I have a little experience using VBA with Autocad, hence I am interested in recoding a VB script to use as a model.

Group, My company has stopped investment in cam software at v8.1, so I don't have v9 in front of me to work with. However, I'm trying to help a guy whose shop does have v9. Does v9 have any sort of VB script recorder, maybe some function which can do something like record key-strokes?

Giving it a second look, you're drilling 3" deep which implies a minmum of 3" thick material, so I doubt that there would be any rigity issues. My caution about carbide tooling applies to thinner plates supported only at the edges.

Hi all, A friend of mine has a top of the line Dell (big$$) with a Nvidia Quattro FX 3400 (sp?) dual DVI-D output video card. Everything runs fine, but there are a couple of tweaks needed. He uses the computer for Autocad. When he maximizes Acad to the secondary monitor, the position should remembered. But the next time Acad is opened, but it always opens back in the primary monitor. The second oddity (Acad still maximized in the secondary monitor) relates to the "bubble help" which appears when you hover the mouse pointer over a toolbar icon. Instead of the little help baloon appearing right next to the icon, it appears at the edge of the primary monitor. I highly respect the general computer savy of this group, so even though this may be an "Autocad" question, I was hoping someone could advise on these odd behaviors.

A less expensive alternative to the drills listed above are Precision Twist "QC" Parabolic TiN coated jobber length drills. Run them in 4130/4140 at 100 sfm, 5.0-6.0 ipm all day long, though you do need to peck them. A 1/2" will run $25-30 each. Another alternative which will run at similar feeds and speeds is the Hertel "Max Output" TiAlN coated jobber length drill. A bit more expensive; around $30-35 for a 1/2" drill. OSG "Ex-Gold" drills are good performing drills which do a great job of breaking up the chips. Because the chips are broken up by the unique tool point design, you can run them without pecking. A 1/2" drill will run you around $80. I've used them all, and they all have worked well. One of the biggest factors in drill performance/tool life will be the rigidity of your set-up. If you are drilling plates suspended across parallels, I would caution the use of carbide tooling. Carbide works best in rigid set-ups.

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I had a guy on another forum who emailed a .pdf document from Uddeholm containing the info I was looking for. For those of you who may be interested, for soft annealed 2714 max. 250HB they recommend a sfm of 525 to 722 for carbide indexable end milling, and sfm of 53 for hss drilling. For pre-hardened 2714 to 380HB, the sfm numbers drop to: 164 to 295 for indexable, and 33 for hss drilling.

Hi all, We are machining some 2714 steel; drilling, slotting, and t-slotting. It seems to be a somewhat tough material to machine. Can any one recommend sfm and feed per tooth for hss drills, and also Ingersoll high-positive inserted end mills or an equivalent? Our inserts are ticn coated. I've done some research, but so far can't find any substantial machining recommendations. Regards, Chris

Group, I have a good friend who is working in a job shop for the first time. He isn't used to the aggressive approach the shop takes when it comes to milling (time is money.) He asked me for some guidelines for milling hardened die steels like A2 or M2. The hardness is Rc 60-62. In my company we have always been on the conservative side with hard-milling. For uncoated carbide we always start at 50 sfm and take light cuts around .010 to .020 deep. Since his shop is much more aggressive than that, I am unable to give him anymore than that mentioned above. Can anyone share some good starting points for aggressive hard-milling with uncoated, coated, flat, bull, & ball nose carbide end mills? I am looking for recommendations for feeds, speeds, and depths of cut for various diameters. The application is mostly 2D work on tool & die components though there may be some 3D contouring also. I am not asking for any proprietary information, just some good starting points I can forward to my friend. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. Regards, Chris

Thanks everyone. Your replies have been forwarded to the tooling engineer. Chris

Hi all, One of our tooling engineers is looking for a machine tool recommendation for rough/finish hard-mill machining of 3D shaped tooling that will go into a turret press. I imagine the machine tool needs to have a high rpm spindle, and heavy duty construction to dampen vibration. Can any of you here share your experiences, both good and bad, of different brand machines you have worked with? The one that comes to mind for me is "Hermle" though I've never run one -- I've just seen the ads in the trade publications. Thanks, Chris

Hi all, As a relatively inexperienced Mastercam Programmer, I have always wondered why Mastercam uses an NCI file; why the "middle man?" I import all of my graphics, and then program off of said graphics. What is the purpose of Mastercam generating an NCI file, and then generating g-code off of the NCI file? At the very base level, it seems that g-code should be associated with the graphics, not a "go between" file. Maybe I just don't properly understand the relationship between graphics and NCI files because of my background in SmartCam Can anyone be gracious enough to share some insights and/or explanations as to why Mastercam uses NCI files, and the different ways one can use them? Many thanks in advance. Chris

Hi all, I'm an infrequent poster, but had to chime in I grew up under the influence... under the influence of growing up a 1/2 mile from Mr. Norms Grand Spaulding Dodge in Chicago, one of the premier hot spots in the country for Mopar muscle cars in the 60's and 70's. My older brother's friends owned a '71 Hemi Charger, a '70 SuperBird 440 Six-Pack, a Dodge Demon with a Mr. Norms dealer installed 340 Six-Pack (extremely rare and collectable!), and a friend with a '69 Olds Cutlass with a really hot Rocket 350 (he rebuilt his 350 in his bedroom in the 3rd floor apartment he and his mom lived in. True story!) All of this infuenced me to buy in order: a '69 Dodge Charger with a built 383 Magnum, a '70 Plymouth Barracuda (I blew the original 318 racing a Camaro down I-55, so I threw in a 360,) and a '71 Dodge Challenger. The Challenger was a nice car -- Plum Crazy Purple, 340 SlapStick Automatic, 15' Ralley wheels, Hemi style Shaker Hood, black "Elastomatic?" bumpers, all stock. I sold it right before the muscle car "craze" hit in the early 80's for $2100. If I would have kept it a few years longer, I would have been able to triple or quadriple my selling price easy. During this time, I wanted to piece together a 426 Hemi. I started by buying a nice set of heads, but before I could go farther, I met my bride to be. I eventually sold the heads to buy her engagement ring. Do you know what her birthday is? April 26th -- 426! Another true story. Now days, I too have been snake-bit by the Factory Five Roadster. As soon as I buy my wife her house, she says I can go for it -- I mean, I told her I'm going for it The beat goes on... Chris

Hi all, You can down load a free raster to vector program at: http://www.wintopo.com/ The free version works well, and allows you to save the vectors as dxf files, so you can use it for any cad/cam platform which reads dxf files. -Chris

Chris M: I have two controls/machine types in mind; Fanuc16mi/Okuma & Howa vmc, and a Fadal vmc. I don't know much about the Fadal. Tony: Thanks for the info -- I will try to make it.

Hi all, When running a long program as in finishing a die or mold, if you lose a cutter for whatever reason, how do you pick up your milling cycle where it "left-off"? Have any of you dealt with this sort of problem? Thanks, Chris