Thanks Guys that is perfect just what I want, But how do I control the amount that I take off in each pass ie: 5mm of stock to come off in two passes of 2.5mm for each pass.

Hi Guys I have a casting that has a surface. I am using the above command to machine the surface. If the casting has 5mm of meat all over, What command do I use to allow the tool to follow the shape of the suface and remove the 5mm

Thank marting that is just what I require.

Hi all I have a bore which is made of 5 radiuses which are blended in to each other. I have to rough and finish the bore. The 2d contour tool path is good for the roughing ie: the tool will follow the contour and will step down 10 mm at a time over the 128mm. The question is what toolpath to finish with that will allow a helixing decending motion.

Colin Can you suggest feed & speeds for cutting wax. I have been through this whole process many times and I keep coming back to waxes. I presume you are talking about wax that is used in the investment casting process, which is a lot harder than normal crystaline wax. I did have a supplier that mixed me a batch of special wax that was a combination of crystaline wax and polyurathane (Poly that is used in hot glue guns)this wax was a dream to machine, it produced a good chip, And like you said once everything is done the wax can be re-used.

Bruce St/St is not a good material for barke disc. Most brake discs are made of cast iron Grade17 Sometimes discs for racing can be made of SG Iron. Steels trend to warp when there is heat build in the disc

Hi Guys Go to www.centroidcnc.com that have a complete machine set up for porting cylinder heads. They use their own digitizer but the use Mastercam to do the cutting. They have a video on the site which is quite interesting

Go to www.edgecam.com they have a free program that you can download. It requires you to draw the pocket in dwg or dxf. Once you have done this it will recommend which cutters to use and at what speed and feed. It was developed by some employee who did his doctorial thesis on this subject

Our Lathes have xxxxor controls which have conversational programming. These controls are very user friendly and you can program in full g-code language if you wish. I am just having difficulty getting the guys in the factory to understand that the set up between manual and cnc will be about the same but the cutting time will be much less

Hi all This is aimed at all those with lathes. Can a one off item be done as quickly on a cnc lathe as on a conventional lathe if all the tooling is already set ?