Yes, we create a A0 C180 plane. I'll give your trick a shot. Thanks, Millman.

Thank you for the explanation and examples. Very cool examples by the way. And I'm sorry I'm not doing a good job of explaining this. But put simply, looking at the machine pictured below, what if you simply want to drill a hole with the A0 (as shown in picture) and the C180. I am finding there is no way to do this without some kind of hand editing the code because MasterCam will Always post A0 C0.

So I just re-installed the generic 5th axis post (5 - AXIS TABLE - HEAD VERTICAL) and it indeed does the same thing. I rotated my plane about -Z- 45 degrees from my top view and posted the path. Yet it posted out C0 B0, and not C45 B0. :0001(T) (DATE=DD-MM-YY - 16-10-17 TIME=HH:MM - 11:09) (MCX FILE - T) (NC FILE - C:\USERS\RAY1628\DOCUMENTS\MY MCAM2017\MILL\NC\T.NC) (MATERIAL - ALUMINUM INCH - 2024) (T7|13 CENTER DRILL |H7) N100 G20 N102 G0 G17 G40 G80 G90 G94 G98 N104 G0 G28 G91 Z0. N106 G0 G28 X0. Y0. (13 CENTER DRILL |TOOL - 7|DIA. OFF. - 7|LEN. - 7|TOOL DIA. - .25) N108 M8 N110 T7 M6 N112 G0 G54 G90 X1.8434 Y1.5539 C0. B0. S1000 M3 N114 G43 H7 Z2. N116 G81 G98 Z-.5 R.1 F5. N118 G80 N120 M9 N122 M5 N124 G0 G28 G91 Z0. N126 G0 G28 X0. Y0. N128 G28 N130 M30

It was purchased maybe 10 years ago, But I'll ask Jeff to take a look at it. We actually asked a bunch of years back and there was no fix, which is why I figured I'd bring it up again. But it sounds like none of you have an issue with this. Thanks for the comments.

The post is a purchased post from an authorized reseller. But to be honest, I don't currently have the generic 5th axis post, but I believe that, that on always did the same thing. Actually, I'm not even sure if they supply generic 5 axis posts anymore. I think they may have stopped that. I wonder if it could be because our 5th axis post is built to have the A0 perpendicular to the spindle.

We'll we use a rotation macro here, but when the Part is at A0 B0, it doesn't spit out the macro. This phenomenon happens with all 5 axis posts that I've used. And doing a force tool change will then reset it and spit out a A0 B0, but what if I want to do A0 B45? And because we are always putting in parts that are too big for our machines we find ourselves running out of Y- travel and needing to force the B to cut in the Y+ So actually that might be a better example. Let say you needed to cut the part at A0 B180. How would you do that without hand editing anything?

I'm pretty sure this has been discussed before, but I couldn't find the topic. Is there a way to put the B axis exactly where I wand when the A axis is perpendicular to the spindle. For example, if I program a A0 B0 operation, it goes to A0B0, but if I have a previous OP that was at A20 B20, then I do my A0 B0 operation, the code will spit out A0 B20. Here is a test program I just made. The 3rd operation is a copy of the 1st op. Notice they are at entirely different B rotations. N1 T80050150 M6 (FTN 80050150 - .500 CRIT FIN ) ( TEST DRILL ONE ) S4500 M3 G00 G54 G90 A-3. C-3. B0. A0. <---------------- FIRST OP X-4.4822 Y2.3411 G43 H#999 D#999 Z8. M8 G83 G98 Z-.25 R.1 Q.1 F10. G80 ( TEST CUT 2 ) G65 P9998 E1 B25. A20. <---------------- SECOND OP X6.5547 Y6.4304 Z.1 G1 Z-.5 G41 X6.5536 Y6.3804 Y6.3794 G3 X6.5675 Y6.3448 I.05 G1 X10.8678 Y1.8593 G3 X10.9029 Y1.844 I.0361 J.0346 G1 G40 X10.9529 Y1.8429 Z-.4 G0 Z8. ( TEST DRILL ONE ) G65 P9998 E1 B25. A0. <---------------- THIRD OP X-3.0729 Y4.0161 G83 G98 Z-.25 R.1 Q.1 F10. G80 M98 P8888 M30 %

Thank you. I'll start looking into it.

