What is an average pay in your area for MasterCam programmer / CNC tool & die maker. I quit , but now I'm thinking of going back in to Cad/Cam. I'm a journey man tool and die maker and have been making molds , stamping dies , forging dies for past eight years on different CNC and manual machines.I've used EzCam from Bridgport and MasterCam for all programming and did all programming my self on the shop floor. I have around 2000 hours in MasterCam , 1000 hours in AutoCad 14/2000 ( part time job ) , 500 hours in Solid Works ,500 hours in IMSI Solid Modeler v2 / TurboCad and some CadKey v7. Right now I'm a 80.000 sq. feet, none production job shop foreman where we do just about anything from all types of materials.Most of the work is done on manual machines and all CNC machines are conversational where I don't use any of my Cam/Cad skills.This is why I'm thinking of looking for a different job , but don't know what kind of pay can I expect. I'm at $24 / hr. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Bob. At my previous job , I had a laptop computer with MasterCam v7 and did all the programming right on the shop floor.I had to make programs ,set up and run two VMCs ,machining all types of forging dies (most 3D). I had plenty of time to do all the programming while the parts were being cut.I even did some Cad drawings since our engineer was too busy. I don't know how your company can stay profitable with three Cad/Cam guys for three mold makers. They must be doing some really complex molds to keep three programmers busy all the time.

One forum is fine with me. There are not enough posts in here to split it up.

I use to have Athlon 700Mhz on FIC 21 motherboard and Voodoo 3000 AGP. I was never able to run MasterCam v7 with V3. Every time I started MasterCam , it would lock up as soon as top toolbar showed up. I put my old 2mb PCI video card in and MC ran just fine. Got me GeForce 256 few days later and never had any problems.

Do any of you use MasterCam on Hurco machines. We have two 9 year old VMC with UltiMax control and would like to start using some type of Cam system. Is there a post procesor fot this type of machines.The machines have conversational sofware which is really easy to use in 2D and five times faster than MasterCam , but 3D is very limited. I ran MusterCam v5 and v6 for few years in a different shop , but never with Hurco machines.Any info would be helpfull.Thanks in advance. Chris [This message has been edited by beaver (edited 10-04-2000).]