Thanks for all the tips guys. I have gotten to something more acceptable. I think most of the problem is due to the fact I am comming up against vertical walls.

Yes vertical walls cause a lot of issues especially with the older tool paths. We always put pressure on our mold designers to have draft on all walls even if it doesn't require it just to help with surfacing toolpaths.

p.s. hope the acquisition of Race Face by Fox doesn't affect your employment or the great products you guys make.

Try hybrid tool path, I had this a few weeks back and just could not get rid of it with scallop but changed to hybrid with similar settings and came out perfectly smooth !

Flowline still has it's places, great for external fillets on cores

Normal drill and contour operations, program one hole/slot for each diameter.

Transform, Rotate toolpath about centerline of part.

 

Then you only have to create 3 different planes instead of 64.......

This is how I would do it too. What didn't work ?

X8 has hole axis in the model prep drop down.

what it's missing, and is a tool I use daily is "pierce point".

Won't work with tapered holes like verisurf tools will, I have requested this though.

I just keep stalling on the job until the grass is so long the Wife does it and then I don't care what path she uses as long as it's done right, to spec and under budget !

You need to build a fence all the way around the yard, then build another fence half the width of your lawnmower inside of that. That way went you run your lawnmower and say, "Hey, I don't want you to cut this check fence," and it says, "check surfaces are gonna be treated as mow surfaces, beyoch," you still have the outside fence left when you're done.

 

Just try to avoid building any gaps, i.e. no gates or doors.

Lol , love it

just cause it's in a catalogue doesn't necessarily mean it's available

True, but in general we have had good service from KMetal so can only assume the same going forward.

No, sorry we don't. We have Capto here, and I used Capto at CWF. I've never used the KM system.

 

Have you used it at all?

No not personally , yeah understand the availability thing , although looking through the KM tooling catalogue I can't see us ever needing anything different to what is already available. (that's probably a dangerous comment)

We run Capto on our Multus B400W, and we also utilise Capto on our MU500 5 axis (give us the modular benefit). It is outstanding, and to be honest we don't find the price too bad.

You have any experience with KM system Mike ?

Thanks for your opinions,

Anyone using KM ???

As the subject implies I am looking for opinions, good or bad for either KM40 or Capto tooling for tooling up our new Mori NL2500 lathe.

Currently have a very good working relationship with our local Kennametal rep  and very little experience with the Sandvik one so leaning towards KM but would like to here what people think.

Thanks

MrFish and Murlin, we all have been there where are told to make something we know is really not practical, but someone thinks it is a good idea. He needs to make this part. Now if it will make what is needed after it is made is not his responsibility. I have scrapped $800k of part doing what I was told to do, that I said would not work. I was ordered to make it and I made it with my objections noted. I always tell people "if I say it is wrong you might want to listen not that I am the expert, but do you really want me to be right in this case?" I have been wrong before and will probably will be wrong again part of being human, but been right many more times than I have been wrong and that should count for something.

This is true, and we have probably all been there I was just making an observation.

On a side note, good luck drawing 0.016" thick material 3.5" deep

MrFish is asking about standard Lathe, though.

Correct

Yes, I know what you mean. For C and Y axis though, simply modelling the jaws and tool holder should suffice. In all honesty, with all the C and Y axis lathes I have programmed, I've never had to go further than backplot. That, and once you have programmed a few jobs you get a good feel for it anyway

 

I was going to say that you have Vericut for checking anything tricky anyway, but I clicked that your setup doesn't allow an additional machine

Yeah exactly, but we wouldn't have Vericut at all if we hadn't gone the limited version. Was almost half price

Not sure. I don't use it. To be honest, for anything other than a B axis Mill Turn/Multi Turret/Multi Spindle lathe, backplot does just fine over Machine Simulation or Vericut.

 

Might pay to check with your reseller.

 

Hi Mike

Thanks for the reply. We are thinking it might be a good solution for checking for clearance issues when programming tricky parts with driven tools and Y axis movement. If modelled and setup correctly it in theory could pickup any potential crashes between the often overlooked areas of this type of programming. i.e. tools in the turret that aren't actually being verified to machine guards, chuck etc

Does X7 lathe support machine simulation yet ?

there is a large and small option on the Customize page.

How do I make them a size right in between the small and large ones, I think that would be perfect

do you have a multi axis license ?

sure do, and have no trouble programming and posting to our 5 axis.

Anyone used the new Holder clearance, with multi axis tilt away function in the highspeed toolpaths ? It's not available for me , is greyed out, only the standard gouge checking is available. I have a multiaxis machine and post selected. Any ideas ?

this is a bug in X7

This looks to be another complete install, do we need to un-install Beta 1 first ?

Never mind I found the answer on the mastercam forum :-)

After transition from X7 to X8 lost my .kmp and . mtb files. Is there is the way to convert them ?

Mig - did you work out how to do this, normally I would use the update folder function but it's not there in X8

You must live in a different city to me... LOL

 

35 deg highs in Summer? *Sigh* I remember them...

Not 35 outside, but with our skylights if it's 30 outside we see 35 inside quite easily !