(Electric power steering stuff for *****, servo's ,No more belts, saves 3 miles per gallon) sshhhhh... then we have NOTHING!

Good bye cruel world.....

[This message has been edited by Tony (edited 07-06-2001).]

[tirenut]

I'm 26. Been machining since I was about 10 years old in my dads shop, graduated up to playing with CNC's at about 17. I began using Mastercam since ver5.0 in 1993, been using it everyday for my real job since 1996.

Use it to program everything. Hitachi Wire EDM, Vertical Turning Lathes - 2 Axis, Haas's, Fadal's, Sharnoa's, Cincinatti's - 3 Axis, Sunstrand OminMill's - 4 Axis, and now, a Hermle C800U for 5-axis.

[cadcam]

Well bill we have something in common,

I am 35 years to and started as a wax investment mold maker when I was 22 my self.

Have done all kinds of programming from wax, plastic; die cast to production over the years. including have to make Rapid proto type molds including shooting the parts in ten days.

Have been in the Mastercam arena sense version 2.5

------------------

jay/ aka cadcam

Precision Programming

cnc programming &

Predator & mastercam reseller

email: [email protected]

web: www.ppcadcam.com

[garyg]

I'm 54 and have been using MC since '88. Worked with Compact II for 13 years prior to that.

[Bill]

Tony I think I may have you with the pets.

I have 1 dog, 2 cats and a pond filled with my favorite pets "fish" though I did lose some over the winter, mostly my big bass . Three turtles and just this morning two more dead muskrat. That makes Bill 5 - muskrat 0.

Jay, I also have three boys and oh yea 1 wife.

------------------

B. Henderson

OMEGA PlASTICS

[email protected]

opinc.com

[cadcam]

What bill only one wife wow.

i have 1 exwife & 1 boy , All so have a wife & 2 boys now.

Oh ya we have a dog along with 2 cats.

------------------

jay/ aka cadcam

Precision Programming

cnc programming &

Predator & mastercam reseller

email: [email protected]

web: www.ppcadcam.com

[Andy]

Im 56. Been doing this stuff since 1964. Aerospace, Tool and die, injection molds, prototypes, etc. Self employed for 25 years.

Machining is all the same and CNC makes many jobs easier and sometimes possible. Fascinating trade. (Not the money!)

No matter how long one does this stuff there is still sooo much to learn.

Cheers

------------------

Gordon Engineering

Eureka, Ca.

V8 Lathe and Mill

[gstephens]

I'm 32, started hand prograqmming a Bandit 1 level 3 when I was 15. Got Autocad v2.?? and started offseting to centerline and listing the entities to cut down on trig/calculator time. I've used Mastercam since v2 and all the versions since (yes even the 8 different v5.5x ones! ).

[This message has been edited by gstephens (edited 07-06-2001).]

[lou]

Hi, I am 31 and I have been in the molding trade sence "88". Started Programming in "90" when mastercam was sold as "ClearCut". I left mastercam for a few years and went to Cim/Linc at that time mastercam was still just wire frame. Cim/Linc fell behind and Mastercam made leaps and bounds on becomeing one of the best software's out there. So, I switched back over to mastercam when Ver. 6 came out. Now, I have been using it ever sence. Thats my story and Im sticking to it.

P.S. Just to let you all know. I work right next to Bill along with 4 other programmers in the same room.

See ya all,

------------------

Lou Wilson

Cnc Programmer

OMEGA PLASTICS

[email protected]

[Trevor Bailey]

I am 31. First job I had in a shop was sweeping the floor. Then I graduated to the "heli-coil" machine. From there I went to the manuals for a few years.(Lathe & Mills). Then I went to programming on Aniliam controls. After that, I went to work at a foundry. I used Sajo Mills there with Bandits 1 thru 6 controls. I also used Dyna-Path 10 Controls there. After that job I moved back to Cali. Started using Fadal's, Mazak Turning Centers, Mori Lathes, and HAAS. I was a proto machinist for Cobra/Titleist Golf making drivers-irons-putters. I have worked with Charles Davis as an AE-sales-instructor for CADCAM & Mastercam. And now.........still going!?!?!?!

