Thanks Brad!

I need to hit 3 points in the y- direction to square up a plane and call that C0. Ive done probing with fanuc easyset but Im on planet Okuma now. Any help...and I do mean ANY is much appreciated!! DM

does that happen a lot? Is there any way to find out when it will be back up?

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/ wont open for me.

Can someone pls help me get to the Mastercam:swiss FTP link? Thanks

weeel...thats a bummer. Wont be the first time ive had to recreate a wheel. Thanks for the heads up. Have a Merry Christmas, Paris.

I used to have my own keymap file with a name other than the default mastercam.kmp and config would list it so that I could choose it. Is there a different way of doing this now?

Was wondering if anyone has info on commercial low profile (<= 1.25 diameter) right angle drill attachments for CNC mills...or a way to adapt an existing right angle drill for cnc operations. Thanks, DM

Hopefully I'm out of line here..putting this up in the industrial forum... Can anyone recommend a good shop that has spindle time to do some not to complicated steel tooling? All models and NC code would be supplied. Probably have enough to keep a 3-4ax spindle busy full time for about a month with a lot more to follow. Thanks.

I'm looking at buying Cimcoedit to replace a DNC/Editor program that is just not working out... First, I need to backplot lathe programs that have absolute I&j numbers; Does Cimcoedit have an easy way to toggle between absolute and incremental values? Also, can Cimco be programmed to have different machine configurations so that when I backplot I can set machine specific default settings just by selecting that machine? As a bonus, could people here please comment on basic or advanced features of Cimcoedit that they like to use often to make their jobs easier? Many thanks! DM

That's Low Melting Point....sorry.

http://www.rotometals.com/Low-Melting-Fusible-Alloys-s/21.htm Has anyone here tried this product for tooling ie filling a cavity with it and then drilling/tapping into it and bolting from it? It seems like the mechanical properties would most likely be too soft.... Any input is really appreciated. Thanks!! DM

Nice. Would you like to share that little piece of code with your colleagues? I'd like to test it out on this program and do a comparison.

Yeh...this program was done in NX originally and the operators have tweaked it what it is now. So in this case the manual conversion method was the quickest way to get proven code up and going on a different machine. But I agree, if it was mastercam and up to me I'd have taken the time to 'do it the right way'. Update: Vericut proved out the code and it worked first shot. Will me making minor mods to the fixture to fit the table of the horizontal today and be making chips.

I forgot to mention that its programmed to rotary center....only one offset.

"you could also use G68 to rotate it 90 deg." Um. Thanks for the reply.

if my grandma had wheels she coulda been a bike.

PS: that qualifies as an easy button I think.

Well it turns out that this is very straight forward and this is how I did it: using the right hand rule; x- becomes y+, y+ becomes x+, z+/- stays, y- becomes x-, x+ becomes y-, I- becomes j+, j+ becomes I+, j- becomes I-, I+ becomes j-, k+/- stays, all A rotations become B rotations. Using any editor just make the changes and use a random substitution character when needed so that only the intended codes get changed. The backplot on the editor verifies that it works but I'm going to run thru Vericut for the final proof.

Is there an axis-rotation code or macro that makes this a straight forward fix at the machine rather than re-posting? Thanks! D

What I was hoping for was some kind of gadget. An example is: start with a 2" cube. Vise on it to full depth (std hard jaws). Use a .25x1.25loc carb em. The program pockets out 6 different shapes all with a unique shaped island (round, square, star, oval...) on top of a round boss. The boss is to a depth of about Z-.3 from the face. The program stops 6 times to flip the part to the next face of the cube. when its all done there is a milled do-hickey that is trapped inside the excess of the cube and it just knocks around inside like some kind of brain teaser puzzle. Maybe I'll just do that.....but I was thinking that there was still cooler stuff that I couldfind here.

The class is three hours. I'm the instructor so I'll be able to plan ahead enough to make it happen. Thanks for asking.

I've agreed to show a trades skills print reading class an introduction to CNC mill setup and running a program. Does anyone have something 'cool' that's easy enough to demo a part out of aluminum? Say...6 tools or less and something that will be no bigger than a 3" cube? The machine is a 3ax Hass VF2. Thanks for any help! DM

I'll try that but I'm thinking that it won't work and will just be processed as a comment. Maybe if it had brackets around #144....[#144] ? If it works I'll put it up. Also...I'm getting used to storing variables in a safe area...#600's. Thanks for the feedback!! DM

BTW...thanks for the tip about the Smid book.