My computer goes to sleep and Mastercam wants to shut down each time saying the Hasp is not recognized. Any way around this? (Besides not letting the computer go to sleep)

I've always used a 2 fl ball mill with very good success. Use an application/material specific geometry and coating. Something like 27831-C8. The coating should help with welding. About 10 ipm would be a good feed rate. Look into an air turbine spindle or even an electric spindle if you're going to be doing a bunch of it. http://www.hpt-drivesystems.com OR http://www.airturbinetools.com/ You could get your feed rate up to 100 ipm or so.

I live and work fairly close to the Makino NA headquarters just north of Cincinnati. I have visited quite a few times for various reasons and always try to speak with an engineer or two while I am there. They are certainly the most knowledgeable machine tool people I have spoken to. They don't look at you like you have a dick sticking out of your head when you ask a question like some folks. All of the engineers have offered me their business cards and say "if you ever have a question don't hesitate to call".

I was more looking into it for future reference so I did not buy anything. I also looked at the Hermle machines. NICE!

MX-520 was around 350-400k when I inquired about it.(couple months ago) I haven't the slightest on the D500.

I've used the method of getting oversized stock. Works well for smaller pieces. The only trouble I have is when I need to square a part that is 6 x 6 x 6. A six inch long endmill doesn't work out too hot.

This gets you four sides. How about the two ends? What are some methods?

The only trouble I had with the Sandvik 300 button cutter was that there are facets on the backside of the insert and this creates a stress point. The insert always cracked there especially when feeding the cutter hard. Like .018 to .020 load per tooth.

We have two older fadals and running a high feed cutter isn't the best idea in my opinion. I've found that running a button cutter at a little heavier depth of cut is alot better on the machine. You can typically be just as effective in removing material as a high feed. I've used the Sandvik 300 button cutter and it is okay. I think a Seco button cutter is a better choice. Depends too on what support you have in your area.

Not to thread jack but what is a HEM calculator?

I have had good sucess with Dapra. They offer 4 sides per insert and are continually improving their grades and coatings. Relatively inexpensive too. Can also use round inserts in the same cutter body. They work very well too.

I would think if you had a live tool and sub spindle you could use a ceramic high feed mill or button cutter and rotate the work piece while feeding in. You could get through this rather easily. You'd be using extra material but I think it would work. Hold the part in a sub spindle and face the back side after "parting". If no sub then just rechuck as a second op to face it. Good luck.

If your setup isn't ideal you may want to try a button cutter from someone like sandvik. R300 cutter. Gives you a bit more flexibility than a high feed with some of the same benefits when used properly. When we were roughing this material we typically cut it dry and gained tremendous tool life. Only resaon to rough it wet is where there are thin cross sections where a slight amount of heat may deform or effect your base material.

Great information. Thanks. For those using the plastic tags, do you have trouble with them wearing out at all?

How are you keeping track of your tools once the tools have been measured and are now flowing through the shop? I have seen some presetters that print out labels which you can tag your tools with. Do you track what tools are in the machine? If so, do you create a library in MC for your current tools or a spreadsheet in excel for each amchine? What do you do then when you pull a tool from the machine and have to label the tool again? Thanks

Who is using MC machine sim. and what advantages are you finding? Is it clumpsy and difficult to use or fairly straight forward? Just from using the verification, that takes forever and a month of sundays, doesn't seem like the machine sim. would be any faster on surfacing work. Are you able to properly define tools and toolholders to get good simulation? As is now in backplot and verification I can not properly define tools. Is it more worth while using vericut instead?

Oscillate does not woork with depthe of cuts as well. Good in principle but doesn't shake out so well. Seperate operations seems to be the only real way around it.

Tapered walls is a good idea. Even if it is a slight taper it should help a little. Like said earlier. No matter how dead on your parameters are you still develop a notch especially in some of the difficult materials.

Could the folks at Mastercam consider adding an option to vary depth of cuts on the milling operations? Basically, I'd like to be able to vary my depth of cuts for just about every milling and facing operation. Maybe perhaps in the depth of cut menu having a zone that you'd like to keep your roughing depth of cuts between. Say for instance between .050 to .1 on the same toolpath. Logic behind it is trying to eliminate a depth of cut notch that wears on many of my inserts and endmills. This is especially true for difficult to machine materials. Would be even cooler if the path started out at the max depth and slowly backed off the depth of cut trying to get the most wear from an insert by gradually making the notch larger. Or are there other alternatives out there? Thanks

I've always used a typical HSS drill. Drilled down to 1/32 holes on a CNC. Just you use a light peck with clearance when going back into the hole. If you want to go with something fancier you can get Soild Carbide TSC drills from someone like Harvey Tool or SGS or Mits.

Diehl Steel in Cincinnati is a good group of people that do squaring in-house and should be able to easily handle your needs. 800 E Ross Ave Cincinnati, OH 45217-1794 (513) 242-8900

MicrocutUSA.com has one with a .750 Reach. Still have to modify it to your needs.

i'll take a look and get back. What should it be set to?

First off I'm using MX3. When i manipulate geometry such as translate, offset etc. I will find that my geometry seems to not have moved correctly. It is ever so slight but mostly annoying. For instance, I take a line and translate it in three dimension X,Y,Z. When i analyze from the endpoint of one line to another, I will find that my geometry is out by .0001. Any reasons why? It also occurs when I put a bounding box around geometry to set up my stock. I will have drawn a 2 inch cube but the stock will say 1.99999. Also happens when setting up new construction planes. Any help would be appreciated.

Got it to work. Set up the few parameters the fanuc manual said and it works well. Thanks for the help.