If I understand this right you are saying the top and bottom are not parallel after cutting (Zaxis)...is this like a single pass facing cut with a 3 inch type face mill? If so maybe your head is out..if your facing with a x-axis feed over the part..try using the Y axis to face with and see if any diff..a little hard to understand without a diagram....

If not out put an idicator on back vise jaw when free and zero, then tighten and see if it lifts...angle locks are suppossed to pull downward...this should not be that hard to solve..

If you machine your part and its NOT 68F degrees and its inspected at 68F in Lab it will have changed..... .0002 is not much...I had 2 customers that claimed to build high production Molds like Gages and .0001 callouts on their prints...I did some Jig Grinding for them, and some EDMing etc and they were out over .001 at times. If your out 10 millionths on gages they might get rejected..

on the lip comment..you touch your lips to a 1-2-3 block thats 68 F and then your workpiece to compare....no comment on Germs..

get the hand book and look up thermal expansion. a 16 inch piece of steel will change .001 inch with 10 degrees of temp change. i can hardly detect 10 degrees of change with my hand.

Gagemakers use their Lips..most sensitive part of the Body...looks weird..

Oh My Gosh..they want you to hold .0002 without air conditioning??? I build gages with my shop kept at 68F...You need to look up linear coeffcients of expansions per degree growth above 68F and per inch...then talk to your Boss.....I have 2 Moore jig grinders and Moore has heaters in upper head which keep them at 85 F even in a 68 degree shop. Sort of preheating to the highest tempreature they will raise to.. If time and Money are short I might look at framing machine in and air conditing that room with wal-mart window units....even wood and visqueen or drywall and just tape joints..nuthin fancy....

Heating the coolant to the highest machine temp might be the way also...some small electric heaters blowing on machine at night with thermometers on machine table..MSC sells them and I keep one on my surface plate in the lab at all times..cause I am sort of a hillbilly Gage shop now....was building Molds,Parts, etc..all gages at the moment. Putting some thermometers around on machine will help figure out what is happening..$100

I looked at a new one...welded construction which is not really bad as they can weld steel where needed..not the greatest for dampening, but they advertise high position accuracy..

If you want a decent machine in the same era look at a used Hitachi-Seiki.

 

No experience with Fadal's.

I think they are out of the machine tool Business also?? Lots of Hit-Seiki turning centers around here and good ones but I would be worried about parts also without checking first. One shop in Cincy had over 40 of them.

We might end up selling it if I can't find a 4th and 5th that will fit. It does have a 10,000 rpm spindle and rigid tapping. I have only seen pictures and it is looks NICE but we'll see when it hits the shop floor.

Jones Machinery in Cincy,Oh was the dealer around here I believe and I just talked to Mike a month ago and I brought up the Fadal thing and I thought He said parts are available but I would call them.

Sounds like you're into old bikes maybe?

I am restoring an older bike and it still took me a minute to get that.

I have just followed this link again and noticed this recommendation for SEDMing carbide

 

"Use tungsten carbide for you electrode. You will most likely need to WEDM this, or you can machine it, but it is not so machinable."

 

WEDMing carbide is straight forward enough, but I've had no experience machining it for electrodes.... hard carbide is practically impossible, but I asked around and some people are apparently using a mold to preform carbide into a shape from a powder form under pressure, then actually machining the carbide to accurate sizes before sintering.... I guess it would be like a super abrasive cast iron.... this was news to me, but I'm struggling to find any info about this process, or if it is real. Anybody ever heard of this before?

As far as I know they make a die(mold) to the shape of carbide blank they want (think carbide inserts for your lathe) and then put the powder into mold to form insert in the sintering process. You can grind carbide with a diamond wheel. I know some folks spend around 15K for a wheel. I spend around $150 for surface grind wheels with diamond impregneated. My last Charmille edm came out of a sintering powder metal shop that closed and amazing the almost mirror finish on some sample parts laying around that been sintered out of powder metal. Very cool process and tooling was beautiful..went broke..

http://www.todaysmachiningworld.com/how-it-works-%E2%80%93-making-tungsten-carbide-cutting-tools/

they only talk about honing,grinding or edming it.

I have a mixture of 3R and a company called sunspot. I have bought all mine at auctions online... Think new it adds up to 12K to 15K and I have around $1,500 in it. I only have 4 conventional sinkers, no CNC yet.

http://www.sunspotedm.com/

Just because electrode material costs more does not mean it will burn faster...buy some real expensive and some cheap stuff and run some tests..it might be a real eye opener..you can machine finer details on the denser material. Lots of ways to skin the cat.

I have never EDMed carbide but there is some ref. material out there.

http://global-plastic-injection-molding.com/how-to-edm-carbide.html

Interesting that MSC came in $35/tool cheaper on Seco than the Seco 'distributor'...hmmm.....?

You might ask in the office about up to 40 percent off sale mon/tues only from MSC..I am buying some stuff....I wait for sales faxes if I can..I am sorta a poor shop and gotta stretch $$

http://www1.mscdirect.com/eCommerce/NavigationServlet/Indexable-Cutting-Tools/Indexable-Modular-Systems/Modular-Accessories-Parts/Capto-Tool-Holders/_/N-77cwu

I think you can call Hansvedt and get some over the phone help. They are pretty bullet proof and more simple..I have one waiting in the wings (150B) to set up along with 2 Charmilles D10 Isocuts....

For years, in many shops and in 2 different states, we have used a 5 gallon bucket of fresh mixed coolant to wash machines and it cuts thru old oil build ups and dirt..just let it soak a minute and wipe. Not saying its the best, its just whats done.. Tool & Die type shops.

http://www.barnesballscrew.com/barnes-reconditioning.html

maybe check out reconditioning. I found these folks online and don't have any personal experiance.

Aren't there ball screw manufactures online that are direct buy.

We may just end up wiring the second hole anyway.

If you think there will be other machines and maybe ones even bigger, I would put a larger door in.

Are these solid box ways with rollar packs like Trees use to have? Milltronics offered rollar packs as an option. I was always curious are they said much more stiff than regular linear ways.

Here is ur chance Zoob , "maybe".. ....

Ur a good person, top of ur game in programming....lotsa business sense, atleast part Indian .... local guys that are Indians or part Indian really push that thing to get contracts I guess ..big companies...think they are both engineers.

here is one in cali for auction..1.3 million new..auction closes on thurs.

sez new in dec. of 2008..thats gotta hurt..

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/search.php?searchid=514856

another place to ask questions..K.O. Lee might be a good choice as low priced...lots of them outthere..pretty cheap when new..They pretty much closed up, Leblond/Makino has the spare parts Biz I think.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=K.O.+Lee&...6.c0.m270.l1313

These e-bay prices look waaay high compared to actual auctions..

You can't sharpen existing fluted end mills in a Deckel except on the bottom..can make carbide straight flute ones from a blank with a diamond wheel and can put radius on cutter bottom,etc. and make ball cutters. I am not an expert on Deckels...might be missing something there! awesome for making carbide spade drills,etc.

double disc grind..