I have a "round-about" method that works everytime. This is probably a limited use thing because I only have to program in 2D 99% of the time. I have drawn a library of chamfer tools that I use. When I need to make a chamfer, I merge the drawing of the tool and then place it on a profile view of my part. I can then measure the tool diameter at the point of contact. That becomes the diameter that I use for compensation. I also can take a measurement, and get the correct "Z" depth. The operators like it because they get a lot less spoilage form setup parts. Like I said at the start, it ain't perfect, but it works for me.

No one has mentioned ESPRIT for mill. I used it about 5 years. It had some nice drawing commands that I liked, especially in the trim menu. It was upgraded 8 times (ver 8 through 17) if I remember correctly, and they still couldn't get a post file that would work with a DYNAPATH 20 control. We switched to Mastercam 5 after a demo of MC and Smartcam. It's been Mastercam since, and no regrets.

I've never had a vets day off either! US Army 1966-1969 Viet Nam vet with the "BIG RED ONE" (1st Infantry Division)

I just received a new book from ALRO Steel. They serve Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. I notice they have a division called Alro Specialty Metals which lists a service center in Pitssburgh. 412-279-1660 412-279-5955 fax 800-542-0364 It took me quite awhile to get the book, but it was a great improvement over the old book. I like to deal with them because they don't have a problem selling small lots like many of the bigger companies (think Ryerson, I'm still waiting for an order of 3/8" 4140 from November of 2002, although I long since got it from Alro). I second one of the previous posts, Parker is good to buy from.

HOURLY. 37.5hrs. normal workweek, but we run 24/7/364. A lot of weekend overtime, most holidays. A lot of coverage through the week because we "reorganized" (i.e. laid of 20% of the hourly workforce) several years ago. Time-and-a-half for overtime. Double-time was also reorganized out the door. Five weeks vacation a year, but due to a new hiring policy, we (old-timers)get an extra 5 weeks vacation as a onetime deal.

Thad; Thanks very much for your file. I will look at it more closely when I get to work Tuesday. I have already customized all of my defaults, and that in itself is a real time saver. Someone made a posting the other day about sharing their tips, and I heartily agree. I only wish I had more to share. If anyone is interested, there was a post several months ago about duplicating the HAAS g12 and g13 operations. I spent a lot of time tweaking Mastercam circular toolpaths to put out code that works the same way. It just doesn't give g12 and g13. The code for cutter comp even works without having to do any hand editing after posting. This had always been the big hang up with us. [ 08-30-2003, 04:45 AM: Message edited by: jenks ]

I was just reading Millman^crazy's post about drilling & reaming. In the replies, several of you mentioned using your operations libraries . I got to tell you, I did this for the first time a few days ago, and I see what a time saver this can be. (I'm pretty slow, it took me 9 years to try it!) Anyway,here are some questions concerning the libraries. How do you manage them? Do you have a library for several variations of the process you are doing? Or, do you just make a basic operation, then change parameters as necessary? How do you name them so that you will know what does what? James Meyette's comment is what made me start to wonder how everyone treated this method. Keep up the discussions, I may not add much to them, but at least I am learning something everyday. [ 08-29-2003, 10:58 PM: Message edited by: jenks ]

Thanks for replies, you guys are really fast. Your answers have left me with a few more questions. RE gcode's comment: You were correct in assuming that it is a single flute cutter. I think you have cleared up what has muddled my thinking. You stated "the feedrate has no function in forming the thread in threadmilling. You treat it like a one flute endmill". I believe you are telling me that there is no relationship between the feed rate on the TOOL PAGE (x&y motion)and the thread pitch (z motion)on the THREAD MILL page. I think this is what was confusing me the most. RE Millman^crazy comments: I do have the feed table in my Vardex book, but I think I was confusing the feed rate (along the cutter path) with the rate the spindle was moving in the Z axis to make the helix. I also found the FPM recommendations in the book and I chose the lowest value and will work from there. A lot of you guys scare me witless with the feeds and speeds you use. I can just imagine the shrapnel flying through the air! Like I said, thread milling is new to me, so I'll be accessing a lot of uncharted stupid in my mind. Now here is another question. My thread is 1.181" deep. When I run the process in backplot, it looks like it makes 2 different helixes at different depths in the part. Is this normal? I don't see any parameters on the THREAD MILL page that would change the number of cuts. Again thanks to all of you for your replies, I knew I could count on you. It just makes me feel bad that I am unable to offer any advice to others.

I am stepping into the unknown on this one. I am using CIRCULAR TOOLPATHS -- THREAD MILLING. [1] I am trying to cut an internal "TRAPAZOIDAL" TR-F M24 x 3.0 [2] The material is 464 naval bronze, so I am starting with a cutting speed of 390 fpm (2098 rpm). [3] I am using a VARDEX TMMC100-4 124/202 holder which has an effective diameter of .71". The insert has 6 teeth. I had to create a new tool, and it is possible that I have not correctly defined the tool. [4] The thread pitch converts to .11811 (3.0/25.4). [5] I plan to climb mill (from the bottom to the top) [6] I will be using a HAAS VF-4 [7] I believe that I have the THREAD MILL PARAMETERS set correctly. THE BIG QUESTION: How do I calculate the feedrate for the TOOL PARAMETERS page? I have come up with values ranging from .11811ipm to 250.98ipm. Thanks in advance for any insight you can share.

I've been doing that for quite awhile, and it has been a valuable resource.

Thanks to all for your input. Here is an update: Thad: Yes, I copied the operation 4 times, and only on 1 copy did the box "grey out". Fatty McButterPants: It sounds like your idea will work, but I can't get the problem to repeat today. Anyway, it was not a big deal, but I was curious about it.

