I'll start. Sandvik Coromill 210 High Feed mill. 1.0 diameter. #RA210-025O25-09M. 850sfm / .030" chip load in 4330M steel (annealed). 195ipm!

I'm going thru the activereports tutorial and I'm hoping that some nice person who is up on the AR process could please help me out with a good example of files that work together to make the setup sheet? As far as I can tell, I would need the .XML file, the .RPX file, the image files that I think are .BMP, and the MCX-6 file. Also, any advice that will help me get my head around this AR thing is very appreciated!! Many thanks in advance! DM

Preview is causing Activereports to puke out. Does anyone know a fix for this? Or am I dong something wrong?

Well, duh. Sorry.

How can I tell if I'm at MU2?

On the topic of Shrinkers...whats the price difference to a typical hard holder like Lyndex?

We grind all the flats on our cutters by hand and it sucks. It seems like it would be easy enough to have a small manual grinding machine so that you could put the cutter into a holder and work it into the wheel for a nice square notch. Does anyone know of anything like that? Thx!!

We need to solve the limited-memory-barrier problem so that we can run bigger programs on older machines. It seems that a compact interface like an Ipad would work pretty slick but I've never done it like that. What are people doing to drip feed programs into thier machines' controls lately? Thx.

The topic says it all. I'm hoping to hear about cutters, technique, & toolpath used. I've seen crazy removal rates using this but never really got into it myself. Thx. ==> For Steel.

Thanks Colin.

Just straight pocket. I did the area mill and it looks great. Just hope it fits into the machine.

Rstewart, this is the toolpath I get when I chain the rectanle, then the circle.

I'd use it Jeff, but the machine I'm programming for has limited memory.

I need to pocket the rectangle but stay away from the circle. Thx.

A good rule of thumb for me is to see what shops are paying thier programmers and just double it. When you consider benefits with paid holidays, vacation, sick time that the independent does not get, it adds up. $70/hr is not unresonable if you're good. That means that you know how/when to use the X6 HSM toolpaths, Multi-ax, got good setup sheet support figured out etc.. Ooops...I just read the part about basic 2D lathe and mill. Contract programmers would do well to make $30 here in the PNW. HTH

I try dropping the baud rate (just a guess).

This error wont go away and I cant find whats causing it. Backplot and Verify look fine. I only see the error when I save.

Hi D&S. I've had a few cases just like that and in every one it was a casting part but it had the option for hog out. The raised text was optioned for machined text every time. I'd contact the engineer thats on the print or if its Boeing go through the engineering liason request process. Raised letters are always a pain and IMO 90% of the time they're unnecessary for machined parts and they add big $$ to the manufacturing process. HTH

Perfect. The file descriptor is just what I was hoping for. Thanks guys!

I just had a thought that it would be cool if I could open up a file and be able to read about the last changes that were made, or cutter notes, or tooling problems notes, etc. Is there a notepad or anything similar that can be attached to a file for that purpose? Any other ideas about how to accomplish the same thing? Thanks!! DM

The mat'l is some 9000 series hardened steel at 55hrc...a sector gear. An EDM vendor quoted a per part time of 28 minutes. I'd like to do something like plunge rough with a ceramic insert but the root diameter is pretty small...about .177dia. I uploaded the MCX-6 file here: ftp://mastercam-cadcam.com/Mastercam_forum/X6_FIles/EDM SAYS 28MINUTES.MCX-6 Maybe a 2D dynamic toolpath???? But man...I don't think that I can beat 28minutes. I know that its going to spring some to so I'd have to stop to re-clamp. I've seen ceramic inserts to some pretty amazing stuff in inconel. If I could crank up the R's and plunge with some kind of .250dia ceramic cutter at a crazy feed rate of 40-60ipm, then 2D HFM the rest..... Any suggestions? Heres what the part looks like with the stock drawn around it:

We just dropped a brand new MA550 on our floor. Its a sweetheart. Geared spindle, 1000ipm feedrate (same as rapid), Hi-Cut (high speed look ahead) is standard, 36pot ATC, 50taper, thru spindle air and coolant. We added a Midaco pallet changer that works great but a drawback is that you loose 6" of Z travel. Talk to the guys at Gosiger. They're the Okuma gurus and will answer all of your questions.

Has anybody figured a way to log the feed rate override settings on a machine while its running? Maybe something like a network connection that runs on a server and gets feedback from the machines' control settings, then logs time and date etc..?

Thanks Gcode. It was in my post. ....this Dynamic toolpath is some pretty great stuff. I do though have to try hard to forget about mcam legacy toolpath logic. When I finally get the HST right its pretty cool to watch at the machine. And this place has only seen it on Youtube. I roughed 4330M at 33HRC at 195ipm using Surface HS Optirest rough. It turned a 2.5hr operation into 35minutes. The operators got pretty quiet and the managers smiled.

I tried looking in my machine definition but couldn't find it. Could this be a post issue?