For a tap my feedrate is 9.375, but it is posting out as 9.4. Is there a way to add decimal places to my feed rates for my post, also is it necessary or will it be fine with that number. It is a 3/8 - 16 tap. I'm sure it will be fine with that tap but with other taps it might not be.

Does anyone know where to get a general base surface speed for different materials and different cutters. I'm trying to create an in depth tool library and material library and I have a general idea on where to start for basic tools, but for carbide roughers and stuff I'm not sure. All the vendor books I have are for indexable insert tools but I need some more basic tools. I've tried the machinists hand book but they are too broad for me to be happy.

Sounds good I will use that method. BTW I'm jealous of your post if thats what you got that from. We're still working on mine so I gotta take the generic output and make all the changes.

I am using the mplmaster 3/4 axis lathe that my reseller is tweaking for me as an okuma post.

Solidworks is where its at. Especially since I machine everything from solids and I have no conflicts between SW and MC, atleast none too major to be helped out here.

Sorry about the confusion. It is only a C-axis lathe with live tooling. It has something the okuma calls x-y conversion though but I am limited on the side milling, but on the face i don't think im too limited.

I am programming a face contour on our c-axis okuma lathe. Our machine has the x-y conversion and I was wondering if there was a difference in how the part comes out depending on which I use(either x-c moves or x-y). If there is a difference is their a resolution type setting to make finer increments for the c moves. Also, In the rotary axis box I can select either c axis - or y - axis. C works but Y wasn't what I wanted I need x and y moves but that was just x's and r's. The axis substitution stuff below is all grayed out. Is this my control? I'm going to be machining from solids all of the time so do I even need this? One last question. When I posted a single pass on this contour I graphed it on our machine and the contour came out good but then after the tool lead out it went around in circles like 15 times. My c moves don't go much over 360 degrees, so im lost. Any help on any of the above questions would be appreciated.

How do you feel about MC for mill turn with just a c-axis and live tooling machine. We just got an Okuma Captain L470M. I am currently trying to purchase a post from inhouse since the mplmaster is nowhere close to okuma. I haven't heard back though. The programming is simple but I haven't seen code.

How much do you leave for your finish cut? The programmer at my shop that I am taking over for programs by hand. He will write a program that looks like this: T020204 (1.5 Turn) X1.5 Z-2.0 (2.0 Turn) X2.0 T020205 Z-2.5 I've seen programs of his that have 5 or 6 different turn diameters or bore diameters all with offset changes on the x moves. I can't see how this is necessary since that is resolution and accuracy on a cnc. We have Okuma lathes and the tolerances are +/- .001 at most. They have been doing this for years and I can't see why.

I am about to program a part for an internal 1-1/4 x 11-1/2 t.p.i. N.P.T. I was wondering how accurate the numbers that the thread table in mcx3 gives me are.

Thank you for your advice. I'm not sure what I'm going to try yet.

When prepping a shaft to be turned, is it acceptable to face and center drill the shaft while chucked close to the end and then slide it out to its length desired and then put the tailstock in? Or does it have to be center drilled at the length it is being machined and not moved then put the tailstock in?

X3 also comes with post editing documentation and a very nice post debugger. If you look in your mcamx folder on your hard drive and open up the documentation folder there will be .pdf files.

Once again thank you for your input.

Thank you for the input, have you had problems with the diameters not staying relative to the amount of the offset change. Such as you move your offset .001 and one diameter moves the .001, but another diameter moves .002? I can see on an old worn out machine but what about a relatively new one.

I am programming a shaft in MCX3 turn, and I have several diameters that are plus and minus tenths for the tolerances. I was wondering if anyone programs parts like this with different offsets for each diameter. If so how can you get mastercam to do that within the same toolpath. This is how our old programmer programmed such parts, he programmed by hand the old fashion way. Also, does it need to be done like this, will the diameters act different compared to the movement of the offset?

It wont let you select a solid if you have holes in the side of your part that run through the machining plane. If this is your problem than it will say something about parasolid data not being found. If this is the case you can suppress the holes in the solidworks history then after you create your toolpath unsuppress it, or you can rotate your part about the center so the hole is not in the plane. Other than this I have found no problems with a .sldpt file Hope this helps....

In verify I am trying to make my stock translucent and be able to see the finished part inside of the stock. For example let's says I have a basic cyclinder as my stock. I am machining from a solid so can I see that solid inside of my stock when in verify. This way I can see the stock be cut away and end up with the solid inside of my stock. I've seen this done in CAMWorks, which I thought was a terrible program, but I liked that feature.

I have a 4-axis Okuma with top and bottom turrets but have heard no good things about mastercams wait codes. I have been told that they are in the works. I have talked with a few Okuma employees and GibbsCAM and Espirit are the only ones who can give you good wait codes with good simulations. (From what I'm told) I synch them the old fashion way but wouldn't try it on technical parts. --Thats an awesome machine.

That worked perfect thank you all.

I am trying to use a solid model for my stock in X3. I have a Solidworks model of my finished part and I have a model of my casting. I want to use the casting model as my stock and use the finished part for my toolpaths. I was hoping the I could just put them together but it won't let me import another file or atleast I haven't found the option. Any ideas?

Does anyone use the backplot feature to estimate machining times for quoting? I am tring to make a prototype and get a quote before its even machined, but my times seem too fast. It also does not have times for certain operations. When I look at my min/max feed at the bottom for the ops with no time it is just .0000000000 but in my toolpath parameters they are all right. If anyone has any experience it would be appreciated.

Was that post purchased or did they already have that post on hand?

Was that post purchased or did they already have that post on hand?

I am using a knurling tool in my part and i was wondering if anyone has any tricks for knurling. As of now I am creating a line on my solid for the knurling tool path and I'm creating a tool to somewhat represent my knurling tool. There is no knurling toolpath that I can see so I am just doing a finish tool path and following the line that I created. I am using X3.