I have a solid 4 axis post that I have been using for years. I am planning on adding a 5th axis to one of my horizontal mills and was wondering if I could convert the post to output 5 axis movements, or will I need to get another post from my reseller? I am trying to avoid that for right now because I have tweaked my post a lot since I originally got it from them and I don't want to have to tweak another new post due to time constraints. I would just be using it for 3+2 outputs at the beginning and maybe after I get through these parts I can start with a new post, if its needed. Thanks

Thanks for the replies guys. What I am trying to do is hold the part in the center of the 8x11 area so I can mill all the features into the face at several angles and then mill a bunch of pockets and holes around the outside of the part, some at weird angles. I am trying to take the part from a 6-8 setup job down to a 2 setup job. We have a contract on these parts where we have to deliver 30 parts a month for a year. There is a 2nd part that is the same, but different that I am going to run in the same setup. I am basically just using the 5th axis to do some 3+2 milling, no true 5 axis moves. Thanks

I am trying to get a sense of the rigidity when mounting a large piece of material in a Raptor clamp. I thinking about retrofitting a 5th axis onto my horizontal mill to hold a part and let me eliminate a few operations. I would be holding onto a 11x8.5x3" piece of aluminum and was going to try to hold it with a RWP-006 clamp. Do any of you guys with experience with the Raptors have any thoughts on this? Maybe a picture of some larger parts mounted with them and opinions on the rigidity of the setup? Thanks David

If you want it to know where to start roughing, use stock. The MC Lathe is not that hard, but I think most people are "Mill People" and just don't know what is going on. When I started programming the lathe, I was a mill guy that got thrown in because our lathe guy quit. I had to go to my reseller and get a crash course on the lathe and then start trying to program with it. Our "Lathe Guy" didn't use MC, and instead used some antiquated software from he 80's that we had to have a special super old computer to run. After I got a decent post and a little trial and error, I was programming some pretty cool lathe parts. Its pretty easy to use, but you can't program it like the mill. Oh, and just post the roughing long hand, not canned. So, to bore the hole. Assign stock so the software knows what its tying to cut. Drill the hole. Run an end mill into the hole to make it flat bottom leaving .001-.002 for cleanup. Draw the ID and back of the hole. Break the line at the back of the hole at the drill size. Chain the ID and back of the hole down to the drill size for roughing. Use the stock for the stock. Make sure you leave some stock in X & Z for cleanup. Chain the finish pass to the center.

I expect it to now be so easy a 5 year old can do it. Maybe by X11, an unborn fetus could do it.

All 3 programmers here have them. No issues

Click on the arc filter / tolerance tab and try .002 tolerance, a 3:1 ratio and then check create arcs in XY min radius .005 and max radius 100.0 See if that helps.

Is there a way to force MC to have more clearance on the back feed part of the tool paths? Sometimes when I am clearing material the tool will hit the material on the back feed portion of the tool path. For example, if I am cutting steel at say 120 IPM feed rate, but with 250 IPM on the back feed, sometimes the crappier machines in the shop will hit on the back feed. I didn't know if there was a parameter or setting when I could tell MC how much space to put between the cut path and the back feed path. Thanks

In my post for my horizontal, the drill cycles seem to not use the initial heights properly. Here is an example of the code I am getting: T10 ( 3/8 2FL HSS CHAMFERMILL ) M6 T12 M8 G0 G90 G54.1P2 X.99 Y-.5 B0. S10000 M3 G43 H10 Z12. G98 G81 X.99 Y-.5 Z6.3325 R6.52 F20. Y-1.75 Y-3. G94 G80 G0 Z12. G54.1P1 X3.195 Y-.75 B0. Z6. G98 G81 X3.195 Y-.75 Z-.1075 R.025 F20. Y-2.75 G94 G80 G0 Z6. G54.1P3 X-.37 Y-.632 B0. G98 G81 X-.37 Y-.632 Z-.59 R-.47 F20. Y-2.868 G94 G80 G0 X-1. Y-1.313 G98 G81 X-1. Y-1.313 Z-.095 R.025 F20. Y-2.188 G94 G80 G0 X-.37 Y-1.112 G98 G81 X-.37 Y-1.112 Z-.67 R-.47 F20. Y-2.388 G94 G80 G0 Z6. M9 G0 G30 G91 Z0 M19 G90 M01 My initial height is set at .25 incremental for the first drill cycle, and then at .25 absolute for the remaining drill cycles. When it goes from the P2 side to the P1 side it should rapid down to the initial height of .25 before it starts drilling. When I back plot this in Mastercam, it shows it happening as I would like, but in the machine it doesn't do that. Instead after it drills the hole, it lifts up to the 6" and moves to the next hole. When I have a bunch of holes on a side of a part its a lot of excessive rapid movements. Its getting the 6" from the reference points I have set in the home/ref. points page to move the tool out of the way when the machine indexes. Does anyone have suggestions about where I should look? Thanks David

I have used Mastercam for years, but I have never done any surface paths. Is there a tutorial on how they work and how to use them? Thanks David

Tonight I made a program for one of the guys. I saved it on to the server like all my other programs, posted the programs for the machine, jaws, and setupsheets. Then later in the night I went in to open the file and it was a part I worked on last week! Totally different part, different customer, different everything. The MCX file name is the file I made tonight, but the part that came up was the part from last week. I didn't open the file that came up since last Thursday. Also, I have been having some other issues. Sometimes I will be working on a file. I can hit save, Mastercam will hang for a second, tell me Access denied, and then the file will go blank. Whatever file I was working on will then be gone. I don't know what is going on with this stupid computer. Thanks

I can tell you I get really long tool life, faster cycle times and more parts out the door using the dynamic milling. We can buy a new, faster, more accurate machine with the money we make off of it if we wear this one out.

