Change the sweep of your entry move. I believe it defaults at 180 Deg - Try 90 HTH

Shawn, There was an article in this month's Cutting Tool Engineering Magazine about using single flute cutters to mill thin parts. It says that these cutters will not lift the part. The article is on page 22 if you have the magazine. HTH

Change your plane to Rad + Z. This should take care of it.

Roger, I wish I had a secondary verification software to check this to make sure your post is ok, but I think the problem lies in the control. When I worked with live tooling, it was always on the OD, never on the face. Here's what you should check on the machine: On our milling machines we are able to mirror image the program about the X or Y axis. If someone previously setup the parameter this way and I ran an engraving program I would get what you are seeing on the machine. I'm not sure that this is even possible on a lathe, but it's worth looking into. If this doesn't work I would check with your reseller about the post to make sure it is setup correctly. HTH

Roger, When I verified it, it looks right. Have you run this on your machine? Are you concerned because it engraves the word from right to left instead of left to right?

Mike, Are you programming using CSS or RPM? Using CSS will yield better results (tool life & finish). At your RPM you are running about 200 SFM. A little slower than I would run. Look on the back of your Iscar box of inserts and it should give recommended feeds and speeds for different materials. If the SS box is blank, than look it up in the book. I would start it at 400 SFM with .010 feed for rough and leave your finish where it's at. The hex gives you an interrupted cut for the first pass or two, so the larger radius is better for that. HTH

Randy, If you post it on the FTP, I'll take a look at it for you. It more than likely has something to do with your stock definition. Did you know that you can specify an ID on your stock. Just check the box next to ID in your Stock Definition and put the value in there. Then you will not have to go through any unnecessary steps just to get a true representation of your stock.

I don't have a tool profile, but maybe you can create a custom turning tool that is the width of your knurling tool with a 0 Deg. face. Or use a grooving tool and change the width to the size of your knurling tool.

I've never tired anything like that, but I like the idea. I'm going to keep watch to learn also.

David, We've done something like this before. We write 2 programs. The first is a program that only calls a subprogram from within the control. The second is the program that it calls. The first program looks something like: % :1000 (WARMUP PROGRAM) M97 P1100 L10 M30 % The Second % :1100 YOUR CODE GOES HERE M99 % We use for programs that we barfeed on. We don't have a barfeeder so we use a bar puller. I haven't written one of these in a while, but I think it's right. HTH

Without looking at your file, try changing planes and then trim the toolpath. If you are machining in the top plane, you might try trimming while in the front or right side plane. This goofed me up the first time I tried trimming a path.

We do that with some threads. We'll check with a pitch mic then double check with a nut. We use a nut or a customers mating part.

Well eventually you'll build a library of inspection tools, don't worry. You can try wires, they are cheaper than a mic. Try ebay for some tools. Used inspection tools isn't always the best but it will help you get started. The other option is to get a mating part from your customer. Start out large and then gradually reduce the offset until your customers part goes on smoothly.

+1 to John unless you are a hobbyist, invest in thread inspection equipment. Pitch mics are your best bet for OD work. They measure the pitch diameter of the thread. You've already invested in machines and Mastercam, why sel yourself short on the inspection end of it? Search the internet for the Thread sizes. There is also software available to calculate the max, min and pitch dia of any thread.

Reaming, honing, roller burnishing - Those are all great for holding size and surface finish, but if you need to hold any type of concentricity you will have to bore it to straighten it out. Then finish up with any of teh above mentioned methods. If you are machining a small hole that is deep(say .300-.3005 Dia. x 6" dp). You would save your self a lot of headaches by gundrilling it then turning between centers to true up the OD to the ID. I've seen gundrillers hold pretty good sizes on a hole. If needed ream the hole afterwards. We've done this on production runs as well as 1 or 2 pc orders.

Tapping blind holes can be done, but you need to drill them about .375 deeper than the tap has to go. If you can drill deeper than that, than do so. If it is not possible to drill deeper than I would try John's route. Also make sure you are not using hand taps to tap in the machine.

Don't slow your RPM down. You will burn up your cutter. Actually you need to increase your SFM (because it's carbide) and still increase your chipload. Chipload is only half of the equation. You need the correct SFM if you want any tool life. Rob's chipload is good, but start with a higher SFM (300 - 400). Then leave the RPM alone and play with the feed until you get ridd of the chatter. Faster feed usually gets rid of chatter.

I believe our Haas has some extra work offsets in the G100's. I'm not positive, though. Not sure if that is specific to the Haas control or not. Check your manual if you haven't done so already.

We do that with our Haas machines, it works the same. I haven't tried tweaking it in MCam yet. Mcam posts the subprogram in the same file, but it gives it a program # (O####). I change the O to a N, and the subprogram callout from M97 to M98 or vise versa (can't remember which one is a local call).

I saw that he wanted raised letters, I just never tried it before. I was thinking along the same line as you, though. Now you know how to do it both ways, Flycut!

Try using a larger cutter than the .312" End mill to semi finish the contour. I went up to .750 and it got rid of it. Then follow with your smaller end mill to detail the contour.

I posted my fix on the FTP (MMLatch_Tim.mcx). I approached it using an open pocket routine. I created another level called construction lines where I created the boundary for the open pocket. HTH

Luckily my material library was small. It'll take me longer to restore. Only one of mach defs messed up. I fixed that. It lost the post that was attached to the control def. It was an MLPFAN with minor changes. I fixed that. When I first tried posting to the machine, I about had a heart attack, though. I thought everything was gone. But it was only those two things. Already fixed 'em. I will always be Tim teh paranoid backupist from now on!

Hindsight is always 20-20. Did you have to pull anything from your backups?