You got me there. I don't think I've ever seen a message about retaining depths when I copy an operation. Of course, it may flash by so fast that I don't even see it. I've done this copy operations thing for what seems like forever, and today is the first time I have ever seen the depth box greyed out.

I have a number of holes of various sizes to drill. As a shortcut I spot drill all locations, and then copy the spot drill operation in my OPERATIONS MANAGER as many times as necessary for the subsequent operations. I then edit each new operation for depth, and change the tools as required for each hole. I now have a situation that I have never encountered before. I have one operation for four holes in which I can't change the depth. The blank in the parameter page for depth is greyed out. I'm thinking "no problem", I will change the depth by editing the points using POINT EDIT. I couldn't change the depths that way either. This is not a big deal; I just made a new operation from scratch. But, I am curious, as I have never seen the depth entry box "greyed out". Has anyone else ever seen this?

Quote: "Handles you had to crank" That brought back an old memory. We used to have a vintage WWII Brown & Sharpe horizontal mill (complete with War Production Board Tag and requisite machine green paint!), and it was funny to watch someone run it. Both hands would be cranking handles like crazy, their head would be bobbing up and down, and if they had a lot of talent, their feet would be moving too. It always reminded us of monkeys in a zoo, which I guess the place was at times.

Thad, that is the correct Roy Howard. I had been seeing his name for years in Mastercam advertising, so I asked a mutual acquaintance from Michigan, who now works for our distributor in Indiana, if he knew Roy. Sure enough, it was the same person. So, it is a small world after all.

I was happy to see Scott Bond's reply, that means I may not be the oldest person on this board. I started my apprenticeship in 1970. I worked with manual machines until 1985 when we got a Tree 325 mill with a Dynapath control. I thought I had died and gone to heaven, I couldn't fathom machining being so much fun. I learned programming from scratch, using calculators, geometry, and Dynapath cal-assist. In 1987 we got our first software package. Espirit, which was essentially worthless when it came to generating code for a part, since we could get no support. We got a lot of upgrades, but no support. At least then I could generate endpoints which let me write code easier than I could before. Then, we got Mastercam 5.5 and things have been looking up since. More machines, more controls and more work. As a footnote, Roy Howard if you are out there anywhere on the board, you know me. We went to high school together.

Okuma lathe. The operator did a mid-sequence restart with the tailstock out. The turret did a rapid XZ straight to home position, not the normal rapid X then rapid Z that we use. It broke a #5 morse taper live center in half, exactly in the middle. I won't even mention what it did to the alignment.

Just a follow-up. The job was run today, and the operators were completly satisfied with the helix bore toolpath even though it didn't have any arcs in it(which I doubt they even noticed!).

Thanks Keith: Your comments were exactly what I was looking for, a real users comments. I'm in total agreeement with RStuart, I'm getting the phone calls already. I was wondering about the cable drives, I've never seen anything like that before. No tap cycle, thats bizarre. Anyway, thanks for comments, I appreciate them.

I saw one of these in operation at a recent tool show here in the sticks (that's Indiana), and was impressed with what it can do. We have a lot of short count, small parts that would run great in something like this. Also, it would help us out with secondary operations. We can't really justify the cost of a Swiss-Style, but this is affordable. Is anyone out there using one? Any pros or cons you would care to share? Do you program it with MasterCam?

Thanks for the quick responses. No, the number of lines is not important. Actually, the only reason I brought up the question was that I thought it should output arcs in the program since the backplot showed arcs. It led me to believe that I had screwed something up, and I am easily led that way. So, like you said, "I'll just let it rip." Thanks again for the replies.

I have a job where this seems to be the process I want to use. I am counterboring in an angled surface. This is the first time I have attempted to use this option. TOOLPATHS--NEXT MENU--CIRC TOOLPATHS--HELIX BORE I chose my geometry, filled in the parameters, and ran the the backplot on the part. In backplot, the tool comes down, gets to the top of the stock and proceeds to clean out my little pocket using arc mills. Ah ha! Just exactly what I wanted it to do. But, when I post the code, there aren't any arcs. Every move is a G1,with very small moves. For example here are a few lines of the code that was generated: N19 G1 Z-.912 (TOP OF THE STOCK AT THIS POINT) N21 X-.0235 Y1.3162 Z-.9131 N23 X-.0147 Y1.3145 Z-.9142 N25 X-.0058 Y1.3137 Z-.9153 You can see from the code what is happening, and since I am going down 1.254" from the top of the stock, using code like this, it is a lot of lines! My first question. Is this the way it should work? My second question, and a statement. It probably isn't. So, what parameter(s) did I not set correctly? Thanks in advance.

In 5 years and a few days. I'll be 62. Wife is nagging me now to pull the pin, but I like the work so I'm staying. It's going to be Northern Michigan or the Upper Peninsula for us.

You guys are right. Something like this can be a real learning experience. Thanks for pointing me the way home.

Before I start, please forgive me for the wordiness of this post. I have library programs for soft vise jaw blanks that I wrote in V8. The programs are still saved as V8 programs. When I need to machine a jaw, I get the library program; save it to my new file and make the changes. I am now using V9. I wrote a new program for a soft jaw and sent the file to the machine and it came back to me. The comment from the operator was: when the !!!! are you going to do this right? I was confused. The program ran correctly in backplot, it ran correctly in verify. Only then did I notice that all the operations weren't being posted. I could pick and choose operations and they would post, but when I picked all operations, they would not all post. I looked at all my operations, and that is when I saw the problem. The operations had two different NCI file paths. c:mcam8millNCIfixedjaw.NCI c:mcam9millNCIfixedjaw.NCI My question: How can I change the mcam8 file path to an mcam9 file path?