I am married with 3 boys who LOVE baseball. I have a love bird, Rottweiler and a Dogue de Bordeaux that just turned 17 weeks old and already weighs 40lbs!

------------------

Trevor Bailey

[email protected]

Specializing in Contract Programming

[gcode]

I'm 46.

I got my start as a machinist in the Marine

Corps working on armored vehicles.

My first programming experience was with an old Burgmaster drilling machine. It had a 6

spindle drill head controlled by mechanical

switches and an NC table controlled by a paper tape. It got pretty cranky in hot weather which kept us on our toes!

My first CAM program was Anilam. It ran on a

machine with a 12in screen, no hard drive and no mouse. It had 2 8in floppy drives. One held the executable file and the other was for data storage. The 8in discs wore out quickly and I finally retired the system because I couldn't find 8in floppies anymore.

I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when they came out with a version than ran on a PC and had a mouse.

My next CAM system was Tek Soft. Mastercam

was in V5 at the time and Tek Soft seemed a little bit better. I switched to Mastercam

with V7.

I recently purchased SolidWorks and I'm taking some classes at the local community college. The advances the PC CAD/CAM industry

have made in the last twenty years are stunning!

 

[kathy]

I turned 45 this year! I started working in a machine shop at 19 years old. I took two years of collage right out of high school, studying to be an elementary school teacher, when I just felt I had to get out on my own and earn a living. My old boyfriend was working as a machinist, and that inspired me. I walked up to this shop in Costa Mesa, CA and talked my way into a job! I come by it naturally, my brother is a wood worker who owns his own cabinet shop in the Bay Area, and my dad is a retired aerospace engineer. I worked in the shop in Costa Mesa for a couple of years and took classes at community collage. Tried to go back to school full time, studying engineering, but I liked working and supporting myself. Came back to southern California in 1977 and got a job running NC’s in a medical part manufacturing plant. Taught myself Compact II while the machine was running, and continued to take classes. Anyone else remember the old days of punched tape?

I finally got tired of running a machine and took a design job. In the early 1980’s, I was offered a job at Bath Iron Works in Maine. I was visiting the state with another old boyfriend. But couldn’t resist a job offer from McDonnell Douglas in Huntington Beach, CA so I stayed home. Much to my Dad’s relief, the boyfriend stayed in Maine!

I really miss the Douglas years; I was there for almost seven. I designed electronic ‘packaging’ like wire harness installations, PC boxes, cards and heatsinks. I worked on the Delta and Titan launch vehicles, and the PAM shuttle vehicle among other things. Cut my teeth modeling on Unigraphics I & II.

Well, the current boyfriend became a husband and we moved out of the rat race of southern California to beautiful?? Stockton. I’ve been at my present company (AASC) for over 11 years programming. We are now marketing our engineering, and I’ll be migrating back to design. Yea! My contribution to CNC programming has been building up a system and a process. We have full tracability of our CNC program configurations (per D9100). I have programs that ran over 5 years ago and are still fully usable. I insist on full documentation for our programs, just like releasing an engineering drawing. We can utilize our previous process to create new programs.

Looking back, it seems that there was an awful lot of old boyfriends here and there!! The husband is now an ex, but I am raising two wonderful, beautiful teenagers! Ugh! Lodi is a great town for raising kids - I’ll be here for them to finish high school. Than I may go back to Maine and build boats! Or not!

Sorry if this is a little long!

Kathy

 

[Luther_Heggs]

40 years old (ow). No more hair. Big pot belly. Bad attitude. Teenagers. The "beaten man" look.

Anybody got a sister?

