Another tip would be never give the heat treater 4 point spread. To keep parts as close as possible to the same, tell them 58-60 Rc.

OK here is my .02 Since its A-2, and you have some play in the hole size and location, I would finish before HT as A-2 is very stable and as long as you do a little calculating, dependig on total length of part, you should be able to easily get hole within the tolerance.

When doing graphite, you REALLY want to use diamond coated EM's, unless you can plan tool changes based on run time. Forum search will bring up names like Sp3 and OSG I think as most popular. The .06 refered to "six cents". Electrodes can (properly done) be polished before burning to improve finish. If you are machinoing 58-60 Rc O-1, it won't be friendly, but keep the finish cut thickness down to .002 or less.

Just a small correction Moto. MC filter works on any path any angle, but won't put in arcs unless you are running with an axis. Moto's point is good, except I don't know why he is suggesting uncoated, we still don't know mat'l. However the DataFlute recommendation is VERY good, there "BN-SS" series three flute balls have a great ability to "cut to center". another .02 for a total of .04

Threept What type of prg are you planning on? Usually in this situation one prg or style will not get you there. My advice would be avoid scallop and only use it if you have no other way. Contour mixed with Flowline and Parallel will probably get you what you want. Do not use the MC cusp height in the stepover box as "real". You will want the MC scallop height to be around .00002/.00003 to get real world results of what you need. You didn't say what mat'l is, but be sure your finish cuts are very even in the amount of mat'l they are taking, from the semi finish. As always the proper cutter for the mat'l and as big as you can without crowding corners. My .02

I never tried that, but couldn't you just rotate the part?

Fro me it usually means that i have moved something. The associated origin or something. I just go into WCS and hit "all-off" then move cplane from 3d to top, then rest to the WCS I wanted, and if it was something associated that has been moved, it will update.

p young I am running XP and set them at 256 for database and 512 for tlpth as per some of the other posts in here where people had tried different things and these seemed to work well. Only two weeks on this OS but so far it runs fine this way. MC puked when I had them set 450 & 550 so this is where I landed.

Jeff Works fine here with MR0105. If you are doing .xls version, sometimes it takes a while to put it together. Maybe check your task manager after you start it to see whats happening. I noticed it more on a machine with a '97 version of .xls than with '03 version.

Its probably preference according to your need, but I really like it. Search for "ncdatasheet" on the forum. Sorry i am no help with the other one.

Are you using the "ncdatasheet.dll" from the forum?

I'd love to have them MayDay! when you get time. Thanks

Rex We had to use an "elastic retention device" (read rubberband)on the X-Y-Z boards as they would vibrate loose when doing aggressive milling. Don't remember the over heating thing, but it wouldn't surprise me. I guess I would look at adding a fan or, like you said some vents to outside in the cabinet door or side panel.

BTW Welcome to the forum!

You should be able to blank just the parent surface, leaving the trimmed visible. I usually change colors and or levels of the parent/child to keep it simple.

Well its a little early, but I'll chime in a little. Just got my Sager 17" 1680 x 1050 glossy with P4 3.4, 2 gig ram, 1-7200 rpm HD, and the NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400 and its damn sweet so far! The Quadro is awesome compared to my ATI in my desktop, and all this in a portable package. Notice I say portable, as the best way to describe this machine is "A portable CAD/CAM workstation with a one hour battery back-up". So its not a "laptop" at 12.5 lbs and hot enough to keep your coffee warm! But so far I love it. Still straightening out things as its my first with XP-Pro, as I'd been using 2000pro, and getting all my stuff squared away.

The older controls its called "change program mask" and you use the *.* to see all on the disk.

Sure The buttons have numbers going across, just see what number is the one you want to stay where it is, then move the one you want by it, then reassign the one you overwrote to put two beside each other.

Stevieboy Did you read the Help file? Alt-H and search "detect flats".

Come to think of it, I am not sure if i usually do that, as if the flat can't be milled economically with a sq em, then I might do a flowline on the top flat, but that is usually with an electrode.

Yes if your top cut isn't set correct. Are you using "absolute" in the cut depths?

That could be your "cut depths" "adjustment to top cut" setting. Did you check the little "flats" box?

Did you find it Stevieboy?

Do you have the "tpcfg.dll" and the "flats" box in your last page of parameters?

Do you have your filter set so it only outputs X/Y arcs?