I am running air blast but have flood options. Duramill whisper kut line. AlTin Coatings. I understand that the path is similar, but I didn't know if it made a difference in the length of engagement being in a slot, it is engaged in the material longer than in a pocket isn't it? That's a good rule is 10% of cutter dia. Is that dependent on depth? Thanks Colin, I know that there is a lot of playing with it in order to get cutting conditions correct. This is stock material (28-32Rc) But, being in a medical shop, we deal with H900 material on the daily (42+Rc) What changes will have to be made on the harder material. Usually it's slower RPM in harder materials, but REX's reccomendation is shallower stepover? Do you slow the spindle down and smaller stepover? Thanks for the help fellas. I think we're getting somewhere here.

It was a 3/8 endmill 4 fl. I looked at that other thread, and that's what got me curious about it but it seems that they are trying to move more to the dynamic clearing options.

Is there any information on stepover, and speed and feed conditions based on hardness, material type and DOC? There isn't really any information out there that I have been able to find. I just used it successfully on 2 bars of 17-4 SS .65 deep, .045 stepover, 100 IPM, 10000 RPM 4fl variable helix mill, then I put in a third bar, increased stepover to .065 and broke teh mill. No biggie. Could have been worn out, it was used when I put it in. Put in another, broke again. I have no idea on where to start. Thanks

I have just lived with it too, then I decided that I want to assign a default work offset for the tplane, and stumbled across this fix, but I seem to have gotten my hopes up for nothing... LOL

I double checked the CD. It's pointing to the same active one that I am using. I am on X3 MU1

First start with the basics. Make your company buy you a set of books. They are pretty indispenible to learn the system if you are new to it. The in house books have a site on this site. http://emastercam.com/files/ There is an option to download the file with the toolpath. I learn that way pretty well, but most of them wont make sense without a workbook. One of the biggest gripes you will hear is that the books don't really tell you what parameters you are setting. They just say tab to this page, and put these numbers in. You just kind of have to play with the numbers and learn what they control. Learn to draw and manipulate the drawing to set your origin, then just start with the 2d and go from there. This website is truly stellar to have as a resource.

http://www.emastercam.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...ic;f=2;t=000048 I am sick of this warning, and I changed the setting as per Ron Teh Crazy Mill Dude and it didn't work. I figure knowledge base didn't get too many views, so I posted a link to it. Any other suggestions?

Have you thought about thread milling? Tapping is good if you just have a few holes, but thread milling will produce more consistent, and better quality threads than a tap can. I don't know for sure on the Mori control, but on the Mazak, you just add a Q to the G84 line. EDIT~ oops I didn't see in your post that you knew about the Q thing. I don't know. Some controls dont support the peck cycle. Some controls if you have a rigid tap setup (the tap orients before each hole is tapped) you can simply program a different depth for each time you go around the set of holes. But I don't think the tap will track to go in the same hole unless you have the rigid tap feature.

Do you really want to switch G54 to G55? There is really no reason to do that with what you have here. If no, go to your toolpath parameters page, then the planes button (toward the bottom of the page) and check work offset button. Set it to 0, and re post.

So, Murray, are you trying to setup an external air blast or a thru spindle air blast? I took it as a external blast, but it sounds like everyone else is thinking thru spindle.

HAAS sells teh kit you are after. It's pre wired and everything. http://haascnc.com/option_details2.asp?ID=...CH#VMCTreeModel They used to have pictures and information more info about the thing, guess downsizing has even hit the web LOL.

Me too, I thought that was only with the art package! Thanks MR. P!

How did you solve the problem? It could be useful for someone else in the future.

I was looking through the posts that CNC_apps_guy had, I figured that the two positions were unrelated. Sounds like a killer setup, you say 700k machines, are these some of your matsuuras? LOL at Hardmill, It just makes a fella a little nervous to hear "top dogs only need apply" but maybe not intimidating, just intriguing, interesting, awesome are better words.

D'oh! I guess I wasn't paying attention...

In a few more years of this 5 ax. stuff I will be good enough for this type of job... The whole top dog thing intimidates me a little. What type of machining is it?

Chip Blaster sells a kit to replace the rotary valve that fadal uses. I don't know if you can just get the valve, but it woudlnt be a bad addition to the machine, problem is it costs upwards of 30k for the nice setup. If you want to keep replacing belts, encoders, and rotary valves stick with the fadal system it pretty much sucks... Good Luck with whatever you end up doing.

Oh, and from my experiences 4 and 5 axis programming are similar in some aspects, and TOTALLY different in others. I don't really think that you need to learn 4 in order to program 5 necessarily. Tplane switching is a major concept to get your head around but once you do, it's pretty decent from there on out.

The resorces as far as books are limited and classes/on site training is very hard to come by. If you do happen to be in the area that a class is running, go to it for sure! That being said, like has been mentioned this forum is absolutely invaluable for help. Ron teh Crazy^Millman (and MANY others) are some of the best around to help with some of this more complicated stuff. That, and get yourself a in house solutions self trainer book, it is a great reference. You will be so frustrated, then one day when you're programming, you will have one of those "oh this makes total sense" days, and you will be on the right track! From another struggling to wade through it programmer to another...

HAHA... Touche!

Remember HAAS has been doing NC rotary tables longer than they have been doing any other product, it's what they built their company around/started with.

But if you really want to start to see some confusing stuff wait till you get into full 5x work... All tool positions are relative to COR on the machine. The tool is in outer space the whole time it's cutting and you have no idea where it is in relation to your part without some math. There's where a rock solid post and simulation come in I guess

inverse time is a better feed scenario for 5 axis work... I don't know why really but that's what I have been told. Yes, it's confusing...VERY confusting to look at the code but also yes it's correct for a g94 to have and it has to have a "feedrate" on every line because it's not really a feedrate, it's a measure of time for the distance traveled. It has been explained/how I interperate it as in a feed move, xyzabc will all reach the point at the same time and it is smoother or better somehow. Someone that knows hopefully will chime in but it's how you want it from what I understand.

I have found that like ron said that a lot of those alarms are false. Check your lead in and lead off though and that is generally where I get rid of them. Inverse time feedrates are definately odd but they have been discussed extensively here just do a search and much will be revealed...

Oh, p.s. you will need to have brushless drives if you don't already and it's just better to call your Haas Factory Outlet and let them match up the things that you will need according to service records and machine serial no.