Heat shrink holders are way better than er(hate). any good holder that is pre balanced will be fine. I like schunk heat shrink, and hydraulic. Any good heat shrink holder will run with less run out. this will payback in tool life, rigiditty, and accuracy.

system tolerance is stock, but i change my surface tolerance to .0002, and curve tolerance to .0001

raid mirror is as fast as a single drive as long as the processor is not load up. you just have a complete identical drive. acts like one drive, just have a backup in case of hard drive failure. Raid striped splits the data across both drives to increase read/write speed. If one goes bad, all data is lost. You can raid mirror and stripe at the same time, but this requires 4 hard drives. I built a raid striped once, It pulled up files a lot faster, but in the end it really doesn't save much time in our application vs spending the extra money on processor speed and memory. You really need external backup anyways.

May the flees of a thousand camels infest their privates.... +1000 The home user who downloads them to play with is one thing, but a business who use it to make profit is another. It definitely is unfair competition, but so is a communist china, I just try to do my best legally and hope everything works out in the end.

Murlin, I would disagree about the pirates issue, they tend to have the latest copy cracked soon after it is released. The people who suffer the most are the legal ones that can't afford to upgrade, so run on a older, but legal version. Me, learning to live with all the x mr1 l3 bugs.

How are you getting your programs in right now? I just use the network (need pcm/cia option on the controller and add a network card) to put in the folder MazatrolMC_Direct Mode Programs. you have to change the tape mode default to look there. load program on the hard drive, hit tape, program #,cycle start.

If it is like renwood. definitly dry, air blast is good if you have it/ need shop vac for sure. keep the chip load on the higher side, spindle is determined on how fast your machine can feed. climb cut. watch for chipping out situations, but otherwise great to cut.

I am sure my dealer can't compete with the bigger dealers in service overall, but I nominate my dealer as the most honest Business man i have ever meet or dealt with. Jim Gamble, camtech

do your self a favor and stay away from fidia unless you like real sloppy machines

I was at the imts in Chicago 4 years ago and had some extra time, so I sat around the software booths just to see a little about the other programs (was not looking to switch, just curious). Over half of the people sitting around were just purchasing agents for the companies-no experience with programming. a good salesmen could make them think they would double production just by switching to their program. Corporate stupidity shoots itself in the foot.

just a note of caution against coolant, one coolant at a place i used to work hurt the polycarbonite. we did not notice at first, but problems latter with cracking and loss of strength made us investigate. we soaked some pieces in pure coolant of 2 different types, one did nothing to it, the other came out totally spider web cracking and brittle. might want to check with your coolant manufacturer about compability.

edit: never mind, I type too slow.

that is so weird that it always works on mine (once i found the pattern), i wonder if it has to do with being on MR1, or windows 2000 pro? o well, sorry didn't help.

I use it for fit screen all the time, that is how i stumbled across it changing the level manager lines, at least on mine. what version are you running?

try doing an ALT F1 while the level manager is open, it switches on and off with mine. x l3 mr1 klm

There are a lot of experts hanging around the board who are willing to help. I have read/searched this forum for years, been a great tool,

matt, most good programers could very easly learn another software. that is if your looking for long term employee, just there is a learning curve at first. klm

if it is a production part with a button pusher, yes the saftey needs to be there. but as others has said above, sometimes you have to be in there while its running. 3d work with small tools, there is almost always a tight tool clearance that needs to checked. deep pockets will always chew on the chips if you can't get in there to blow out. the tool manufacturers put all the liability on the tool shop by not letting us have control when needed, so we have to bypass the saftey. what about cnc knee mills, there is no saftey with a totally open machine. A osha guy came down to one of the local shops( don't know why) but all their machines run with the saftey bypassed, and he told the osha guy that he would have to close the doors(close down the shop) if he had to run with the door saftey in place. they are still running with the doors open.

mr2 and they still don't fix for it yet? I have learned to keep the main level on a unused level if i'm not activley making geometry so its easier to delete, or can be left on all the time so it doesn't create it in the first place. maybe by the x2 mr2 it will be fixed. i won't be able to afford the upgrade untill then anyways, if not x3. i will be on x level 3 mr1 for a while. just trying to learn to live with the bugs.

I used to have this problem at the last place i worked, i don't know if it was the post or v9, although you can remove the line manually from the code, there was a way i got that fixed it from posting out the second feedrate. I can't totally remember though- Is you tool defenition setup with the pitch, ie are you just entering the pitch on the toolpath page, or are correctly setting up the tool first( with pitch, and with the drop down cycle set at tap) klm

also keep everything clean before changing tools. dirt slid in with the tool into a heated shrink fit is bad news. you have to add a lot of heat to get it out, and if you get them too hot their toast. Every so many tool changes i just get the tool out and let it cool down and clean the inside of the toolholder with a pipe cleaner with solvent.

I had used some of the iscar heat shrink at the last place i worked, the 1/8" holders were a bear to let go of the tool, the other sizes wern't too bad. I don't have that problem with the schunk. If your at a very large shop, and change a large number of tools a day, It will eventually pay for itself in time saved.

There is no question that the induction unit is the best way, including in the life of the shrink fit holder, but 15,000+ could buy a lot of replacements. My mapp technique takes around 10 seconds and is under 100 with extra bottles. I don't recomend to the uncoridinated or serve burns will result. I have seen a heat gun specifically designes to heat evenly around the toolholders(can't remember the name).

I would gladly try and help a person trying to learn, but a smart a** looking for a free ride, I think someone hear could give him a perfectly good program, and he could still crash it (assuming some would be stupid enough to let him touch a CNC-except push the little green button after he changes the parts.

I am real careful about what i install on my computers, but it sounds like it wouldn't take much for mastercam to fine tune and debug, and offer it to all its customers. It was a real advantage of v9 over the other software interfaces. you could with minimum movement of the mouse go thru several layers very quickly. But thanks Colin for the info. Kim May (Mr.) CAM Generation.