Hello, Any Heidenhain or post experts out there willing to share there expertise? I'm trying to tweak in my post for a 3 axis Heidenhain 530I control. Everything seems to be working fine except when I edit drilling depths. I have a part where I'm drilling several holes the same depth except in two locations. I go into operations manager, geometry and edit depths at the two points. When I backplot in Mastercam depths are correct, but the post only puts out the drill cycle once and calls the cycle at all locations and never picks up the fact you wanted to change depths at two locations. Here is a small piece of how the code looks right now; 186 CYCL DEF 200 DRILLING ~ Q200=+.1 ; SET-UP CLEARANCE ~ Q201=-.195 ; DEPTH ~ Q206=120 ; FEED RATE FOR PLUNGING ~ Q202=+.195 ; PLUNGING DEPTH ~ Q210=+0 ; DWELL TIME AT TOP ~ Q203=+0 ; SURFACE COORDINATE ~ Q204=+.1 ; 2ND SET-UP CLEARANCE ~ Q211=+0 ; DWELL TIME AT BOTTOM 187 L F MAX M99 188 L X+1 Y-.3125 F MAX M99 189 L X+1.5625 Y-.5 F MAX M99 190 L X+8.3125 F MAX M99 191 L X+8.875 Y-.3125 F MAX M99 192 L X+9.4375 Y-.5 F MAX M99 M99 calls the cycle At line # 189 & 191 I want my depth to change to -.145. I need to somehow make the post recognize the depth change and force a new cycle definition. Any help would be appreciated.

NTMA use to publish a couple good books "Basic Diemaking" and "Advanced Diemaking".

You might want to look at these two http://www.dbamanufacturing.com/ and http://www.mysmeinfo.com/index.html

Check these out, http://www.lyndexnikken.com/bullseye.html Haven't used this particular model but have been happy with Nikken tooling.

Also look at DMG. I have one of there Universal (2 axis) lathes and am very happy with it. The link to there multi-axis lathes is http://www.gildemeister.com/us/gmx

We run quite a bit of copper. Try and use TIALN coated carbide whenever possible. I start at 500 sfm for a .5 dia. 2 flute cutter approx. .003 chip load or 23ipm feed. With drills I prefer 15 deg helix you can push them harder. Example .125 drill 9000 rpm 17 ipm feed. Much flood coolent.

A.B. Tools moved quite a while ago. Here is there info; A.B Tools 1051 Aviation Blvd. Lincoln, CA 95648 ph 916-408-2442 fax 916-408-0740 www.abtoolsinc.com

Don’t want to make anybody jealous, but I have a three mile commute. Two lights and one stop sign or two stop signs and one light depending on the route. I bicycled to work today.

Mike, We are looking at a DMG DMU 80T. Just the 3 axis machine though. Gary Madgett

Hello, We are considering buying a machine with a Heidenhein iTNC 530 control and was hopeing to get some feedback from anybody using this control. It seems to be a powerful control. I have downloaded the user manuals from there web site. It looks like it will take a little getting use to but nothing too scary. We will be using Mastercam 85% of the time, at the machine 15%. Are the 3 axis posts supplied with Mastercam both conversational and ISO (g-code) pretty trouble free. Looking for any input to help us make a decision. Thanks in Advance.