Thanks all for the info. Our demo was done by Bob Borchelt and I didn't bring up support but I will.

 

I am looking at RYM and will be contacting Cimco as well.

 

Appreciate all the advice!

That was the guy I dealt with... beware. Know exactly what you are getting and that it does everything that he says it will and that someone will train you how to do it. No real complaints on the software other than trying to learn it to use with limited time to play with it.

We only have Predator DNC and Predator Editor. From what I have figured out it is very functional, but there is absolutly no instructional manual on how to use the stuff and have gotten no support from predator, not to mention being lied to about the capabilities of Predator Editor before we were commited to it. So just beware if you go that way, make sure you work out a deal for some training and support.

Jeremy,

Just now got a look at that file, if you turn the solid into a wireframe you see that the toolpath in op 18 would actually cut off part of the solid boundary so it is still not entirely accurate, but since I have still yet to get any help from my reseller on this I am just going to program it with the 1/2" full depth and see where that gets me. Thanks for looking at it though.

My current employer is a $40M business with about [100] people here at the facility. I started here as a CNC Programmer / knock-around guy (although my title was Mfg Engineer) and have continuously pressed to get further into the decision making process. I now manage Manufacturing Engineering (3 guys) and the Tool Crib (1 guy and about $250K annual budget); research, specify and negotiate all machine tool purchases; handle facility layouts and associated rigging, electrical power, and machine installation; CNC machine tool service; review drawings; process Engineering Changes and Engineering Releases; program; fight fires in the shop; etc.

 

Even though I do all this stuff, I am still 2 levels in the org chart below VP-Manufacturing (which is where I'd like to end up) and 100% of our senior management hold Master's degrees or PhD. I'd like to stay here, so I need the paper to get where I want to go; if it doesn't work out that way, the paper will get me a better job somewhere else and I have learned a LOT of things I didn't know. Degrees are more than just sh!t to hang on the wall, there IS actual learning that can take place.

 

C

Sounds like you have it figured out and are on your way, thanks for sharing your position and insight.

Top management pays YOU to know jack about manufacturing; they are supposed to worry about managing.

 

There is nothing I like less than an executive who read a book about machining, or gets American Machinist, or has an uncle who's a machinist, and then comes over and tells me (the machining professional who has been working in the metal trades for fifteen years) what the cause of some problem is, or that it "should be quick" to move a job that was programmed by hand twenty years ago, in a Yasnac, with no work offsets, in a 25-tool, 6,000RPM, BT40 machine, to an Okuma, 10,000 RPM, 20-tools, CAT40. Assume that I know what I am doing; if I thought you could help me, I would've asked you.

 

The reasons that I want an MBA, so I can move up, do not include playing manufacturing engineer; I want to guide the direction of the company and let my guys do what they do. As an employee, you should not expect your boss to know how to do your job, as that is what they pay YOU to do; as a manager, you should not assume that you can do an employee's job, because THAT is the cause of much friction!

 

C

Well thought out, Chris what were you looking for as job prospects? Most companies I see seem to be small family run organizations where supervisor/manager is about as high as you get without being family regardless if you know anything or not. Then their are the ones that you have to work there 20 years to get off the floor regardless of your qualifications to do anything more. I would assume much larger corporations(I am thinking Caterpillar and John Deere size) may have possibilites in that realm such as VP of manufacturing or something like that.

Quite possibly, either.

 

Would really depend on what was available and made sense.

 

I am always open to change, if it is change that makes sense.

I am just curious if there is/should be a place for a business degree in a manufacturing environment below top management that usually doesn't know jack about manufacturing.

Yup, there isn't much more financial sense for me to get an BSME, the cost versus the income increase doesn't make sense.

 

So that leads me down another path and a business degree seems to make the most sense.

John,

Do you feel that a business degree coupled with your experience would get you into manufacturing management or were you thinking of a career change when you wrote the above statement?

Excellent choice

Thanks

Thanks for the write up jeremy, I'm away from the computer until monday now, but I'll take a look at it then.

Well I now have access to the off-topic forum if you would like to move it back.

My link

 

Here is a link for you to check out. Going full depth like that people are getting some great tool life. I have a few jobs that I have switched to a solid carbide tool instead of an insertable and gained tool life. The one thing to remember is to apply radial chip thinning.

I've done that quite a bit, does work pretty well. Will definitly consider that more, but I am still stuck with figuring out how I can get the dynamic rest mill to work like it should whether I cut that part with that tool path or not.

