Oh also you could program it to minimum thickness and a a rough pass that might air cut once on short blanks

even if you program from center rotation you should have offsets on each face, so drop your B0 face in .05 to clean up and andjust x+.05 on the right face offset and -.05 on the left face coordiante. if you use G10 lines in the program you can adjust them this time but do not ovewrite the original because next time it will take to much off

Boring head is the way to go, on the toolchange if it is an arm style changer use the large or heavy tool method so it slows the arm down on the toolchange.

Just had to give you a hard time I enjoyed the game though. Have you seen this book that I left the link to it is great

I had to poke a little, what happened to USC! Oh and if anyone is looking for a good 5ax guide www.5axissecrets.wordpress.com

Ok this is fun Neilj you may be good or maybe not I do not know you personaly but lets be decent here! 1992 is not that long ago I started working for my dad in 1981 of course that was just deburr and cleaning the bathrooms but it was a start. I think you are right that there may not be experts in mastercam and as long as I have been using it I would say I probably only know 70% of it to it depends on the kind of work you do as to what part of mastercam you know. I am very lucky to know the people I do I work directly with colin who is very good at mastercam and we bounce things off each other all the time and try new stuff just to see if we can get it to work. I do not know your beef with James I do not know him personaly but I think he is a good guy we have discused things in the past he seems to know what he is doing. Working as a an aplication guy is probably one of the best ways to learn you either do a good job and learn things you don't know quickly or use your resources to find out or you will not have a job in the machine tool industry. ok just had to get that off my chest. Now the first thing like I said before don't even start programming till you have a plan if you go at it one thing at a time and have not thought out the process you may box yourself in a corner. Next program safe and efficient. if you need help just ask I will share anything I know! Documentation! Setup sheets are key you need them to always look the same and have the information in the same place each time If you want some examples I would be happy to share. You are right the skill level in the shops does seem to be going down but remember if you can explain it clearly and in the same format it will help them and in turn you.

Nikken?

From the ground up, you sound a little frustrated but hang in there. Think of the easiest way to process the part, then program it (best to start with a plan you have thought through) Think about your setup documentation standardise as much setup info, cutters and tooling as you can. Just work on one thing at a time so it doesn't seem out of control.

if you have through spindle coolant and coolant collets it will be a big help look at mitsu MZS drill with the spot drill

You can do it I do not know if they have made it easier but in the past you had to create a contour tool path then right click in the op manager and toolpaths plunge then you select the toolpath you want to use "the contour path" and set parameters

I think tim johnson may have covered this in the past search for his messages

That is true incase someone moves B manualy

there is no B axis movement in your second set of code so why do you want to unlock and lock again?

4lb foam should be just fine

this is an old method and many people still use it I bet one of his tools has a zero tool length and he measures the rest relative to that tool you can still crash nothing is crash proof! Gauge line is the best for sure

Nothing is ever that locked down I will get you a number.

Chris I do not beleive the okuma probing cycles are all that imposible if you would like something I can get you in touch with the right guy.

Chris I think any of them can do this if you have okuma's stick with them. You can get scales, thermal comp and chilled coolant if you like. one of the okuma cells we installed years ago makes electronic parts with .001 true position no BS and they have been doing it for years. They have chilled coolant, building is temp controled, and all tombs are cast Iron can not have thermal growth on the tooling either.

is your machine truly capable of this small an increment?

saturn is in edmonton I will see if I have my old customer base for edmonton

tim johnson fixed mine for the makino I do not have the post here or I would look at it.

where in alberta are you looking

There is a nice shop in alberta called Saturn you might want to see if you can find out about it.

You can consider predator you can wand in and out and see real time functions on the shop floor in real time to.

oh I forgot a step after the create points node points you need to break the spline at those node points. then run whole spline etc sorry