depths of cuts will depend largely on tool geometry and machine horsepower. we use ingersoll and mitsubishi high feed mills. the ingersoll's can go to .025 doc, the mitsubishi's up to .05 doc. 500-600 SFM , .025 to .03 chip load is a good place to start. air blast for cooling. 70-75% of the tool (effective cutting) diameter stepover, or less if you can't get Mcam to not grow random islands while roughing which will easily banzai the tool in materials like P20.

i program manually and run them as sub programs when doing multiple locations. having full control over parameters is even more important for deep holes (15, 20, 25, 30X dia) when you need to enter the pilot holes slowly then turn the coolant on and ramp the speeds and feeds up to cutting speeds, drill, then rapid back to the start point and slow the speeds and feeds back down to retract out of the holes. i've been tempted to write a post mod or macro, but meh, it's easier to write a few lines of code for drilling manually.

i've been carving molds out of P20 for 1/4 of a century therefore my experience trumps HSMAdvisor. leave. it. alone. , Reko!

I'm more conservative than Reko. For P20 with HSS tools; 50-60 SFM and 1.2% to 1.5% of the drill diameter per rev feed. +1 million on the Titex tools assuming you're talking about through cool. We've got some Titex drills but are very well stocked with Mitsubishi high performance drills. The machines we drill on all have 1000psi through tool cooling. example: high hard P20, 1/2" water lines (.720 drill) 7" deep. No spot drills, no pecks, slow feed in half while intersecting two cross holes = 35 seconds each.

we usually turn to our Emuge sales rep for difficult tapping jobs. http://www.emuge.com/emuge-tapping-tools

We have some Lenovo (IBM) ThinkPad mobile workstations running Solidworks that would certainly run Mastercam very well too. But they're twice the price of the laptop in the link once properly customized. http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/p-series#facet-1=4

tip of the day: make a shortcut for cimco edit and put it in the startup folder in the windows start menu. when you log on to your system cimco will launch and be there waiting for you to use it. example:

i used Cadkey (with Robert White's Fastsurf and Fastsolid add ons) for ages throughout the 1990's and well into the 2000's, and it would trim splines by extending them naturally based on curvature then trimming at intersections. 90% of the time for my work that was suffice. when i needed curvature different than the given result, or the trims were unsuccessful because they didn't intersect, i had to sculpt my own extensions. on the contrary, working with splines in Mastercam is like working in the stone ages. however, it is MasterCAM, not MasterCAD, so we should not be to critical of it i guess.

I'm liking our new Heidenhain more and more. Unlimited number of tools and work offsets available by default. having to pay and arm, leg, and your first born for a tech to come and flip a few bits is beyond highway robbery.

a presetter is on the wish list. it appears a company called hexagon manufacturing bought out tesa, browne and sharpe, and interapid. i didn't know that until today. sheeze. wtf. their web site is a quagmire. (giggity ) for that reason, and what jlw uses, i'm going to order myself a mahr. thanks gentlemen!

what brand of test indicators are you guys using to center probes? i'm new to probing and feel my interapid indicators have kind of a "heavy" tip pressure for the task. brown and sharpe indicators have a light feel to them. any recommendations for other brands of indicators?

that's what solvent (brake cleaner works great) and a toothbrush is for. debate settled. it's not a federal crime to get anti-seize in insert pockets.

that's pretty cool. reminds me of doing thread grinding on a cnc mill. form dress the wheel and do the grinding in the same machine.

exactly. i don't put it between the insert and pocket intentionally, it's to keep the screws from galling and seizing up. but if i get some under the insert while lubing the screw threads, i don't bother to clean it out. i have a co-worker who insists that's a big no-no.

Need a little help settling a debate. I know someone who insists getting a little molykote or other anti-seize between an insert and its pocket instead of just on the screw threads is a bad thing and must be avoided. I've never been that tedious about not getting it under an insert and have never had a problem. Is either of us right or wrong?

ok, now i see the difference. with basic rotation the existing origin will stay with workpiece. with c-axis rotation the existing origin will not stay with the workpiece. thanks for clearing that up!

Am getting my feet wet on a five axis mill here. Aligning workpieces square by rotating the c-axis. Are two ways to set the work offset in the datum table. A basic rotation value and a c-axis datum value. Right now I'm using a c-axis datum value and have so far done some 3+2 work without any problems. Is one method preferred over the other for simultaneous five axis work, and why? TIA.

i'm convinced it was the usb stick i had plugged into the computer the day i started this thread because it has been fine since i removed said stick. it may have been a combination of the stick, and the av software (symantec endpoint protection) perhaps constantly polling it therefore creating some trace "noise" on the usb bus, but i don't have time right now to investigate further.

i'd rather you point the gun in your avatar at my head and pull the trigger. :looks around for daniel: better to not get too far off topic....

it's better today! i think it may have had something to do with an el-cheapo flash drive our sales department gives away plugged into the workstation all day yesterday. but now that i've said something, just watch, it'll start doing it again.... edit: yes, i repeatedly calibrated it. and yes, i'm using the 64bit driver. no, there's no print near it, only a speaker blaring out some Daft Punk right now.

i thought i might be missing a not so obvious or well hidden setting. appears is time for a support request from 3dconnexion. thanks JP.

i've got a few day old 3d connexion spacemouse (navigator, usb) that started drifting today. no matter how many times i calibrate it, although there is no detectable movement on the screen, the device is still drifting and sending a signal and pulling focus away from open dialog boxes. the only way i can stop it to get any work done (because it's impossible to enter, say, toolpath parameters when the window is not focused) is to stop the driver. i wonder if i have a defective device or if there is some sort of solution for this. i'm about ready to send it back and get a refund. anyone care to opine?

when there's no room, turn on ccomp in the air. on the lead in lead out page there are options for plunge after first move and retract before last move. i use those frequently to invoke ccomp when there isn't enough room to do it near the cut.

yes, the brake on a Mazak rotary axis is on by default. for continuous motion it needs to be released with an M46.

a 2d swept should work great for that. what tool dia, step over and chip load (feed per tooth) did you use in your 2d swept?