Shredder- i worked in a stamping/tool and die company before starting my own shop and wanted a presetter badly! I would highly recommend one for the frequent changeover I saw with this type of work. Bob- I bought a Zoller Smile presetter a year or so ago. I would highly recommend one. Makino in Mason, OH has one or two of them so you should have a good contact there if needed. Zoller has also been a good to me.

What tolerances are you trying to hold? What type of tool and die? How many machines are you supporting? How often are you changing tools and tool holders?

If you are looking for an inexpensive nice tool holder take a look at Mari Tool. They make all kinds of styles of holders, are made in the states and are nice quality. I use these holders for HSS drills, taps, chamfer mills and non critical tools. Another great investment is the zero point clamping systems as you had mentioned. If you need something on a tighter budget or need vises too take a look at orange vise company. Look through the examples on his site. It's a very good brain exercise. With one vise base you can use it as a single station, dual station or mount fixture plates to the main base. I bought four of these a few months ago and have two vises spread at 10" centers where i can swap a 20" x 20" plate in a couple minutes and repeats very well. Then you can change over quickly to vise work. If you go to a system like Jergens ball lock or similar I would recommend the MPower system as it pulls the locator from the receiver as it is loosened. This is pretty critical for horizontal applications where the weight of a subplate is hanging on the locator.

I would use 4140 HT or pre-hard (same thing). Easyish to work with and wears extremely well. I use Diehl Steel as my local provider though they will ship any where. They presquare all my material including larger plates on their Amada machines. It comes in the door square and to size. All i have to do is start machining. If you need something harder use 17-4 SS hardened to H900. www.diehlsteel.com

I don't think my jpg is high enough quality to get rast2vec to work right. I'll tinker with the setting a bit more and see if I can get something to turn out nice. Thanks.

Do you know which of Corel's products it was in particular?

I would like to turn a logo stored as a .jpg into usable geometry to create toolpaths around. What's the best way to go about doing this? I don't need anything 3D just simple lines, arcs and splines.

I find I am using surface-finish-flowline a lot when other things don't seem to work work out quickly. I am also usually programming for just one or two parts so I don't take the extra programming time to reduce cycle time. Super fast cycles aren't always best for me, quick programming usually trumps.

Do you have a single point thread mill or a full form? You will likely find more success using a single point thread mill at lengths greater than 2xd. Harvey Tool has some 4-40 single point thread mills with a 1/4 LBS. Seems like a perfect fit. Going to the max hole ID is also a great idea. http://www.harveytool.com/prod/Browse-Specialty-Carbide-Cutting-Tools---End-Mills/Other-Specialty-Profiles/Thread-Milling-Cutters_169/Thread-Milling-Cutters---Single-Form_157.aspx

How'd you clean the brown?

Has anyone using Hangsterfer's S500 had brown staining inside the machine? I've been using it and the inside of my mill is turning brown. If you've had trouble with this how did you get the brown waxy coating off the inside of the machine? Also, how are you guys, using the S500, mixing it? Do you use a simple $30 mixing valve or a high dollar mixer from Hangsterfer's?

Just installed a Zoller here. Sweet piece of equipment! I use stuff down to .005" and it's no issue at all. It's also extremely quick and can be done while a current job is running. Just push your tool down (CAT 40 here) slightly in the presetter spindle the same every time and your with a tenth or two.

No manual guide for me. I just use the card reader for all larger programs. If i need to start in the middle of a large program I put a main program in memory to call subs off the card. The programs on the card are split at each tool change.

It does reasonably well. I have AICC 2 on both machines with the Oi-MD. I typically hold my total surface tolerance to .0002" and stepovers to around .004 with say a 1/4" ball mill and have never had an issue. If you're going to be doing strictly 3D stuff or a whole lot of it you'll be better off with a 31i or nicer control. They'll process the data faster. But if you don't need it don't pay for it. I don't know if I have the manual guide. I do everything in Mastercam.

I have two Feeler VMP-1100's and a thrid on the way. They're nice machines. I do anything from simple 2 axis work to full 4 axis work. Materials are anything from aluminum to titanium to tool steels. The machine handles the materials just fine. Warm the machines up in the morning and they hold tolerance well throughout the day. They have a few quirks but nothing that prevents me from making very high quality parts. PM me if you want more details. In the past I ran Fadals and a Mori horizontal. I would put the Feelers well above the Fadals and obviously below the Mori. This last time around doing a machine search I looked at Okuma Genos, Mori Duravertical, Matsuura VX and Makino PS. If you are doing higher end work and can justify a higher price tag I'd go with the Mori. It's nice the Mori is built in the US for me. Probably doesn't matter to you. The matsuura and okuma I feel will hold tolerance better than the others over very long cycles. These two have the highest spindle speed as well if you need more than 10k or 12k. As always, local support, local support, local support. TK

I would like to add a column to the standard active reports simple tool list in X6. After the tool number I would like to pull the H value from the tool and have a column for it. Any suggestions? I did a search here and couldn't find any info on actually modifying the .rpx file. I believe that is what needs to be modified. I also couldn't find a link to the eapprentice tutorial from a few weeks back. Thanks, TK

Perfect! Thanks.

I am using MCX6 MU3 and the generic 4 axis vertical post and machine definitions. How would I go about retaining the H and D values from my tool library but putting the tools in order 1-31 as I bring them into the part file? Thanks, TK

Sweet! You the man!

I am programming a part using the Mill 4X VMC machine def and Generic Fanuc 4x VMC control def. on MCX MU3. I have the part setup on a WCS other than top for my rotary table setup. When I use multi axis multi surface toolpaths I have to set my rotary axis to rotating about Z to get the proper toolpath output. In my brain it should be X as that is what is really going on in the machine in relation to the current WCS. The Z axis is what the part is rotating about in MC in relation to the top view. Does this toolpath not use the current WCS for its reference to rotational axis? Should I always have my part draw in the top view as it is setup in the machine on the rotary table?

Awesome! Thanks.

I am trying to open a part file in MCX6 MU3 that has six multi axis multi surface toolpaths in it. I was working on it yesterday afternnon and exited out of mastercam last night. The post and machine def are generic fanuc 4X. The toolpath output is only 4 axis output. When I try to open the file I get a incompatible machine error, I click okay and then MC crashes. Is there any way around this to save my A$$?

What post?

This should stage your tool after your clearance plane rapid move.

Go into your control definition - tool - check the box for "enable staged tool routines"