Keith, Do you remember where you got that post? I would not mind trying the mplomni. I could ask my dealer to find it but if you knew where then I could have the reseller know where to get it. Thanks, Andy Robert, We have been to Blanco, but not the cranberry bogs.

John, Well, maybe someone will want it. We sure dont use ours very often. Most of our work is bigger. But occasionally it is just right for the job. We dont need anything fancy for those jobs. The Post work I did 10 years ago and tried to update it to X. Then, with a little help from Paul we got the and a lot of tweaking it seems ok now.

John, Looks like the exact same attachment. We use ours for short run small stuff. Pretty handy to use. What do you use for a post? I had to create a post. Boy was that alot of work. Things like G0 had to read G94f150 We used misc int to get a stock puller going. Same for a stock stop. etc. etc I think in later years they made the newer controls on their new models more Fanuc compatable but the attachment models they still make are the older style code. Keith, I know the people who build these omniturns. They used to be in Camerio Ca. now in Port Orford, Ore. We visit them every year on the Oregon coast. The owners are brothers and I have gotten to know them. So, what do you use for a post?

Anyone using the omniturn gang lathe? We have a 12 year old machine called an attachment and it is mounted on a hardinge type tool room lathe. Had to hand write the post (modified the mpl-ez post 1998)

I had to change all tools in library for coolant on. This library was V9 updated and turned coolant off. Nice huh?

Cool, I will try these. Thank you Andy

Sunder, I now see that. Gcode, Try right click in the bolt circle dialogue and and it will not let you pick geom for values. It only allows cut, copy, paste, del. Unlike V9 with the (? enter) to get geom picks. So, VX I lose yet another capability!

I noticed that this does not work in Create Bolt Circle. I lifted a value from Analyze entity(Radius of a circle) and it pasted in notepad but would not paste in bolt circle.

I have never programmed a vertical, but I think you would have to draw the part as if it were in a horizontal lathe , and then have the correct post processor to output x and z where z is horizontal in mastercam. Assuming that your vertical machine is z is the vertical travel.

I assume you want to start 1" up on the circle and then cut a full 360 degree cut. Is that correct. Or are you only cutting part of the full circle?

Rick, If a circle has a breakpoint at 3:00 then you could rotate the circle until the 3:00 poin is where you desire and you will have 1 breakpoint. I tried this in 9.1 just now and it worked. I tried this in X2 just now and it worked.

John, He has a circle, so if he makes it 2 different arcs he will have 2 break points.

I was wrong! Seems strange, doesn't it?

Try Edit/Break at intersect. It may break it in 2 places so you may have to Edit/join to get rid of the undesired break.

If you are using v9 then try the chook setdir. It always helped me for path stuff. Although, in Lathe it never worked as well as in mill.

If the cnc you are getting has any 3 phase motors and 5 or more HP, then I recommend the rotory converter. That way you will maximize the motor HP and you can add more machines to the same circuit. Also the rotary stores energy while it is idling and helps with the starting current of your CNC motors instead of loading the line circuits. One disadvantage is that rotaries are expensive. A solid state converter as in Phase O Matic is not as efficient and you will get 75% H.P. or less. And, you have to have a Phase O matic unit for every machine. On the other hand if you are getting a small CNC as in a bridgeport size, then a solid state will probably work fine. And, they are cheap. I would not buy a single phase CNC of anything over 1 or 2 HP. They are less efficient and have higher starting current. The motors are more expensive and can cause line problems as in lights dimming, or worse, computer line low voltage spikes.

1968, Hughes aircraft, we had one nc machine with tape. Big machine built special for Hughes.

What about PC Anywhere?

Take a piece of sheet metal. Bend it in a slight arc. Are the two sides parallel?

I have a small shop with 1 cnc mill. Fadal 1990, box way, had it for 11 years. 1 Mori lathe. I take good care of the fadal and run it conservatively. Never had a repair on it. It has made me nothing but money and lots of it. Totally reliable. Easy to use and program. For me it is pure profit. Now, mind you, I only rarely have to hold tenths. And then only with a good boring head . I would love to have a high end machine, but it is not necessary and would not make good money sense with the work that is available for us in our area. For more expensive and high tolerance work a more expensive machine may be necessary and would make better financial sense and I would not hesitate to step up. The Mori lathe, of course, is a dream and I love it, but it only does 15% of the work. I was lucky and got a great deal on it. It is 1990 and had it for 8 years, no repair either. Every shop has different needs and do what works best for them. By the way James, I am one of those shop owners who runs machines and fights tolerances every day. I may be the exception however.

Just save the mcx to Lathe/tools directory and name it as you like. In order to use it you must create a custom tool in tool create and then specify that tool file name in the custom dialogue.

I have a Mori SL-15 also. Same exact complaint, uses lots of way oil. Checked with the factory a few years ago. Result= there is no way to change it. I found the parameter and messed with it but it would not let me change it as I recall, or it simply did not affect the output of oil. So, I skim constantly and buy lots of way oil. Bummer!! Spoke with others over the years and they all said yep, thats the way it it. I think Mori set it up this way to protect the warantee for those that would under oil it.

Colin, I wont disagree with that. The splines I usually work on are ones I create from raster to vectorization photos. I then create splines to best fit the vectorization geometry. The key here is best fit for "visual" purposes only. I think it is great that we are able to manimulate splines to tangent geometry at all. What a powerful tool CAD is. Andy

I agree Troy, I certainly have many 7,8,9 files archived. And I occasionally have customers show up 5-10 years later asking for a job again. However I do keep hardcopys of geometry so it can be re-entered. I surely would not expect to have access to v7 toolpaths, but the geometry would be nice.

Colin, Edit/trim/break/break many pieces/ does, in fact, make a continuous tangent line and arc conversion of the spline. Just pick the tolerance and the line type. I use this frequently. It will delete or save the original spline. The backplot method you mention works also. Try this with a simple spline (NURBS) and you will see.