Yayyyyy....I haven't yet lost my mind.....

Butttt....back in the day (X6/7ish?) wasn't there a bug where the occasional THD error was thrown even when the Mach/Control Defs were correct? Which is when Colin suggested this?

Late to the party....but I would always look to ramp things like this 90degrees to what OP is doing. You can usually run a bigger stepover as the cusp height is negliable. And very neat post work for the internal macro.

Yip! But to be fair to Gibbs....from what I saw ref the Hori package, it rocked! I know James M said a while ago that 5ax machines are now where it's at, and they outsell horis nowadays, but for all my parts (prismatics/electrical enclosures etc) - I'd have cut an arm off for a pair of 5x pallet horis....

....or port across the Gibbs horizontal module, now both companies are under the one umbrella....

The plus = you only had to learn 1x new interface. The minus = you had to learn Gibbs inbetween

If it's good enough for the 6 million dollar man, it's more than good enough for me Congratulations - nice work!

Seemed like the place to hang - Dang - I musta missed all that Personally....I think it was to just break the gang up. To make people disappear. To make more go to the official site. To make dealers not embarrassed as they apparently were too embarrassed to recommend people to come here... #F'kinBedWetters

I mean...what's the bots goal here? Is he paid for by #Plastics-R-Us? What's "their" (whoever "they" are) goal - just to get people discussing necro threads or discussing plastics in general? Or just fill the interwebs with meaningless sh!te? :shrug:

But seriously....one of the main reasons (deciding factors) for my 3x seat Mastercam purchase when I was Eng Manager of a place back in 2000, was post customisability and reseller support. And roll forwards to when I had my own place in 2005 and bought 2x more seats, that underlined the initial decision. Ultimately 1x mill post which handled Robodrill/VMC/3ax/4ax simultaneous combinations, by having a couple of posting prompts, was superb. Flexible customisation, is the name of the game IMHO, and to lose even 10%, would be a bad move....

Is Fusion an option? :BooM:

IF....this is going to happen (MPNet)....hopefully for everyone's sake, it's well thought out and well implemented. Last thing users will want is any removal of features and restrictions on DIY editing, and a half-arsed implementation.

He's just proved, there's no such thing as a 5 minute job....

He'd then count back to 10, then change hands back again.... Maybe worth trying a logitech mx master. FWIW, It's the best I've used....

Or buy T6511 - that's artificially aged, then controlled stretched and straightened. You shouldn't need any initial heat treat then (as it has zero stress), and depending upon your component shape and cutters/process, you shouldn't really need any other stress relieve. Aluminum can be a funny thing regarding heat and "stress relieving"....FYI hard anodise is a cold process - near freezing.

If the component is uniform in shape, this is the component stress reliving....it has moved during the time it's been inspected>shipped>plated(temperature)>returned to Inspection for checking....

Plating will be rougher - for hard, you always need to machine at least twice as good surface finish pre plate, to what is required post plate. Depending upon batch qty, general carbide cuts hard anodise okay in my experience. With this flatness tolerance, how large is the area? And you better not distort the part when clamping....

Do you have the Mitsubishi or the Fanuc 0MA control? If fanuc, this may help explain https://www.memexoee.com/wp-content/uploads/M100702E-MAI-Memory-Upgrade-for-Fanuc-0.pdf

Current plan is to continue separate.

He's a giant of the industry fo sho! When he finally hangs up his rat mat, if asked "what did you use to do", he'll be able to say "I was one of the top 1% grammers in the world"

As you're already a Houghton user, could be worth using what I had in all the machines (lathes mills and manuals) Houghton HOCUT 795 SC (chlorine free – approved for titanium machining). All @ 10% and we'd rigid tap M1.6 threads in aluminum when required with no issues.

Standardization is a wonderful thing. If only people would do it....

@Jobnt it could be worth grabbing the 2024 exe and dropping it into your folder. And see if it runs....

If the thread is "THAT" hard, I would expect it to fail in use....brittle, AF? Aaron's idea of wire insert is best IMHO. Otherwise....could you 'gram an external thread (1/2-20) above your part. Have the Z start position come down to a known clear position (say +0.100). Then feed hold and stop spindle and zero your control. Then wind in a piece of studding, and in handwheel mode move and eye up the threadmill to the stud. Then alter your TLO to be the new Z position. Now 'gram your 1/4-20 thread with the same parameters you just used (without removing part, same start position and TLO etc). I think that's the best you could hope for?

As it's a custom built machine - it's probably a configuration issue with a parameter? I'd check 1022 initially, and then the 5001 etc settings?