[Michael Reynolds]

38 years old (I think..) Been in machining all my life. My dad was (is) an old school toolmaker, and at 35 started teaching tech mech & tool & die at our local trade school. He started his own machine shop, which to this day is pretty big in our area. Sooo, I grew up in a machine shop. Not that I was interested, but because he didn't trust me (as a teenager), so he dragged me with him. I appreciate it now, but then????

So I got my papers, went to college for a bs in techical education, and started teaching Machine Tool Technology. Had to learn cadcam "on the fly", but any toolmaker/nc setup/operator can learn mcam quickly.

Now I have access to 3 cnc lathes, 6 VMC's, and various other manual mills, lathes, grinders whenever I want them. As well as having UG and mcam to program them.

Now it's a BALL!!!!!! I love my job!!!!!!!!!

Mike R.

[jenks]

54 years old.

I've been machining in a maintenance environment for 33 years.

CNC machining since 1987. I began using Mastercam with version 5.5(in addition to conversational programming in the beginning). I've been full time programming for the last 4 years(except when I have to fill in for people who are late, sick, on vacation, dead, etc.).

I've got an accounting degree that I got with the G.I. Bill, while working full time as a machinist, which I might add I have never used.

Making chips runs in my blood, my great-grandfather(with about 12 greats added)JOSEPH JENKS was called the country's first toolmaker(circa 1640 in Mass). Someone in the family has been making chips ever since.

It's a good career that I've never regretted.

 

[david]

43 years old and trying to teach this older dog new tricks. Started working for my company as a hole driller 5 or 6 years ago. I was and still am fascinated with the capabilities of the CNC machinery we have. I asked my boss if there would be a chance to learn to run them in the future, response was learn mastercam. Three years later I started to run the wire machines. With all the help on this forum and EDM TALK forum I tought myself to do everything that has came through our shop so far on the wires( by far not an expert). The better I get with mastercam the more advances come my way. I moved up to running our machining centers full time not to long ago, have done a few 3D jobs and loving every bit of it. We are a small shop but with a lot of hours of work and practice on my home pc and dedication to do whatever at work to do the job, the rewards are good for me.

Thank you all very much.

[CycleTimeCharles]

I am 34. Started working in a machine shop after high school.

I did not know CNC existed, although I knew there had to be a better way to make parts than cranking handles.

The first machines I saw were a Burgmaster drilling NC machine and a Cincinatti Cintimatic NC mill with a large turret style toolchanger.

I thought it was the latest technology until the operator told me they where over 15 years old. Programs where made manually and

typed into a teletype to make the paper tape.

Being the lazy type I was fascinated by machines that ran by themselves. I took all the courses I could on NC programming

and got job at a more progressive company with newer equipment. They used Numeridex to make the programs, it used 2 8" floppy's and had no mouse.

They then switched to Mastercam V3 and I have been using Mastercam ever since.

 

[lovell110]

Im 33,

I was first introduced to CNC's when I was in trade school. I couldnt stand it! The complexity and the time it took to write programs by hand was unreal to me...All I could think is let me do it by hand! We didnt have a CAD/CAM package back then so that was the way it was done.

Today I get to use Mastercam and Im having a ball! I have 2 CNC mills (3 axis, 5 axis,)

and 15 CNC lathes and each one is different. I personally like doing the post work! Since we mainly make production it gets pretty boring at times.

Im thankful for this forum because it really lets me learn and push the software! Thank you eveyone!!!!!

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I'm 31. Cut my first part on a LeBlond lathe - Titanium Hubs for my race bike. Our family was too poor to afford those things store bought.

Been machining (at least earning a living at it) since '92 and began using Mastercam Version 3 in 93-94. I've used 3.1, 4.x, 5.5x, 6.13a, All version 7 and all V8. Looking forward to Version 9. Maybe they'll let me beta test eh?

I'm glad this forum is here. I learn a whole lot here believe it or not.

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James M.

Mastercam Enthusiast

[Elad]

Hi i use cad/cam for about 3 years,and using mastercam since last year,and i just love it!

Have a great week all of you!