I use it on everything, even things I probably shouldn't. Too bad I can't make it threadmill... This is a good explanation, I think I may even be able to sway the local cultists of the Great Smoothbrained One with it

The last time I was handed modeled threads, they weren't even modeled to the right pitch. And the print says "see CAD model for dimensions not given"

UHMW is not Delrin, they are both excellent at wear resistance and are thus often used interchangeably for that purpose, but they are very different in machining characteristics and price, UHMW is cheaper. UHMW is short for UHMWPE, or Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene, whereas Delrin is Polyoxymethylene. Basically, UHMW is Polyethylene but with longer spaghetti strings, this is what makes it such a pain to machine.

My experience with UHMW, has been to use as sharp of tools as possible, rough with an upcut aluminum endmill, finish with a downcut, drill with 135deg split point HSS or specific aluminum geometry drills, sharpest possible geometry. Chip load should be around .003 to .005 Harvey Tool has a whole line of plastic optimized endmills, they work very good. As for surface footage, UHMW is very sensitive to heat and easily expands with said heat, so the moment your tool starts to smear, it will heat, swell, smear more, and heat more, resulting in a positive feedback loop of destruction, so it is best kept relatively low. If your surface is looking fuzzy, your SFM is too high.

It overwrites and subsumes the contents of any existing levels

Yeah, I do pretty much all of those things, I've got almost all of our milling tools properly defined in a library, call my commonly used toolpaths in several preconfigured variants are in a file I import from, I have a preconfigured template file and folder structure that I extract to a destination, rename, and dump .step and .pdf into. Another thing I've done is exported my levels list to a .csv so I can import that when I get handed someone else's disorganized clownfestival of a file. The sad part is there are several individuals who seem baffled as to why there would be a need for such process and consistency, preferring to do everything the hard way while simultaneously complaining about how had they have to work.

That looks really useful. What other software tools (other than something like vericut, there's no way I can convince management to do that) do you use to make mastercam more effective?

Yep, I keep it all in a zip that I extract to target location. I'm probably going to add setup sheet and fixture folders to my template as well. I nearly facepalmed myself to death when I asked why we weren't putting things in a proper folder structure other than a pile of .mcam files in a "customer name" folder, and the answer was "just use search".

I would add, please, utilize a folder structure that is sensible, self explanatory, and contains all relevant files.

We've done some things like that

Right, but those are neither stock aware, nor dynamic motion.

Man, I wish it could, though. It would allow me to do some truly heretical things with slot saws.

The operation I work for, for the longest time programmed all their corner rounders and chamfermills as endmills with fudge factor offsets, and just avoided threadmills because they were "complicated". Nowadays I have almost all our tools modeled and in the library with sane feeds and speeds, and I and my main co-conspirator are pushing usage of macro functions, undercut tools, etc, to redude parts to single op. I'm waiting for the day I get complained at for fully deburring the part in the machine because "what's the guy going to do while the part runs?", or something even more absurd.

Yeah, it's new as of 2024. 2023 never gave me any such issue. Yes, I spent an hour thinking I had failed to properly save the file, and retrying. Like a dog chasing its tail.

Yeah, I noticed this too. Can't purge the stock post from the control def, it's annoying but not fatal

Haven't we all been handed drawings with blind threads spec'd deeper than the predrill?

Yep, instantly recognizable as to what's going on.

Yeah, pretty much

Worse, he only does that on half the features of a given type

That's when I hit regen, and go for a walk out on the shop floor and talk to one of the senior machinists to see if they have any issues that I can help solve.

Yeah, I prefer the the thread just modeled as a hole at the major diameter of the thread, even modeled at drill size is tolerable, but also annoying.

One of our engineers loves to model the threads in every threaded hole

The sound of chips hitting the window, Fanuc controls, seeing my wear offsets all running on zero, and undercut tools.

I hate manufacturers that make you log in just to get step files

Also, is there a way to install just the standalone tool manager on a computer? Because I could get our toolroom attendant cataloging stuff, at least preliminarily, but he doesn't need a full CAD/CAM package installed.