23 minutes ago, CEMENTHEAD said:

We do parts similar to this from uhmw. OP1 we machine from your view shown complete from solid (holding by .100 ) leaving the window solid from the minimal thickness down, OP2 flip into step soft jaws (using inch torque), finish overall height then add 2 clamps from jaw area and finish window thru.  minimal distortion. less than .002 free state over 4" here.  HTH and GL

That will work also. Just using your vise jaws as a fixture by adding clamps. I just like all my force to be downwards. If your doing the job ok you won't over tighten it. Give it to an operator all bets are off. 6 of one half a dozen of another. Give this job to 6 people and you will get six different ways of doing it.  None of them wrong if the parts come out right.

You would end up something like this. And yes you can bolt it down tight enough. If you have c'bores on the back you can make islands on your fixture to locate the part or add 2 dowel pin holes in the center area to locate. Just have an M0 to add center screws before cutting it free. Very light in the vise. I have used an inch pound torque wrench to do delrin parts. Be surprised how light you can clamp when you are just facing and drilling holes.

Fixture all the way. Op 1 vise. Drill holes in the middle skim top. Op 2 down on fixture hold with screws through holes. Drill corner holes, mill outside contour steps and posts. Add screws through posts cut center out . Done 2 ops.

14 minutes ago, C^Millman said:

Model the radius of the tool into your geometry and then drive the tool from the solid using 3D contour no geometry creation needed at all. Want to keep your original solid natvie then do like I did and copy to a level and add the radius of your tool and done. Want to surface machine that from center out then use Multipass and now you can surface machine parts using 3D contour.

Here is a very quick and down and dirty method hopefully you have 2018.

5th Axis 3D Contour Example.mcam

I had already got job running but I downloaded and tried it. Works like a charm for this application. Can even drive across the top if so desired. Got to remember this one. Thanks

1 hour ago, C^Millman said:

Dumb guy here why not model the radius of the tool and use the pencil toolpath and call it a day?

If you think your dumb what does that make me?

48 minutes ago, jlw™ said:

This is one of those situations where there are about eleventyhundred ways to skin the cat.  I personally would use 3d contour to center of ball if I needed lead in/out for comp or if I only had single surface.  Simply offset geo the radius of the tool and then same path.

That's what I figured. I knew there was more than one way to skin this cat.

It's on things like this that I struggle a little. Never have had any formal training and have never gotten to work with any high skilled programmers. The only formal training I've had is a couple of  tech days for a few hours with JP. I will try each one of the suggestions to further my skills soon as  I get some cycle time going..

Thanks.

So every time i try a simple 3D contour up and angle the tip always drives through the wall. I usually manipulate the geometry little by little till I get the desired result. Kinda frustrating and time consuming. Got to be an easier way but damned if I've been able to figure it out. Just want to be able to drive up and around to give a good finish along the walls after surfacing the angle. Any help would be appreciated. TIA.

Edit: 2018 with only single surface and no multi axis tool paths available.

If you are not using one try a pipe tap reamer before tapping. Will make a huge difference in the torque needed to tap.

1 hour ago, So not a Guru said:

The machine we have been testing this on appears to be the only production Haas machine we have that parameter 57 is 0. Why the heck would the control allow setting 133 to be set to 1, if the option is not available? We're going to try it on one of the other machines. Thanks Brian

Manually set it to a 1 to enable it. Turn setting 7 to off. Estop the machine. Change 0 to a 1 and you should be good to go if your machine is capable. Turning it on and off keeps the spindle from having to orient every cycle.

Edit: It is standard on some models from the Haas web site. Just need to turn it on.

Double check that rigid tapping is enabled by going to parameter 57 and look for rigid tap and be sure there is a 1 there. Curious as to why you are peck tapping every .03? Material? I rigid tap in Haas all the time and never an issue.

18 hours ago, LeoC said:

I think this might have something to do with your having used the Beta program. if I remember correctly, you needed to uninstall the Beta package and also clear the registry of all of the Mastercam installs and then load the new version which is on the download page from CNC Software. Then it will install the "clean" version and then it will recognize that it requires updates. I believe there have been three updates so far.

LeoC

Jamie from CNC Systems helped out. I posted my version number and it is exactly what you thought. Wrong version. I had thought I did download and reinstall once the public release came out but I guess not. My bad.

26 minutes ago, LeoC said:

I think this might have something to do with your having used the Beta program. if I remember correctly, you needed to uninstall the Beta package and also clear the registry of all of the Mastercam installs and then load the new version which is on the download page from CNC Software. Then it will install the "clean" version and then it will recognize that it requires updates. I believe there have been three updates so far.

LeoC

I think I did that but it was longer ago than yesterday so I don't remember.

I will try a clean install as it now is becoming an issue with trying to open newer Solid models from engineering. Before this is was just a curiosity. Now its a PITA.