I would start in the 250 sfm range and .001-.002 chipload and then run one at HEM factor of about 1.1 and see how it goes. If it cuts good, re-post it sped up on the HEM factor until you are comfortable with the performance and what your machine can do. Don't change the FPT or SFM after you start changing the HEM factor. The feed rates and RPM's it gives you vary based on a lot of factors. If you decide to change the chip load or base SFM you will need to slow the HEM factor down and make sure it works. I don't remember any 17-4 job part numbers off the top of my head so I can't look back at what I used, but really its more based on what your machine can do. I notice some machines run it faster than others, even the same machine model. I run most of my steel dry.

I mean grant it, we don't run steel that much. It might go a month or two between jobs, but I can say that it has done at least 10 boxes of inserts worth of work. Also, the cycle times are a lot faster than back when we would rough with inserted cutters. Then you can rough and finish with the same tool and save a tool change. Its really amazing. One slight issue we have with it sometimes is that it makes long sliver chips which tend to pile up if the operator doesn't keep the machine cleaned out. Our Iscar rep said that they were working on a chip splitter chatter free endmill to help with that problem.

They only list their newer tools, but you can use it with almost any tool, just choose one that's similar to what you will actually use. As far as the feed factor goes, that is based more on what your machinery will actually do and the limits you place in the machine definition. HEM is really more for steels than aluminum. When you choose the Iscar HEM option, the maximum step over is 10%. That is nothing for aluminum, but its designed for steels where you want to limit the time in cut to not overheat the tool and take faster feed cuts. The relation between RPM and chip load is all based off calculations that Iscar provided to CNC when they designed the toolpath. Iscar spent many years tuning these ratios for maximum production and tool life. I have a 1/2" 5 flute chatterfree endmill that I have been using for almost 3 years. It has done so many jobs that I have lost track. Its done jobs in 303, 304, 1018, and some 17-4. I recently took it out of service, but not because of wear, but because some idiot threw it on the table against another tool and put a chip in a flute. The coating is not even worn on the flutes and if it was clean, you would think it was new or hardly used. HEM is really an amazing setup once you take a little bit of time and figure out what your machine can do. Its really easy on the machinery too. There are really no high load cuts with it, and engagement into and out of the cut is always smooth.

I got the post from my reseller. I don't know what it was originally based on, but it had a lock on 1st WCS switch and that seems to have fixed it. Thanks!

I would like to use 1 offset in my program, but every time I rotate the toolpath or if I rotate the planes and program different operations at different angles, my post generates a new offset. I would like to have just 1 offset and only have it rotate the plane(with the A axis). It still rotates the 4th axis, but it generates another offset for every move. Is there a switch to turn that part off? Thanks

I want to say that there is one on the FTP. You can just tailor it to your needs. It already has the serialization and the number programs.

There is this way... Load X5, choose a 2D Highspeed Dynamic mill toolpath. Select an Iscar HEM tool out of the Iscar HEM tool catalog, click the HEM button, slide slider over to the max your machine can handle and post.

Damn it gcode beat me to it!

I don't know what kind of machine this is on, but most Fanuc machines will not turn an offset on during a radius move. It has to be a linear move. Also, if your compensation type is set to Control, it expects the control to have 1/2 the diameter in its offset. It would need to be set to Computer to have no diameter comp in the posted code.

I'm using a custom post from my reseller. Also, it seems that the post is actually posting what is backplotting. When it goes haywire, the backplot is wrong too, and the post seems to follow that.

When I open a file and use large icons, it looks like this. The ones with a preview icon are MCX files and the ones with the big X5 are MCX-5 files

My preview works, but I actually have to click on a file to preview it.

I am programming a part for my horizontal mill. I have to program it retract so I can index the B axis. I use clearance and reference points for this. For some reason sometimes my X5 just stops using these. Also any "point toolpaths" stop being used. They are still in the operation menus and in the operations manager, but when I post I can do a file compare changing nothing, and all the reference points and point toolpaths will not post out. I have to restart my computer and regenerate the toolpaths and then all is fine again. It seems to happen with no rhyme or reason and whenever it feels like it. I have to be really careful when I repost a program because instead of just a few lines of code being different, the whole program is changed. I don't know if its a post issue, X5 issue, or Windows issue. It seems that in X5, when it happens and I backplot the toolpaths, they are messed up in backplot. After I restart and regenerate, they are correct in backplot. Any suggestions? Thanks David