Ron, I just emailed you the live center I have. Tim

Ron, I created a model of a Royal Products #10104. I modeled it up with all the internal components for when we rebuild them. Would that help and what format would you like? I have it modeled in Solidworks 2009. I could ZIP the folder and email it to you.

Joel, I do this using the Mpsubrep post. Here is a Link to a topic about using this post with a Fadal. You program your operations, then you enter the number of times you want it to repeat in the Miscellaneous Integers page. Hope this helps.

Maybe try a Parallel Finish with a larger stepover. Set the Cutting Angle to "0" on the first op, then copy the op and set angle to "45" for a diamond knurl or "90" to get a criss-cross. This would be using an engraving cutter.

Thanks for the link. The steel certifies to SAE/AISI standards, and other companies that have pulled material from this lot have not had problems.

B. Rad, Thanks again for the reference. They have some pretty good info on there. I guess I am looking for something that says: "The SAE Specification for D2 tool steel is....." Then there is no denying.

B. Rad, It was purchased from Cincinnati Tool Steel. Good thinking on McMaster, but no chemical compositions online. I'll have to check the book tomorrow.

Tony, Thanks. It's not one of the local guys. It's a company that my customer requires we use. I found on SAE's website that they offer a list of all chemical specs for $63. Trying to find a freebie. Both the certs from the supplier and the chemical analysis shows that it is D2. It might not be the purest D2, but it's D2. So they steel company fulfiled it's responsibility. Problem is that the parts came out soft after the first run in the furnace. They say all other parts that were D2 came out fine, and only ours were soft. So they say ours is not D2. I wish I could just pull the job, but then my customer won't accept it. Stuck until I can prove the heat treater is wrong.

I am trying to find the SAE Chemical Composition tolerances for D2. I have been able to find Typical compositions on various suppliers website, but I need to see the actual SAE numbers. I have a Heat treater who says my matl is bad and he sent it out for analysis. Everything I see came back in spec (some at the low end) and he still says it's no good. I need something to prove them wrong. Does anybody have a sheet that lists the tolerances? TIA

Josh, Try these SGS Power Carb I first tried YG-1 and then I got a hold of these. They ran 5 times as fast (feed) and lasted twice as long as the YG-1. Along with the correct coating, you need a good grade of carbide.

Jay, I've shaped on a Haas before. Basically make a tool that is the width of your keyway with a front and bottom rake. Then lock the spindle and shape the keyway by moving the tool up and down for the full length of the keyway but step in (on either the X or Y) on the downstrokes only. Only taking a few thousandths at a time. You can create the path in MC by creating points in increments of .003"-.005" (in X or Y depending on config) then using drill toolpaths.

SGS S-Carb At that RPM, you may not be able to run @ 200IPM, but you can definitely get deeper on teh DOC with this tool. We cut at .75" DOC @ 12000RPM @ 185 IPM

Maybe your machine is newer than mine. We have CB1, CB2, CB3 & CB4 all in line at the loaction I stated. How old is your machine?

It is in the electrical cabinet. The area with those CB switches is just above the vector drive enclosure on the right side. There are 3 (or 4 if you have TSC) switches on a gold box. They have white handles. Hope that helps.

SGS Power Carb I've used these before in 4140 @ 55 Rc. Beat the snot out of YG-1 X-Power. Ran 4x as fast and the cutter lasted twice as long.

+1 on the CNC Gcoder. The support is awesome, too.

I have the VF3SS with the probe and I contacted Renishaw about it's capabilities. It has the abilityto do a lot of inspection routines (hole locations, hole sizes, etc). Mostly simpler stuff. It does have the capability to check a hole size and if it sees that it is small it can open the wear offset and recut the hole (if you are using an endmill). At Renishaw here in Hoffman Estates they offer training in their facility with Haas Machines(pretty cheap too). If you are looking for anything beyond that I'd look into Verisurf.

Try these guys out North American Tool

I work at Tula Machine . My family owns it. Batavia is a nice place. My wife and I have been looking to move down here, to either St. Charles, Geneva or Batavia. My friend in Genoa has been trying to sell his house for 2 years now with barely any traffic. Our Jorgenson rep is from Batavia and always speaks highly of the schools. Schools are the reason I want out of Elgin. My 3 yr okd daughter will go to private school before I send her anywhere in Elgin.

I was trying to see if they were jobbing anything out. Always looking for more customers! It's a really nice place you guys have there. Stay positive. We feel that our bottom happened a few months ago. Nothing great right now, just a heck of a lot better than it was.

That's cool. I live in Elgin. A good friend of mine lives in Genoa, too. Spent some time at a few of the bars out there. I actually stopped by Weiler a few months ago. Are you guys staying busy?

Scott, I looked up some of the standard lathe tools (drills) and they are drawn vertical in both quadrants (full tool). I called up a drilling operation and opened the tool. When I hit "Edit Tool" and "Draw Tool", it shows the tool horizontal with the holder. The drill and the holder are drawn full round, though. They do have the seperate colors for the holder and the drill. I would try it with color 55 & 116, drawing full round in the X+Y+ & the X+Y- Quadrants. HTH

Heavy, I thought if you got the right cutter, that you should be able to move it in on the depth to create the correct tooth size. Moving it up and down would create an incorrect form at the bottom of the tooth, I would think. We looked into milling a bevel one time. Our main gear cutting vendor (who does not cut bevels in house), told us to send it out. They had tried doing it and stopped trying. I guess with bevels you need a special machine to inspect the gears. With the standard involute splines you can check over wires, but you can't do that with bevels. Bevels are a specialty. There are only 2 or 3 Gear cutters in the Chicago area that can cut bevels (that I know of). Next time, don't buy the cutter either. Rent it from these guys: Ash Gear

I wouldn't try it on a CNC, it won't pick it up. We chase the threads in a manual lathe if we ever need to do something like that.

Mike, Op#5 was just to show that the full radius grooving tool was acting correctly vs. the square grooving tool. I was not using OP#5 in the actual program. Tim