Haas Trunnion Questions

[Tom Matuszak from McCann Technical]

Up until recently our school has been using our Haas trunnion as a basic 4 axis machine. We have an open house coming up shortly and I have been working on cutting a model of a human head out of aluminum using 5 axis. There are couple of things that have been driving me nuts with the program. I have been tinkering with the settings and tool containment and I cannot figure out why it does some things in machine simulation.

1. I have been trying to get it to cut so the A axis moves in the positive direction so people can see the cut. What actually makes it do that? It was cutting in the negative direction. I changed the cut tolerance and now it seems to be where I want it. That is the last thing that I thought would change the direction of the A axis.

2. I seem to get random chunks of the model to get cut away. I have the limits in xz and yz set to 0 and 180. Sometimes it makes it around features other times it does not. I think part of my problem is there may be gaps in the model itself. I am trying to get the CAD department to see if they are there and if so to close them up

Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated. Right now I am going by the X5 advanced multi axis training tutorial for parallel cuts.

Thanks

Tom

[mayday]

What are your linking parm set to on large and small gaps? you can try setting them to diredt but be careful with that. you may also want to set use collision control but only set it to use the drive surfaces

[Tom Matuszak from McCann Technical]

I uploaded the file to the ftp site. It is called CYBERHEAD (X5 Folder). I have only 1 error currently and it is a "Out of max range" Value overflow Y. The finish is not that great around the features like the the ears as it looks like the cutter bumps into the head. The last thing I tried was lead in and out and that did not seem to do anything but cut some of the neck away. I am having a pretty good time with this as I am learning a ton. As soon as I get the thing to look like something I will add depth cuts or multi passes. There are a bunch of 8th grade students that are going to tour the building over the next couple weeks and I thought this would be a fun thing to show them.

[TuxedoMask]

Hey OP,

 

I'm currently at work and can't dl from the FTP but for your negative A-turns have you tried to go into your Misc Values and inputting '1' on your secondary a-xis?

 

It should be the last option on the first column in the Misc Values tab.

 

Putting '2' will force A to rotate negative and '1' force a positive turn.

 

Hope this helps.

[Tom Matuszak from McCann Technical]

Thanks,

I did not make it that far down the tree:) There are a lot of things before that for sure. I did try it. It still looks like it is going negative though in machine simulation.

I have tried both 1 and 2 in that spot and it does nothing to the direction of the a axis. It always swings to the negative. The only thing I have found that changes that is the cut tolerance in the surface quality which makes no sense to me. Being new at this stuff is not easy:)

Tom

[bogusmill]

We had the same problem here. If I used a multi-cut or multi depth cut the second cut, forth cut, etc. would be on the back side. I put a limit on the movement at +90° to -15° and now it cuts everything in front.

[Tom Matuszak from McCann Technical]

We had the same problem here. If I used a multi-cut or multi depth cut the second cut, forth cut, etc. would be on the back side. I put a limit on the movement at +90° to -15° and now it cuts everything in front.

 

After a long weekend of working on this I finally have it. Everything looks very good in machine simulation. We have a Raptor work holding fixture. The result on the machine was not so good. I was reading the Haas manual and there was something about having to offset the Y axis. I used an indicator at A90 and A-90 recorded the difference and divided by 2. I moved the Y axis this amount and set 0. The Z offset was set off the top of the table at A0. I think I did something wrong as a lot of the features of the head (like the ears and eyes came out really bad. So the problem lies two fold. 1. This is the first time we have done anything using full 5 axis and we really do not know exactly what the heck we are doing and 2. We think the problem lies with the Z and Y offsets not in sync with each other. Can anyone provide me with a little overview of how these trunnions actually work as far as setting x,y zero and setting the z offset? I think I am going to try just indicating the rotary x, y zero and keeping the z offset of the top of the rotary and not offsetting anything.

Thanks

Tom

[bogusmill]

I know there are other/better ways to do this but on our Haas T5C & trunion like dual rotary table Haas 5ax machines I set up the part on the trunion then indicate a known location on the part. Then moove the part in MC to that location. Mastercam X axis is centerline of A rotation, Z axis is center of B axis. Haas G54 is set at Z 6" above table CL of the T5C, Y is CL of collet closer's rotation when A turns, and X is the plane the of the collet center when A rotates. Simply stated, the MC origin is where the A & B axis' intersect, the part is set in MC to the same place it is on the machine. I know thats clear as mud but is that how your doing it? Also I never use WCS on multi ax work.