I have a question about Nethooks. First, let me state, I have zero experience with nethooks but I can learn. What we'd like to do is use some type of nethook to create a drilling operation and assigned a tool # to it from the tool list. The tool list will have 100's if not 1000's of tools in it, so to do this manually would take a lot of time. We'd need an operation created for each tool. The point of this is so that we can post it out and grab a bunch of data from each tool to be used elsewhere. I hope that all makes sense. So, I'm not looking for anyone to do the work, but maybe you can let me know if nethooks would be the best way to accomplish this.

I'll kick it to our welding engineer first. See what he thinks. THanks for the help.

IDK. The associated note calls for a press fit per B4.1 class FN2. So I wouldn't think it's welded. EDIT: The only this I can find is welded flush, and I think the M might mean machined.

Does anyone know what this symbol is? It's pointing at a press fit plug. I can't seem to find it anywhere.

I convinced the building manager to start a bi-monthly PM to completely clean out the coolant tank. So if it's trace oils, or the "mud" created from reaming the .016 holes, It should keep it gone.

I wish I can say for sure. But after cleaning out the coolant tank, the staining went away, We will see if it stays gone.

I've had similar issues. I hope they get it fixed. It's annoying.

Thanks for the offer, but I actually enjoy working on our posts. It helps keep me sane. But I do appreciate it and I'll definitely keep you in mind if/when I come across any road blocks.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm starting to put together a "map" of all our machines and controls, and hopefully, I can get management to give me an idea of what machines might be going away. Thanks again.

I was looking for some ideas on how to simplify and/or reduce the number of posts we have. Right now we have about 40 different post processors. We built most of them (Thanks to the fine folks here on EMC), but 2 or 3 were purchased. Now was have a bunch more machines trickling in and rather than keep adding a post for every machine I was looking for some ideas to maybe set up prompts or something else. This is sort of a side project, not too important. Just putting out some feelers.

And if that doesn't work I'm going with a Makino Voodoo doll and pin it until it does what I want. We are currently draining and cleaning out the coolant reservoir. I'll let you guys know if that fixes it.

This was a coupon in a DI water test. The unstained areas are where the part was sitting on wooden blocks. But the DI staining was not a surprise. Just trying to create baselines to find some answers. We tested Coolant, DI, RO, Rust inhibitor, Alcohol, Way oil, Spindle oil, Alkaline wash, Coolant slurry, and some combinations of.

We just recently purchased Axiset for our Makino Horizontals and our D500's. I highly recommend it. Before this, we had created our own program to set center. I don't think Axiset is more accurate than ours, but it definitely has more options and whistle and bells. All for a reasonable price.

Thanks, everyone. I've been leaning towards a material issue as well. I can't explain it any other way. The coolant seems like a logical culprit, but Then there would be staining on every part. It's on a brand new (1 year old) Makino NX-51, So it doesn't noticeably leak oil.

I have asked my reseller to quote the Anti-staining addon for MasterCam, but I hear it's still pretty buggy.

Well, the part runs for about 12 hours. But other than that, the part NEVER sits in the machine with coolant on it. We have a strict cleaning process after each machining OPs. It's fluctuated over time, but right now we do a 50/50 - Alcohol / DI water bath, then blow dry to remove all excess coolant. I have experimented with 100% DI, and that will stain, see coupon below, but staining can be seen while the parts are running. before the bath. Plus I can't get the parts to stain with 50/50 DI and Alcohol. Also, no tapping fluid, just coolant. And yes we performed a PH test and it is similar to untouched coolant. 8.6 in the machine, and 9.0 untouched. We also did a TDS check and that reads 540ppm, whereas untouched=260ppm.

@Jparis, I thought maybe the same thing. We may have to look into that @DavidB, We only run this family of parts in the machine. Plus I've done countless tests on what stains this part and I can't get the coolant to stain. DI water will stain it, but we don't use DI. We do run thousands of .016 reamed holes in these part, and it creates a muddy mess in the coolant. I was thinking that maybe that is getting into the thru spindle and blasting the part. Like sand blasting it. But then I ask, why isn't it happening all the time?