I just noticed that I have about 50 tools in my tool manager. Apparently, every time I copied and pasted the existing operations it created new tools in the tool manager. So I have 5 of tool #3, 5 of tool #4, etc... Can this be avoided? Thanks, Bob

John, I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. I am a bit of a newbie :-) I have five parts, that will each be machined on four sides (one at a time) in a vise in the milling machine. The coordinate system I plan to use on the mill is G54 for all parts so I will just set up my stock stop and keep swapping programs as I make the various parts. Is there an easier way to program these? Thanks, Bob

I am working on a series of parts that I brought into Mastercam as a group (5 total parts) because they will all be using the same tools, operations, etc... What I am doing is creating a new coordinate system and toolpath group for each part, then copying and pasting the operations from the previous part, selecting the new geometry, and setting the new coordinate system (edit common parameters, planes, etc...) What is happening is that when I create a new coordinate system (via the view manager) it is transforming some of the existing coordinate systems so I end up having to regen toolpaths that are not involved. This is extremely frustrating and it has happened in the past. Any idea what is going on? Why would changing the coordinate system for 5 operations have an effect on unselected operations? Thanks, Bob

In reading an earlier post regarding helical milling it reminded me that some time ago I designed a cutting tool for just such a purpose. It has sat idle because its nature is very specific and I don't know if there is already a solution or even a demand for such a tool. I'm not sure how many people are aware of this, but using a 4th axis it is impossible to cut a TRUE helical surface with a rotating cylindrical cutting tool. If you rotate the part and feed in the X direction while making a cut the results will be close, but not a true helical surface/ groove. I guess in short, you can't use a fourth axis to machine accurate load bearing helical cams, threads, etc... without some surface machining. Using a rotating cutting tool to cut threads will always be a compromise unless the tool is designed specifically for the pitch and diameter of the thread. Threads cut on a lathe with a single point tool, with a tap, or with a die will produce the most accurate threads from a surface contact perspective. Rather than go on and on about this I'll go ahead and illustrate the reason. The angle of a helical surface changes as the diameter of the cylinder changes. Imagine a 1/2" diameter threaded rod with 8tpi. The thread's angle would be pretty steep. Now picture a 10" diameter threaded rod. The threads would be nearly horizontal. The surface's angle increases as you get closer to the root and a cylindrical cutting tool can't compensate for that. Only a specifically contoured tool can. Is there a need for something like this? Sorry for the long post. This has been sitting on the shelf for a few years now :-) Bob

Thanks for the reply. Some of the inserts I have seen online run $80 while others are $30 so I really had no clue what to expect. Thanks, Bob

Could I get a ballpark estimate of what the inserts cost for those? I do plan to give them a call tomorrow but I am just curious.

Thanks. How long do the inserts usually last? Who carries these? Thanks, Bob

http://www.cncgunsmithing.com/projects.html I ran accross this site and thought it was pretty interesting what can be done in a well equipped shop after hours. Anyone else have any interesting links or ideas of what we can do after hours? Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with this site, Just an enthusiast :-) Bob

I need to machine a .375" radius scallop along the top edge of parts made of A2 tool steel (annealed). Since I will be doing several hundred of these I fugure that an indexable ball mill would be the best choice. I have been browsing the various tool sites and these suckers are expensive so I am looking for recomendations. Also, what SFM should these be run at and how long do the inserts typically last (hours of cutting time at moderate speeds/feeds)? Those are expensive too :-) I am in the process of quoting this job so I need to get a sense of the tooling costs. Thanks, Bob

Got it. Thanks for the help. Bob

How do I permanently change how X2 assignes the tool numbers when tools are added to a job (assign tool # sequencially, use tools peck, etc...)? I can't seem to find the right menu to permanently change these settings. Thanks, Bob

Blake play baseball?