Here are some screen pics

The OP14 roughing operation

Logo OP 14.bmp

The OP 18 rest milling operation, you can see it is trying to recut the area with the hexagon shape

Logo OP 18.bmp

What material is it? I would use the .5 end mill at full depth and 10% radial step over instead of the 1.25 using depth cuts.

Material is 304L and each piece is roughly 11.125" x 36" so I have alot of material to remove. Was concerned with the endmill living that long, going to run it in a fadal so I am sure there will be some chatter.

just killer busy...

If someone hasn't helped you by this weekend I'll check it out

Thanks gcode, this is a project for the company so it isn't critical but they are hounding me to get started on it this month. Still have a lot of programming left before then.

55 views and not a response, I must not be the only one stumped by this...

I have a file that I am working on trying to do some rest milling from a previous operation and it keeps wanting to cut areas that are already cut and miss some that it should cut no matter how I define it, what am I missing here?

In the file the dynamic rest milling is Op 18 it is using a 1/2 bull end mill to come in and clean up farther what was left behind from op 14 where it used a 1.25 button cutter to high feed cut the bulk of the material out. It keeps wanting to re-cut the section with the hexagon shape and it should go around every shape cleaning up for the corner radius difference, but it misses some. The 1.25 cutter has a 13mm insert and thus a radius of roughly .255 the end mill has a .03125 corner radius so it should clean up the difference there. Both operations are set to cut 1/2" deep final and to leave .02" on walls to be cleaned up with a 1/4" bull end mill in an op I haven't done yet(was planning to use dynamic rest milling for that too). It should only clean up around the perimeter of all the shapes, the corners and inside the hook of the J shape, but it does about half of that and tries to core mill out one whole area that is already machined. I have tried several different ways to define the rest material and still don't get a desired result. Hoping someone here can shed some light on what I am doing wrong.

File is on the FTP site in the unspecified uploads folder, file name JMW_LOGO.MCX-6

In the poll there is a significant amount of voters who would suggest a degree other than a B.S.M.E. or a B.S.E.T. I am curious what you would recommend and why, or is your recommendation no degree at all? Thanks for all the input, and opinions so far, I really appreciate the insight.

I've got a BSET degree in Manufacturing Engineering Technology from MSU-Mankato, but in reality the major difference between the BSET degree an the BS in any other engineering (including mechanical) is that my degree wouldn't allow me to certify anything dealing with public safety. At my current position I'm essentially the guy that does just about everything. Between designing new products and fixtures, to programming our couple of machines, to running the machines, to doing pretty much anything that's asked of me.

 

I'm sure I could be making more with a BS instead of a BSET, but it's not always about what you make, but how you feel about what you're doing. Heck, I could move to Minneapolis/St. Paul and make $150k in a heartbeat, there's plenty of jobs there that I'm more than qualified for, but I simply don't want to move there, and enjoy my job now.

 

I would have gone for my BS in Mechanical engineering, but differential equations pretty much kicked my xxxx when I got to it. There was something about not having any numbers in math that just didn't make sense to me. Everything else in that program was pretty simple to me, but differential equations just didn't work.

 

In the end it's all about whether you think it's worth getting or not, whether it's a goal you'd feel comfortable trying to acheive, and no one else should be making up your mind for you.

Thanks Marshal, I appreciate the comparison of the two degree paths I am considering. Most comparisons I see seem to deal more in the R&D/Design world instead of real manufacturing, which in that respect the ME degree that is based more on theory than practice would be a better choice where I think here in manufacturing the practice based BSET degree would be just fine if not prefered in some cases. I am looking at online degree programs since it just doesn't make sense for me at this time to try to get to a campus full or even part time. The BSET program I seen has the best schedule for me and at a cost that is reasonable. The two ME degree programs I am looking at, one has a schedule and travel for labs that is do able, but the cost per credit is outrageous at roughly $868 for out of state tuition, the other requires more visits to campus but the cost is less than half of the other so that is one I am considering the most at this point, depending on how my credits transfer, may take some more classes at my local community college before officially enrolling if that is my final decision as to whether to go back or not. Have been given some leads over the past couple days that I am high on the list for some future openings in two companies that I have been looking at and think I could be happy there, just don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, and make sure my education and experience is stable to build my career upon.

Definitely a push in high schools to go away from anything manufacturing/hardworking related, which is a good thing and a bad thing. It means more job security for me and us, but it means American manufacturing will continue to fall because of lack of skilled labor.