Thanks

Your alt+z will still work like you want. Just undock you levels manager from the operations manager. Right click the tab for levels and check floating.

If have 2018 installed and have been running it since release. I also ran the public beta releases. Every time I do an update check it tells me no updates available yet I have never installed a single one. If I manually download the updates and try to install it still will not do it. Any one else have this issue?

Try putting X/Y clearance to zero.

On 1/7/2018 at 10:34 AM, Edward court said:

Does anyone know the Mastercam 2018 keyboard shortcut to bring up the color pallet directly (see pic); bypassing the attribute panel?   Reason; my mouse has programmable buttons. I  like these programmed to change colors while drawing. 

X9 was the last version that had a keyboard shortcut I know of.

Thank you

 

Yes you can assign a hot key for it.

Right click tool bar>customize the ribbon>key board shortcut>home

Scroll down to more colors. There are 3 of them one for wireframe, solids and surfaces I think. The second one should be for wireframe. Assign a short cut key and you should be able to change colors on the fly. Worked for me.

Edit: You can also preselect any feature wireframe, solid or surface use your shortcut and choose a new color and it will change it.

Response from Vermont Gauge tech support. Emastercam tech support spot on again.

Quote

Brian,

 

The simple answer is, yes. You may use a 3B gage to inspect a 2B thread. See the attached illustration to better understand why. The same would not be true for a 2B gage used to inspect a 3B part. You will be surrendering a portion of the upper your manufacturing tolerance using the 3B gage. From a cost standpoint, the only gage you really need is the 2B No-Go member. The Go gage for a 1B, 2B or 3B is the same gage. For this reason, many gage manufacturers only mark the Go Plug gages as “Basic” instead of 1B, 2B or 3B.

Wall Chart CYL-THD Final 8-15-11 2.pdf

14 minutes ago, workmantm said:

Quick answer: Yes 

 

long answer: the no go requirements are the same for 3B and 2B. The go member has different tolerances. 3B being a tighter tolerance can be used to buy a 2B requirement. 

46 minutes ago, MIL-TFP-41 said:

Yes, A 3B gage is a tighter tolerance than a 2B.

Specifically the "GO" pitch diameter is the same. The "NO GO" pitch diameter on a 3B gage is smaller than a 2B gage

 

Thanks. That is what I thought seeing as the 3B is the tighter tolerance. Just was not sure if common sense ruled with pitch diameters.

Quick question. Can you use a 3B gauge to check a hole toleranced for 2B? Specifically the no go.

Print calls for 3/4-10 2B we have a 3/4-10 3B gauge.

Some one stated it perfectly in the other tread. When I wrote code by hand it was basically "control" so you could just type in actual numbers for milling. X0 was X0 not X.25 or whatever. Since going to  Mastercam for programming its always been wear for me. I can do the math if I need to figure out something but why in this day and age would you be reading lines of code. I just let the program do all the work. Although it is eye opening how much work it use to be when I do something quick in MDI. I think back to how much code I use to type in by hand and I wonder how I ever stuck with it at all. It was a lot of work.

On 9/28/2017 at 0:13 PM, jlw™ said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one.  Thought I was going crazy.

On 9/28/2017 at 0:55 PM, JParis said:

Who said you weren't 

I was going to say what do you mean going?

1 hour ago, mkd said:

haven't worked microwave parts since the mid 90's. Used to love those .02" pocket floor thicknesses, flat within .002

Never broached on a haas mill but iv'e always  been  paranoid about the servo dithering when "locked"

Yeah. Everything is +/-.001 and true position of .002-.005. Even the clearance holes for screws. Frickin engineers.

Here we do a ton of flanges for microwave applications. Usually we get away with being able to put a .015 radius in the corner but one customer is insisting on .008 max. The parts are over .200 thick so I'm thinking a .016 endmill over 10x diameter might be a small challenge and time consuming. Our Haas VF2 has the spindle orient option so I can program it to orient at any angle. I would like to broach the rectangle to size while forming the corner radii. The size is pretty small .140 X .280 with a +/-.001 tolerance. I would mill the slot to with in .003-.005 with a .047 endmill leaving a .0235 radius in the corner to broach out. Has anyone done anything like this? I have seen a bunch of keyway broaching while researching this but nothing really like the application I am looking at broaching a rectangle. The feature is through and the material is Aluminum.

Thinking about something like this custom made for the size we need. Place to purchase?

I absolutely abhorred 2017. Ran like chit for me. 2018 runs much much smother. Now I just hate it. ( still think the interface is chit)

I would definitely update to 2018.

If you are transforming ops the ghosted ops need to be "unghosted" before renumbering. I have had this problem and was quite frustrated till I figured out what was going on. Otherwise try renaming your NCI file. You don't actually have to rename it just go to rename NCI and click green check mark. This works in many cases.

I believe retract needs to be set to incremental. Then you will post out with a G98 and an R of -1.1