Thanks Pete

Yea that's what I did (break entities). I rotated 90 degrees and I was getting same 3 and 9 o'clock. I was hoping it was something in the SW aettings that I missed.

How do you change start point of contour on full circular features in MCam for Solidworks? I click the arrow to drag the start point like standalone MCam but it doesn't do anything on MCam for SW. I am milling washers basically in a strip, It wants to start the contour at 3 and 9 o'clock. I want to start at 6. On any other shape the start/end point works just as it should. But I cannot get it to do what I want on full closed circle features. Any one else experience this?

I used ma ford twister that I got from Msc. Series 204 or 206 I think. I only had to do 4 .120 holes/ part though.

Also support the bottom of part on a plate or fixture.

We haven't done much drilling but carbide worked for us. Try small pecks. Stuff doesn't want to chip it just kind of pushes. We were having all sorts of issues milling it then we switched coolants. We went with cimtech 610. It was developed for gummy stuff.

Good luck, I would go with razor sharp carbide drills. it you can use oil it helps a lot. Through spindle coolant would work wonders. We do a fair amount of milling in this crap with 1/16 Endmills. Do you know if it's annealed?

Could you do what JLW said but with 6.50 mm ball mill? Not knowing tolerances or finish may be able to do it in 2 cuts.

Yup this stuff kills tools. I Am limping by, next time its a Harvey diamond coated tool. I ended up just doing a bunch of flips so far results have been ok.

I looked at my Harvey catalog after reading some of these posts. They aren't to bad price wise. I roughed with a 3 flute .5 endmill on both sides. It twisted .01 or so. Was able to true it up because I left material this time. Took a little longer than I wanted but for a prototype it'll do.

Thanks Colin, I'll look into those. The part is roughIy 8 x 2.5 x .75. only have 3 pcs.i was holding in a vise and planning to rough/rough break pressure after roughing and go back and finish machine. I really think the face mill is really what did it.

Thanks for replying, after rereading my post i realized just how bad my grammar was. A couple of cocktails will do that to me! Yes I did use a face mill. A shear hog to be exact, I suspected that that could be my issue. This is an optical manifold of some sort so coolant is ok. Most GF peek we machine is around 2in sq so we never really experience twisting with this stuff. This part in particular is 8 in long hence why I was face milling which I will rethink that approach. I have good quality aluminum and mills I was running at 400 sFM with a pretty good chip load for my milling ops. Thanks again for the tips.

Any one machine this before? I have and though it was pretty stable. I scrapped a 1400$ sheet because it twisted up when I decked the first operation down. Any opinions?

Is there an easy way to include the z min and max to the tool list?

I've had success with plumbers putty. Only problem I had with it is that it left an oily residue.

I prefer to create a surface from the solid, as I only will be surfacing say one or two features. Then I can alter my surfaces as I please on a different level. Then again Im on x7 with no solids, I may be changing my tune when we upgrade.

I used cam works for a year or so. Our head programmer built all our databases. And this was no small task. Your feature based toolpaths will be as good as the database that drives them.

I would cut the 304 with coolant. I have better luck with juice than not on 304. Also I hear you on the making lathe parts on the mill sometimes you gotta make do with what you got.

I would look into a feed mill to rip it down then finish up with a face. What kind of tooling do have or are you looking for tooling suggestions? How thick is block? Are you stress relieving? How many HP?

Should check control definition. Under rotary output.

You can go into machine definition and set rapid to max feed rate. Then uncheck drill peck drill cycles to get longhand, I think.

Helical solutions will do this I believe.

I have done quite a bit of annealed niobium in the past 6 months. Very similar to tantalum. Stuff sucks. Avoid full slotting cuts if you can. High speed toolpaths work great.

Thanks Josh. Im gonna try this tomorrow when I get in.

Thanks Mick, I'll check that out when I get back at it in the new year.