thanks Aaron, ill order those manuals if they still available and plod on until they in a position to upgrade . the problem i have it id never touched a propper big boy mill ( or any version of mastercam) until a few months ago, im having to learn everything from day 1, oh and theres no help available other than what i can get off the likes of here. i been a machinist since the early 80s but mostly on manual machines, done some cnc (haas tl1 and xyz 2 axis mill) and could look at a drawing and convert directly to gcode in my head. its so strange but this is the first time ive been in a position to do the full range, design it, model it, cam it, machine it, build and test it, repeat it.

id love to get this up to date but its not happening anytime soon. I just have to work with what i have

you mean mastercam uk? I tried that..no hope. im dead to them unless we pay the 10k plus to bring everything up to date. I have found a few useful vids that have helped. everything ive been doing for the last few months is all 3 axis. wouldnt say im getting the hang of it but am able to get the work done one way or another. I wanted to try going in to 5 axis a bit on this one mostly to try learning it a bit. I also have another turbo impeller coming up in a month or so.

ok, ill have to login on the other pc. the mastercam is on a different machine to wht im on now. also im using x8. they cant afford to update it yet.

yes im trying to do a continuous rotary, its doing a combination of y and a bit of rotary. nowhere near 90 deg, more like 0.3deg, ive not looked at the numbers but its a tiny bit of each . the main thing im trying to do is get it to tilt so the cutter is normal to the rotation axis, ive not got it to tilt at all yet how do i do a zip to go? and what do you want to see? another question, im almost certain im trying to use the wrong type of toolpath, is there anywhere with a chart describing what toolpath type to use for which type of cut? or more specifically what all the varioius options do on each cut parameters page etc. so far ive only been able to pick up a few ideas off youtube but there still so much i need to learn.

im trying to do what should be an easy job but im struggling all day with it. i got a square block 47mm square and 65 long. im trying to turn it into a 46mm square with radiused corners 8mm rad i think. trying to do it rotary wise with an8mm ballnose as i dont have a cutter long enough to do it as a 3 axis job. all looks fine on mastercam (although im still very much clueless on it and manage to bulldoze my way through and get it to do a few things now) but on the mill instead of tilting the table and rotating the chuck with the cutter near vertical to the axis, the job axis stays vertical to the cutter, the chuck rotates a few degrees, stops, feeds in y, rotates a bit more, stops etc................ ive tried a few different toolpath types but it always does more or less the same thing on the machine

what sort of timeframe and cost are we looking at for you to come here then. if its for real then i can have a word with the managers and get it organsed

never mind, i can see why its so diffucult now

is that a serious offer?

im trying to mill an impeller. ive never used mastercam until a week ago, im completely new to it, and this is the first job ive done so i really have no clue about anything. i dont have blade expert so am having to make do with what there is. what is zero line error? i set up a taper end mill and tried to do a swarf cut, this was working until yesterday evening then started coming up with zero line error. it works if i change for a straight 3mm ball nose, but gouges through the blades. i deleted the taper mill and made a new tool with the same numbers and seems to be working now, although its not tilting to allow for the 5 deg tool taper. the biggest problem im having is milling the floor. I can sort of bulldoze my way through 3 axis roughing and blade swarfing. but ive never been able to get it even remotely working on the hub floor. there is a toolbox add in for impeller swarf finishing (thats what im sometimes having luck with) and impeller floor finishing, with and without tilt curves. im doing nothing but a complete mess with both. any ideas or better still, anyone local or within traveling distance to milton keynes to help me get this done???? in addition, ive tried asking at least 12 machine shops with 5 axis, all have turned it down. turbocam quoted 15 weeks. the image above is from 2 days ago, i just tried again now, its cutting with the taper mill but it is not compensating for the tool taper.