I have a VF2-SS and I don't like the high pitch ball screws. It leaves marks at the quadrants when interpolating circles. I would not buy another unless they installed 8 or 10mm pitch ball screws at the factory. I believe it comes with 14mm screws and it is just too steep and the increased rapid is not worth the cost in finish. If I tried to order another and the factory would not accomodate my ball screw request I would get a standard VF and upgrade the spindle and tool changer options. Other than that it runs great and runs extremely quiet with the direct drive spindle. The tool changer is remarkably fast as well. I would HIGHLY recommend getting the floppy drive option. They are no longer shipping these with floppy drives and what you get instead is a USB port in its place. You can also DNC from the USB port which means the ability to DNC 500meg files at lightning speed. No more serial DNC :-). The high pitch ball screws have been a major problem with the SS series machines and they have yet to completely solve the issues. Hope this helps, Bob

I upgraded from X to X2 on the original computer but this is for a fresh install of X2 on a brand new computer. My old computer has two folders on the C drive, mcamx and mcamx2. I'm assuming I will pull all files from the mcamx2 directory, correct? The only things I had done on the other computer is create machine defs, tailor settings, create tool librarys, and set the operation defaults. I didn't install any third party add-ins. I'm still not quite sure what a chook is or does. Do I still need to copy them over? Thanks, Bob

I tried this and I wrote over the files in the new installation. The next time I opened MCAM it gave me a laundry list of errors. Is there any particular reason it did this? Thanks, Bob

I just installed Mastercam X2 on a new computer and I need to know which files to copy from the old computer to get all of the settings up to speed. (default tools, machine def., operation defaults, etc...). Thanks, Bob

When I do a job where I will be making several parts using the same tool I typically set up a library for the job. The problem is that tools seem to randomly disappear from these libraries. Any idea what is going on? The problem is that when I drag all of the tools in the tool manager it renumbers them if one is missing. So if I have 14 tools and #5 disappears, tools 6-14 will be numbered incorrectly compared to what is in the machine.

I'm using X2 Mill Level 3.

I am trying to post a simple program that faces, chamfers, and deburrs some holes but Mcam is trying to post the facing as a seperate program from the rest. Basically it tries to post twice with the facing first and the deburring second. How do I get this to post the whole program? Thanks, Bob

I am drilling a ton of holes in copper (110) and I am deburring them with a chamfer mill. These holes are .125" in diameter and even the chamfer mill leaves a bit of a crater. Is there a better way that will leave a nice smooth corner? Currently I am taking off .005" in one pass with a chamfer toolpath. Thanks, Bob

Is there a rule of thumb for peck drilling? I machine a lot of 6061 T6 aluminum and I'm not sure what the optimum peck values should be for the first and subsequent pecks (~1/8" drill). Any ideas? Thanks, Bob

I am on the programming learning curve and I am familiar with the very basics of what macros and M functions can do. Are there any good books out there that cover macro programming at the beginners level? I can see the potential of this sort of thing and I would like to learn more about it. Thanks, Bob

Okay, I think I am getting the hang of this by trial and error :-) Here is my modified peof: peof$ #End of file for non-zero tool pretract comment$ #Remove pound character to output first tool with staged tools #if stagetool = one, pbld, n, *first_tool, e #n$, "M5", e$ n$, "G53 G90 G0 X-24. Y0. (LOAD UNLOAD POSITION)", e$ n$, "M30", e$ mergesub$ clearsub$ mergeaux$ clearaux$ "%", e$

Here is my peof code: peof$ #End of file for non-zero tool #pretract comment$ #Remove pound character to output first tool with staged tools #if stagetool = one, pbld, n, *first_tool, e n$, "M5", e$ n$, "G53 G90 G0 Z0. X-24. Y0. M9 (LOAD UNLOAD POSITION)", e$ n$, "M30", e$ mergesub$ clearsub$ mergeaux$ clearaux$ "%", e$ Is there a good reason why the pretract would be turned off? Thanks, Bob

Okay, so the Haas will not accept multipls Mcodes in one line of code so I added the following: pbld, n$, scoolant, e$ This adds the M9 after each M5 throughout the program except at the end. How would I go about altering the coolant at the end of the program when the machine goes to the home position? Thanks for all the help. Bob