We are still using the loaned G350. The 1st of the 550s' are to arrive sometime in August or September. I have not done any programming of the Grob yet, but the coworker that has been working on the project has nothing but good things to say about the machine. The operators are fans of it as well. Pleasantly surprised by Grob

I am a big fan of Award. Don't know what taper you are looking for, but they have a very good selection. http://www.awardcutter.com/Products/products.htm

I'm sure there are systems is different price ranges. I'm looking at the quote now and I stand by my original comment in regards to the price . The unit that we are getting is Venturion 600-pilot 3.0- Redomatic with RFID (That's a mouth full).

You could work backwards and pull dimensions from a custom tool and/or check them against the data that you already have for that given tool. That way you will know if the cutter is out of spec prior to running it.

Zoller will do that for you (at least that is what I was told). We are in the process of purchasing a unit from them. From what I was told we will be able to scan and record different shape tools. Zoller will become our main tool library. Tooling info for our CAM system as well as verification system will be pulled out from Zoller. I am not 100% sure of what unit we are getting, but it sure is pricey. Somewhere between 150k and 200k.

Thread milling has not failed me yet. Personally I'm very nervous when it comes to tapping titanium. Usually the tap will break on retract. Therefore I wouldn't recommend peck tapping. None of our customers specs allow us to use a form tap. We've had very good results using Emuge and Walter threadmills.

Yes we use CoroChuck 930 in C5, C6, and C8 sizes

FYI, we have had a Ø.500 End mill pull out of hydraulic holder a few months back. Cutting Ti casting @ 535 sfm & .0067 ipt. Axial DOC of approx .300" and Radial DOC of .020" . The cutter was 6 flute Kennametal HARVI III end mill being held in Kennametal trend line holder. Very expensive part had to be sent back to France for weld repair. Went back to using shrink fit and Rego Fix instead of hydraulic holders for any sort of milling. Just our experience in here... That being said, all of our BigPlus is either Sandvik or Big Daishowa

Should have some info here... Looks like 7.0 Tech Tips has Add On Import Settings. http://www.cgtech.com/vericut_support/tech-tips-past/

Personally when using a laser, I never set the TLO at the sharp point of a chamfer tool. I always set it at the cutting diameter.

Yes, we have used a variety of different cutters from Internal Tool in the past with very good results. The reason that we prefer Harvey is because of the convenience of them being on the east coast.

Extremely happy with the performance of Harvey's flat bottom endmills as well. Use them in a variety of high temp alloys with very good results. Internal Tool has their version as well. Not as many choices as Harvey though. http://internaltool.com/products/mill/59/n-c-counterbore We do use flat bottom drills in here as well but only carbide. http://www.kennametal.com/en/products/20478624/556249/3924453/7824529.html

Good thing our spindles max out @12k

Back in the stone age days we used to call that "Edit Random Parameters".

Kennametal has full geometry of their cutters (including solid carbide bull nose and ball endmills) available for download through NOVO. Might have to search a bit since it's still in growing stages, but they are there. http://www.kennametal.com/novosphere/en/home.html

I don't know what the "best" DNC & MDC software is... We use Cimco DNCMax7 and MDCMax7. Works for us.

I use a Spacepilot. I have used Spaceball for years... It's just natural for my left hand to be on it. I have a very difficult time when I have to use a pc that doesn't have one. LOL

Kevin, This will be a direct competitor to http://www.thirdwavesys.com/ (which we currently use). I have worked with UTC on initial testing of PrompFM a few years ago. Glad to see it finally be recognized for what the software does. There was/is a very smart team of individuals that are involved. Personally, I am really looking forward to this. BTW, I also have been using NOVO for a few months now and I'm pretty happy with it.

I always wondered that myself, and my best guess is greed.

Jason they are on their website and they are being sold under Mastercut brand name. Log in to Cataleap. Quote from their website; "Pioneer Tool has recently launched a new FREE service that it believes will provide savings to all. Cataleap is an online library containing product catalogs from the suppliers whom Pioneer represents. Through this revolutionary service that is as easy to use as other online libraries for music and movies, customers can save valuable time when they have a need to use a product catalog from a manufacturer. It is our hope that our suppliers will see savings when it comes to the amount of catalogs that it has to print and distribute. Lastly, we hope that our promotion of a very user-friendly, digital catalog solution will do a small part in saving our environment. We invite you to sign up for your free account at http://pioneer.cataleap.net and share your experiences with us."

We have a couple of projects in here that use Mastercut end mills. Very good quality products. We purchase them through Pioneer. http://www.pioneertool.com/

Yes, we did get CAD models to use with Vericut.

Here is a few of the G350 that is here temporarily.

LOL Mic6. Not much of an install though. Those things are small compared to the other machines we have. I think it might be ready to run next week. I'll see if I could snap a picture or two tomorrow. They also started installing another e-1850 this past Monday. That one should take at least another couple of months.

Not rs232. All of our Mazak machines are MTConnect.