I have no prob switching to metric. I already run metric for metric parts. Those I work with on the otherhand...

I have this on the part I'm running now. BP says 2:54 and I'm running under 2 hours. A lot of 2+3 with mostly drilling and tapping.

Tying different default holder libraries to different machines would be sweet.

does anyone have any experience with the new Renshaw Sprint system? We are looking to add it to a new lathe we are ordering and it is offered as an option. Thoughts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBOxH_zjtQY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7pIKBjdZl4

Mike, Basically there is standard and oversize. Look up the helicoil you have in hand for the right drill and tap and you should be fine. We have had parts from one customer that wanted the oversize to begin with and the first time we ran them we drilled and tapped to the usual size we use. Needless to say the helicoils didn't go in...

There are different size helicoils for the same thread as well; i.e. there is more than one diameter 1/4-20 helicoil. Make sure you have the right drill and tap for the helicoils you are actually using.

I run this end mill all time; can't wear it out!

Like everything in MC, there is a dozen ways to do anything. In this case, I would probably move everything to the origin and use profile turn, revolve the surfs and trim. Just a thought.

If you would like, send me a sample and I can take a look. What version are you running?

Thad, I have used since v9 as well. I just got in the habit because of the multiaxis paths. Granted I use A LOT less surfs these days compared to then.

Welcome to the forum! What do you mean by "surface one part"? Are you wanting to close your part with surfs or toolpath the surfs you already have? I see already you'll want to flip the surf normals so they all match EDIT > CHANGE NORMAL. Toggle Alt+S until your surfs look like a mesh. If you rotate your part around, you'll see that there is a grayish side to one side of each surf. Use the change normal function until the green sides all point out. This will save you headaches down the road. If you are wanting to put a top and bottom surf on it, there is not a simple answer I can give right now. I'll play with it and see what works best.

We have done turn-n-burn on our Charmilles 4030SI, but it took some hand coding. I keep dreaming of finally getting some upgrades in edm with mastercam.

We use 3d comp on our Hermles, but it is built into the control. It would be sweet to be able to run it on our bigger mills.

Geometry is key when hard milling. There are plenty of off the shelf inserts and solid carbide end mills on the market to do this all day long. What insert holder are you using?

Ron, That is an interesting idea. I'll have to play with this in the next couple of weeks.

Our current tol is .0004 all around profile tol on molds approx 14-18 inch dia and the customer is requesting to cut it in half. We are currently looking to buy an new lathe with the Renshaw Sprint package to help hit this.

what stepover min/max ARE you using?

.0002 all around profile tolerance on molds.

Can't. The shape and tolerance won't allow.

I have a simple lathe finish toolpath with a spline and cannot get it to generate. I only get a Toolpath allocation exceeded warning. The spline is good. Running this on a HP Z420 workstation with: Xeon 3.6Ghz 32 GB RAM Quadro K2000

When I talked to QTE 2 weeks ago, they said the specs needed to be change for X8 on the RAM. From their tests, 16 gb is the minimum and 32gb is strongly recommended.

Guess I should have posted this here: We are looking to replace our old Pneumo T-bed lathe and am having trouble finding find an equivalent. It's got roughly 2 feet of travel in both X & Z axis with face plates around 2 feet in diameter. The kicker is we need to cross centerline with x and hold 2 tenths on contours. This is strictly a finish machine and need to be able to hold 500 lbs. or more. If anyone can point me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Availability of parts. We have sent the spindle out to be evaluated.

We are looking to replace our old Pneumo T-bed lathe and am having trouble finding find an equivalent. It's got roughly 2 feet of travel in both X & Z axis with face plates around 2 feet in diameter. The kicker is we need to cross centerline with x and hold 2 tenths on contours. This is strictly a finish machine and need to be able to hold 500 lbs. or more. If anyone can point me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

we are running a part were we mirrored one set of operations in x and then mirrored both of those in y. In previous versions, this worked fine. In x5mu1 we get messages about not transforming the nci, all the ops don't post out and some have a thousand retracts in them. Went back to x4 and posted out fine. There is something there that has changed, but don't have a clue as to what.