 

I don't remember how to get to the FTP site.

[Robert Ouellette]

your Z axis zero is not the top of the table. it is below center line by about 1/8". you can find it by rotating table to A90. and A-90. and measuring the difference. once you know that distance in mastercam draw your part to that point. in your case you are using a raptor right? so draw your raptor base at your table zero ( about Z-1/8") the top of the raptor is like 3-4" up from there (depending on the size of your model) and then draw your part as it will sit in the jaws of the raptor. so depending on the size of your part, the top of it should be like 6-7" up from Z0. right? now when you program it it should come out right on the machine. you just have to remember to program from CENTER of ROTATION. and all will be good.

 

any other questions just ask.

[Jayson Kramer]

I you need a mofle of the raptor let me know I have the models for the company as I have used them with the Haas Trunnion my self. Follow Robert O on this the Haas Trunnions are not the same but in the area as he stated about 1/8 above the platter. notice picture.

 

[Tom Matuszak from McCann Technical]

I indicated with the A axis at 90 and -90. The number came out to .264. I took 1/2 of that to get the number .132. In the Haas trunnion manual it has a drawing that shows the point of rotation above the table not below. The drawing I have in mastercam has the origin at XYZ zero and then the head is located up from there about 4.75 to the bottom (neck area) and 7.5 to the top of the head. The area from XYZ zero to 4.75 represents where the Raptor is. I was thinking that I should match on the machine exactly what I have in the mastercam drawing as the origin. Meaning that I would indicate the hole in the center of the rotary and set the Z offset to the top of the table. This point of rotation being off .132 is really screwing my thinking up. I have programmed, setup and operated CNC since the paper tape days and this is just blowing my mind. Am I on the right track here or should I subract/add the .132 to my Z offset? There really is not anyone in our local area that can answer any of this for me. I appreciate any help I could get from the board here.

Tom

[Tom Matuszak from McCann Technical]

I you need a mofle of the raptor let me know I have the models for the company as I have used them with the Haas Trunnion my self. Follow Robert O on this the Haas Trunnions are not the same but in the area as he stated about 1/8 above the platter. notice picture.

 

Jay,

Thanks for that picture. If you could send me those models it would be a big help. We have thr RWP-001 fixture and the RWP-203 base. The drawing you posted really helped me almost understand this. So basically you moved the model in mastercam the distance that the A axis rotation is off? In my case it would be .132. On the machine would I subtract that number from the Z offset as well?

Thanks again

Tom

[Robert Ouellette]

yes move your z offset .132 up from top of table. then in mastercam your model with fixture should also be drawn with the base of the fixture at z-.132". and all should be good.

[Tom Matuszak from McCann Technical]

I have drawn up a model of the Raptor-001 fixture, the RWP -203 base for a Haas 160 Trunnion and the clamps for the fixture. There is an assembly as well. If anyone would like them I have them drawn in X5 but would be happy to save them in earlier versions if antone needs them. Thanks to everyone who has helped out in this project. The model of the head is up on the ftp site saved as an MCX-5 file named cyberhead. I could not delete the zip2go file but do not use that as there could be holes in the model.

Tom

[Jayson Kramer]

Tom, if you go back to my FTP you will find your file but I added Cadcam to it and you will have what is in the picture as shown ready to go.

the head is cool. I want to make one now.

Hope this helps

[Tom Matuszak from McCann Technical]

Tom, if you go back to my FTP you will find your file but I added Cadcam to it and you will have what is in the picture as shown ready to go.

the head is cool. I want to make one now.

Hope this helps

 

 

Thanks Jay,

 

I cut the thing today. I will post a picture later. I was a little disappointed as everything in machine simulation looked correct, everything in verify looked correct, it was cutting perfect and then ZOOM! While it was making a cut around one of the ears the cutter dove into the part. There was nothing like that in simulation or verify so now I am perplexed as to what the heck went wrong. I will lose sleep tonight! This has been a great learning process for me. I thought I finally had it and the it dove. Oh well. Maybe it was something with the post.

Tom