Thats' pretty accurate.

 

 

Not required. I'm trying to figure out the ones I know that have degrees... I'm thinking maybe 30% have degrees, maybe a few percentage points more. To the best of my recollection, MOST do not. Not only does an AE require real world (not paper) skills, he needs to be able to convery those skills in a reassuring manner to the guy that just parted with $1,500,000 of his company's hard earned money. Sorry bus some n00b with a newly minted piece of paper isn't getting that done. No way, no how. Besides, I managed to get where I am today WITHOUT managing to rack up $100k in student loan debt. Thhose years spent turning handles was WAY more valuable IMHO. But to each their own.

Thanks for the insight, all is appreciated.

Derek, it COMPLETELY depends on where a person is at their career. As somebody at the beginning stages, yes a degree could help. For someone like me, that peice of paper isn't worth the pewp on it from wiping my arse with it. It's not going to gain me one more cent in salary over the course of my life. It's just not. Everybody is different, and there's no pat answer for everyone. Bottom line is you have to asess your carer goals and the path required to get there.

 

I'll put my W2 up against a seasoned ME, ANY day of the week. I've seen the slavery salary surveys...

I am just taking a guess here but I am assuming you are a senior applications engineer for a machine tool distributor? That is a job I think I would enjoy and could be good at with some more experience, if that is the case it is good to know that it is not imperative to have a 4 year degree to get a similar job.

I am quite shocked as to how many people do not have a degree but still have high ranking positions in their companies. It goes to show that hardwork, knowledge and ability might actually get someone somewhere. The mentality around here seems to be "if they aren't smart enough to do the job, then promote them to management" or just bring in people who have no idea about what manufacturing is even though they have a 4 year education in that. I am just tired of my application being over looked some times because I don't have a 4 year education even though I could do the job just as effectively if not better. Same difference when it comes to experience, earlier in my career I was passed over for a programming position at a different company because I didn't have the 20 years experience this guy had, well his 20 years of experience was loading parts and pushing the button on the same 15 types of parts for those 20 years on 2 different machines, he knew nothing other than the programmer job paid better and had an office. I left that company after that, but heard later on he was let go from that position.

I agree with the first part of this, but not the second.

A good CNC programmer on an hourly pay scale with overtime will make a lot more

than even senior engineers who are paid salary.. and they'll both work 50+ hours a week.

I've seen this over and over...at midsized companies and Fortune 500 companies as well.

Interesting info...

I currently have an A.A.S. degree but feel that I am about as high up the food chain as I will get without getting a 4 year degree. I am only 23 so I have a lot of learning and years of working left. I am considering Mechanical Engineering B.S.M.E and Engineering Technology B.S.E.T, the Engineering Technology degree would fit my schedule far easier, but may not be the best choice as I hear a BSET degree may be limiting for some jobs. Just curious as to what is the most common degree among users on the board is, and what everyones thoughts were on the matter of education levels and manufacturing.

Sorry for being late to the game here guys, but I have been out of town on vacation and just getting caught back up on these issues. We ran into a couple of issues that we didn't like and wanted to take a quick look at them so we disabled the downloads.

 

The issues we are looking at are:

• 0 value for vertical arc entry in Optirough Toolpaths is causing the tool to hit the part. 0 was valid and working in X5 MU1. Entering a small vertical arc value makes the tool clipping the part go away.
• Problem using the parameter save function inside a toolpath corrupting your default file - Seems to be only when using the updated defaults function inside the toolpath parameter page of a 3d HST toolpath. If you are using X6 just back up your default files in case you updated them by mistake in X6 and they get corrupt. Even if they get corrupt, you can still continue creating the toolpaths you will just see a error dialog every time the defaults are accessed - just click through it.
• When selecting geometry that has points from some toolpaths (facing, circle mill, etc) using Pickoff / pull/cutoff feature in X6, the points are being lost in the original operations and the ops dirty dirty. You have to add the point geometry back in or do not select the points during geometry selection.
• X6 file association is broken - causes X6 files to not be associated to the X6 functions - ie - double clicking on a MCX-6 opens X6 but with a blank file and not the part you double clicked on. You can manual edit the registry to fix this one.

 

We are looking into what is required to fix these and determining if a patch is sufficient or if we need to re-release the X6 installs. I will post again as more information becomes available.

 

Jim

Anxiously awaiting a fix