We are looking at purchasing another 1 or 2 devices for sending and recieving programs wirelessly. We also on occasion drip feed some programs into our older machines because of size. The older one we have is a Moxa Nport W2150 and it seems to work ok and we can still get the same one.The new ones are running around $300 a piece. Was wondering what other people use and are there better ones at possibly better prices. Kind of leery of buy something cheap and having the machine crash because we bought something cheap. Machines are all Haas ( yeah I know ) ranging form early 90's to 2012. Cimco software. Thanks Brian

Well doing 864 1/4-20 holes. Made a fixture plate with clearance holes under the 1/4-20 holes so I could use a gun tap and bolt part down with existing holes. 15 SFM=229 RPM's. So i went with 200 and feed of ten. No broken taps but about 2 hours of tapping. Only 6 parts on a job that will probably not repeat so I can live with it. But it is painful to watch a machine go that slow.

Thanks guys.The coolant is pretty new. I am going to juice it up a little more. Not sure which coolant we are using. I am not having problems with any of the larger taps. Going to go with the bright finish taps in the aluminum. Will check out the max spindle and feed rates for machine. Raise up the R plane sounds good too. May go to light oil when tapping. Just hate to stand there with a brush and oil for all those holes. All good suggestions. Really appreciate the suggestions. Can't get online at work so I do this on my own time that's why a slow response. As for the tapping arm we have a couple of guys who do a lot of hand tapping so it would be of tremendous benefit to them. A huge time saver. The plates I am doing are 29.25 x 32.61 with a whole bunch of milling and other holes so it could be tapped offline no problem. Don't think I can fit them in a Rbodrill. At 15 SFM I think you could maybe tap faster with the arm. Good memory Chris it was Hung. We never tapped on the machines there and never had broken tap issues that I remember. Well on to my next tapping adventure. 30 x 30 plate and 864 1/4-20 holes.

Lately we been snapping more than a few taps. Wondering what people use for taps? Feeds and speeds? Coolant or tapping fluid? Roll or cut? Mostly in Aluminum but we also do steels and stainless.Doing some large Aluminum plates. M3,M3.5, M4, M6, and M8 holes. Larger taps no problem. Started with problems on the M4 holes. Got that straightened out and now M3 taps are going like crazy. Tried roll and cut. Gun and high spiral. Also drilled hole to high side at .1015 instead of .0984. Starting to really tick me off. Oh yeah rigid tapping in Haas VF-6 ( always seem to get stuck on the large machine ). Set for double retract speed then went to normal retract and broke another tap on 3rd plate. :wallbash: Other people are having some problems. Trying to get the owner to but a tapping arm to tap out side the machine. There are over a 120 different tapped holes in each plate. Starting them in the machine and finishing by hand could take a while.

Books are very good also. All I ever used. That a curious mind.

Make some tall jaws to get up beyond 1/2 way. Drill holes for clearance for 1/2-13 threaded rod in center of jaws to line up with part. Load part tighten vise run threaded rod through center tighten with nuts front and rear. Should give you a nice rigid set up. It also does not look as though you need a lot of depth. Run smaller tools faster. Drill with maybe a 33/64 drill then go at it with a 1/2 endmill. The larger the endmill the more surface contact and the more it will vibrate. Carbide coated. Something like Garr VRX, MA Ford Tuffcut, SGS Zcarb etc. Bigger is not always better especially on smaller taper lighter machines.

Ram Saver? On occasion when a file is acting quirky I run Ram Saver and it seems to help.

This has happened to me twice now. Once with a forced tool change. The second time with multiple tools having same tool number and saying no to forced tool change. I get a post error. Then after that any thing I try to do gives me a post error. I found out after much head banging that some how the file I post to becomes corrupt.It was my temp file T that I use for all quick posts. Always use the same file and overwrite that way I don't end up with lots of no name files. If I try to post anything using that file I get a post error. If I use a new file name it posts fine, went to T1. It then will not let me delete or rename the file and says its in use by another program. Shut down Mastercam and restarted, rebooted the computer and even tried deleteing directly from the server. No luck. I did a restore to previous version this morning and was able to delte it then. Last time even this did not allow me to delete the corrupt file. Is this something that is known or is it just me. Did a quick search and did not find anything on this. X5 Mill level 1

Hmmm. Wonder if its anyone I know?

Using contour or 2D chamfer? Using contour will use the major diameter of the tool. Using 2D chamfer will take into account the angle and tip diameter.

