Being a long time Mastercam programmer, I had to switch to Partmaker to program Citizen multi-axis, multi-spindle swiss machines. Partmaker is no Mastercam, but it is very effective for programming swiss machines. There is a lot going on in a swiss machine. Partmakers graphic module has saved me many times! The geometry creation side of Partmaker is outdated, but it gets the job done.

First regen = 55 sec Second regen = 22 sec Dell Workstation PWS450 Xeon 2.40 Ghz 1 gig ram Quadro FX500 - 128Mb

1977 Triupmh 750 Bonnieville (now in storage). Mark Monica

I would think a good programmer would enjoy learning new software. I've been on MasterCAM from V3. I would accept learning surfcam has a challange. It's the same with machine controls, I always enjoy learning a new control.

I'm using helix bore for the first time. I can't seem to get cutter comp to work, I'm using wear and left selections. Any suggestions. Thanks, Mark

I use windows terminal (from 3.1) for upload/download and drip feed. If you make any manual edits you must be sure to have a dollar sign ($) for the end of block. If you forget and just hit enter, the program will not load. Mark

We use Inventor 8 for our design work and Mastercam 9.1 for toolpaths. I've found that they work very well together. I have not used solids for toolpaths at this point, but you can take an Inventor solid and create a wireframe or a surfaced model for creating toolpaths. Mark

I have a editor (PC-DNC) that has a inc/abs converter. I have not used it so I'm not sure how good it works. Feel free to e-mail me a file and I'll give it a go. Mark

I don't think we'll go with a swiss type machine, all though I can't rule that out. I know it will be a 6 spindle, not 6 axis. I'm sure I could use lathe and manually edit things together but it would be nice to program, verify and run.

Has anyone used Mastercam lathe to program a 6 spindle CNC screw machine? My company is in the research stage for a potential purchase of such a machine, I have no control info at this point. I know some machine builders have their own programming system (I heard Part Maker mentioned), I would like to stay with Mastercam. Any info would be appreciated. Thank you, Mark

I tried it with lathe 9.1 SP2 and got the same result.

Oil in frame is nothing new, my stock 1977 Triumph Bonnieville in an oil in frame.

We have 3 15,000 rpm CAT 50 spindles we use for machining aluminum. We looked at heat shrink tooling and it was expensive. We use tool life management and backup tools and we like to have them the same length (within .0005 on a optical presetter). The heat shrink rep would not commit on hold this tol on his equipment. We use Command toolholders, they have a nice selection of coolant thru balanced toolholders. We have them install the pullstud and balance the assembly to G1.0(the balance could be out by G2.5 if we installed the pullstud). One note to add, we redline our spindles at 10,000 rpm, we doubled the spindle life this way. Good luck on your new equipment!

We have 2 OKK HMC that have conductivity sensors on them, we use them only for spindle probing. I'm not sure how they are wired in a Toyoda, on the OKK's we use the G31 skip command. The nice thing about this style sensor, you can get very creative with probes. I'm not sure you can use it while cutting, but you can write a macro program to set variables for each c'bore. Mark

We use Weiler Nylox brand of brushes in our pallet pool machining center. Each machine has a 3" and 1" brush as standard tools. I run them between 500 and 900 RPM and between 50 and 100 IPM. Weiler suggested I run the spindle CW and CCW over the same tool path. It does a great job on cast aluminum. The downside, they do wear. The brush must be engaged 1/8" to 1/4" in the "cut". You must keep on top of the wear or the brush will be ineffective.