Bostomatic Post

[kyle]

Where I work we have a Boston Digital 32GS graphite machine. We are using mastercam and looking for a good post for this machine. We have been using the machine a couple of years and only have a few problems with the post. For drilling using the G83 cylcle, the bosto does not use a - symbol for depth, how do I get it to post a positive number, till now have just been writing the program with a positive depth and seems to work, Also have been maually editing the peck increment, regardless what I put in in mastercam comes up the same when posted. Also have had trouble and gotton a circle destination error when machining simple circles, got it to work most of the time by forcing out x,y,z,i,j, but was lately cutting a simple circle and could not get to work, ended up making cirle a spline and then worked fine, I tried breaking cirlce into 180 degree moves and 90 and got same result, like the machine does not know where to go. Forgive me if these are dumb questions but I am not familiar with posts at all. Thank you.

[tm311]

Kyle,

we use a bosto 32,w/the 3200 control,when i first

started setting up the machine i had alot of the

same problems,they are post related,unless you

have some post knowlege you should contact your

mcam dealer.Most of thius stuff isn't too difficult to fix and they should be able to resolve them quickly.You may get the answers in here,this forum has some good post editing members.

[Mykal]

Kyle,

We have(2)Bostomatic modified posts. One I have modified and works very well and the other has been modified and I'm told works well. If you want, I can modify your post for you to get the same results we are getting. If your interested, shoot me an email and we'll go from there.

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

Mike

[tm311]

Hey Mike

If your post supports subs,i'd like to check it out,i did alot of modifying to ours,but didn't

get it to support subprograms yet.Our bosot

uses g92-g94 for code.

[gary dunn]

i have one that i hacked. but we don't use the canned drdilling cycle, only the canned tapping cycle. ours has 2 heads, one with a 10K speed and the other with a 40K speed. if you want it, i'll send it to ya. it works real good.

[gary dunn]

subs. i usually post several programs out and

give them different G92 values and then manually write a small main program that calls them.

it works real well.

[tm311]

Hey Gary,

How does that 40k spindle work for you.We have

been thinking about retrofitting our machine

w/40k spindle also.I would imagine you use the 10k

for roughing,and 40k for finishing.Was this something you had to edit your post for.There must

be a set dim between the 2(centerline)?

[Rekd™]

gary, I made a down and dirty program that will write that main program for you using options you choose. I used to work with bosto's as well, and made this program to make life a bit easier.

Lemme know if interested, I'll send you more info. (It's a stand-alone program, doesn't matter what cad/cam software you use.)

btw, I'm not planning on charging for it, it's just something I used to use and figured someone else may be able to benefit from it.

-Rekd

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Rekd ]

[tm311]

Hey Reked,

I talked to you a while back about that program,i

guess you were doing some work on it.I would like

to take a look at it my self.If thats possible,my e-mail address is

[email protected].

thanks tony

[gary dunn]

i'm interested.

[email protected]

much appreciated.

[gary dunn]

the 40K spindle. basically all we do is indicate the big head and set the tools length offsets off of it (both heads)and call the big head G60, then we indicate the small head in X and Y only and call it G61. we set the Z the same in both.

then i post a big head (10K) program and call it G92d10 or something like that and the post the small head program and call it G92D11.

Then the call program i say something like

G94D10

M6T1

G94D11

M6T21

M30

The M6T1 and M6T21 are stubby tool holders so that either head won't crash becuase of being too long. its about 143mm in X between them but that dimension grows about .05mm or so as the heads heats up, even with the chiller on. so we just resigned to giving them the G6X positions.

that machine is deadly accurate in X and Y but only about within .02mm-.03mm in Z. the 40K works well. i can cut a 3D shape with a 1.0ballnose(carbide) with no problem, moving at about 1900mm per minute (75inches per minute or so.) of course that's not all there is to it.

i love fast spindles. you should get one.

[Rekd™]

Tony and Gary,

I sent you the program. It's just over 2 megs. If you don't recieve it because of mail server limits, let me know, I'll break it down for you.

Any feedback is welcome.

-Rekd

[kyle]

hello rakd, I would be interested in your program. Please let me know if you are interested in sharing. In our bosto now we have four positions for our erowa holders, to do this now I translate the programs around to the four positions, makes a long program but with ethernet and fact bosto has a large hardrive hasn't been a problem but I am looking for a better way. Thanks again for all the help.

[Rekd™]

Hey, kyle. Rakd is actually my wife, I'm Rekd.

I couldn't find an email address for you, so I wouldn't know where to send it.. Be more than happy to let you use it, sounds like exactally what I used to use it for.

-Rekd

[tm311]

Thanks,

I'll check my email monday and let you know

the outcome.