Tinhman, Thanks. Sometimes I just simply forget to do a search. Think that my question must be original because I thought of it . Actually found the forum post with the information I needed. It was from 2009 and I was actually involved in it and have done it before it seems . Getting old and can't remember all the crap I have done at the different places I have worked. Thanks for the reminder Brian

Sitting here on Saturday goofing around playing some online golf and and thought of something I tried to do a while ago. In the Haas controller you can use an M97 to call a subprogram that is inside your main program after the M30 and denoted by an N#. Is there a way to do this by modifying the post. I played around with it before and it is beyond my basic skills. Is there a way to force subprograms with an N# and to remain inside the main program. Don't have internet at work so this is the only time I can use the forum. Thanks in advance.

Why complicate things. Chain the arc only contour and multi pass. Done. Might have to play with the number of passes a little but simple and fast.

Waste of time. Turn on setting 36. Go to the line you want to start from and hit the button. Just be careful cause it will actually come down a line or 2 before then move into position and go to the Z depth. Use it all the time works flawlessly.

You can also move or copy geometry to different levels and name them. That way say your first tool path group uses geometry on level 1, 2 on 2 and so on. We use only one Mastercam file for each part.

1-Haas mini ( another coming on Monday ) 2-Haas VF2SS 1-Haas VF5ss 1-Hass VF6 2- Supermax VMC's 1-Haas VF3 converted to a laser machine 2-5c and 1-210 indexers. 5 axis trunion. About 8 various CNC lathes, 3 wire EDM's. The assorted manual stuff. Mastercam 1 Mill level 3 w/solids 3 Mill level 1 1 Wire 1 Lathe 4 seats of Solidworks May not be all top of the line stuff but we are making money.

I apologize for the first post. If it could be deleted that would be great. The boss does not let us connect to the internet and when I used his computer it locked up. It does not seem as if the content was posted although the topic got through. We have a job in house and the material is Zirconium. The guy who is setting it up blew up 2 cutters just touching the part. Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks

Mic6 what type of safety line? If I stop in the middle of a program I immediately dial up and off the part so I have never had the need for one. I have had this discussion at my new place with one of the guys. At The start of all of their programs they have the lines: G0G28G91Z0 G0G28G91Y0 G52X0Y0Z0 In my opinion wasted moves especially on a large machine with more than 30 inches of travel in both Z and Y. He stated that if he stops in a part he wants his first line to retract Z. I stated under no circumstance would I ever hit the cycle start button with a tool inside a part after stopping. Also this safety line is only at the start of the program so starting down at tool 3 or something it would be useless.

cormigu that looks like it. Same thing. From your link I see nothing was ever figured out. The origin jumps and you have to re-click the = sign and then it goes back. Were you able to check the associative box. I cannot do that. The box highlights and moves like it is working but will not take a check mark.

Alreadt tried that. Not it. The equal sign for C and T does not jump to a different view. It is not there at all.

Having fits with one file. Everytime I go to isometric view my origin jumps off the part. I have to go to the manager hit the = for C and T planes in the view and it comes back to the part. Only on the ISO view does it do this. Top, front back etc.. it does not happen. Also cannot get the associative box to check. Anyone see this ? Thanks.

I have my post so that it only puts out N# at each tool with an M01 and the N# matches the tool number. Makes it real easy to get to certain tools when jumping around. Just type N# cursor down and there I am.

Thanks guys. Chris I will try the let them rest. Can't send them out for stress as this adds an operation and would need to go through the customer for added process. I never tap down till the final op to hold thickness dimension. I am doing the multiple flips. Had some success going to one way and smaller steps. Last set had 4 under .005 1 at .008 and 2 at .015.

Face milling with one way and depth cuts selected get the following error. "Invalid tool motion detected within depth cuts. Operations require regeneration. Cancel post processing?" Change the type to zigzag or dynamic and posts fine. Uncheck depth cuts and also posts fine. X5 mill level 1.

Having some issues trying to keep decent flatness on 42 inch long plates 3.75 to 6.25 wide. Start at 7/8 thick and finish at .770 for grind. Have tried a variety of different feeds and speeds and cut depths. Using a 2" Shear hog from AB Tools 5000 rpm's @ 50 . ipm w/1.6 wide cut as starting point. These cutters I have found are great for aluminum. This is the second cutter we tried the last one was a Mitsubishi and it was worse. The 3.75 wide plates came out pretty good but the next set at 5.75 bowed about .01 to .020. I am standing the plates up skimming one edge. Down into milled aluminum jaws skim face about .020 deep walk around leaving +.100 on outside. Flip mill off about .060. Parts then go back in skim to clean, finish outside contour, drill some .25 and .406 holes. Flip and mill in to finish thickness. Would like to try and be at least around .005. This is the second go around with these parts. The last time I flipped multiple times and eventually got to .005 to .007. We have probably have about 10 more assemblies to do at 4 to 6 plates per. I would like to not be milling these forever. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks Brian