Rotary positioning-question

[Smit]

Hi folks,

I've got an elliptical part, with a 35 deg. chamfer and 116 1/16" holes at a 30 deg. angle thru the chamfer. We are going to put it on a Haas indexer, at an angle set to 60 deg. The indexer uses a M21, with the angle set in the parameters, so the program doesn't need an A move. Y will be zero, so the program needs only X and Z moves. Question is, how to do this quickly and easily? I've been trying different things for hours now without success. Setting C-plane and t-plane from an arc, using rotary substitution (y) axis. No luck. If somebody knows how to accomplish what I'm after and is willing to share the knowledge I would be soooooo grateful. I've uploaded a file named ellipls to the FTP site if one of the MC black belts would like to look at it.

Thanks in advance for any replies,

Smit

[Reece L Gibson]

You need 5-axis for the set-up you described.

Then it's pretty simple.

[Glenn Bouman]

Looks like that part used to be a solid. If you can get the solid file, solid drill will make it very easy.

 

Autodrill will work off the arcs, but you may have to set the arc view numbers first so that it does not drill from the bottom.

[maestro]

What kind of machine and rotary axis are you using?

[Smit]

I was planning on using a Mori Seiki MV-Jr with a Haas Indexer set at a 30 deg. angle. After conversations with my dealer, who also sent the part to the experts at Mastercam, the consensus is that Mastercam just won't spit out the right coordinates with that set-up. Because of time constraints we are going to send it to one of our vendor shops that has a 5 axis machine.

Glenn, the part is from a Pro-E model. I did create a solid from the surfaces and sent it to my dealer. They couldn't make that work either. At least it apparently wasn't my lack of knowing how that prevented it from working. Thanks to all who replied!

Smit

[maestro]

Could you not just write a program by hand. We have done this type of work alot on our fadals with Hass indexers mounted on angles as you have described. If your control supports subprograms or macros, the program wouldn't be that long. Every now and then it seems like you run across something you just have to program the old way.

[Smit]

Sure, there are ways to do it. Because the angles between holes are not constant in this ellipse we would have to do it one hole at a time, at least half way around because the part is symmetrical. But we need the part quickly, and we are busy enough that if we spend more time on this part it is taking time away from another job that is also needed quickly.