So yea i've been drilling lots of deep small holes and all was working fine until today when randomly the drill decided to explode about an inch in. Material is aluminum and is held in a 5" makro grip 5 axis vise in a Mazak I-700 with 1000 psi coolant. Drilling with rotaries positioned @ A-90 C0. Here is my process: -Drill 144 spot -Drill .25 x .25 deep with pilot drill -Grab 25xD drill and enter hole at 300rpm and 20 IPM with thru tool coolant on -Spin Drill up to 500sfm and drill at .006/rev -If i have to break out or through a hole i will retract .030 in z and then drill through the intersection at 200sfm and .006/rev -retract to top of hole -.25 and spin the tool down to 300 rpm and retract at 20 IPM I have drill probably 100 or so holes with this process and it work awesome until today. Today it went like this: -Drill 144 spot -Drill .25 x .25 deep pilot -Grab drill and enter hole -Spin up spindle and start drilling -Tool makes i about 1" down then in .1 second chatters and explodes into multiple pieces leaving the tip of the drill still in the hole. The drill tip was not clogged up and was easily pulled out of the hole. I'm thinking i have just been lucky @ 500sfm and .006/rev and need to tone the speeds and feeds down a bit. Any insight into this issue would be greatly appreciated. What do you guys run S&F for this kind of situation?

I am interested also! But the VLIB.ZIP is actually VLIB.MPK on the ftp so i'm wondering what opens this type of file? I googled and came up with a bunch of GIS stuff????

So your first mod should be to bolt down the mesh grate in the pallet changer area...... If it gets pushed slightly to the left or right bad things happen! At least the pallet changer recovery sequence was easy lol!

Obviously you guys don't balance your probes.......

Not just a mastercam thing but in general: Use an SSD optimizer app. I have a samsung SSD, they have a Samsung Magician software that optimizes the performance of the SSD and sets all the setting in windows for you. Also make sure you plug it into a 6G sata port and not a 3G by accident! Or if your really ballin out get 2 and run in raid 0 for double the speed!

I built a post for our machine as i'm really into that type of stuff and it allows me to do alot of fancy stuff whenever i have a brain blast or hear a good idea somewhere. We use vericut and we purchased the machine model from Mazak. We got charged for the model and after hearing that alot of other MFG's throw it in i think that part was pretty lame. I built the control and machine myself as i like to be able to tweak and customize. This was our first 5 axis and we went into it with the mentality that it is worth the time to get the process right before we fill the machine up. So far it has been working very well! Our machine does not have the smoothx control. It has a Matrix II which has been super as far as i have used it. I got the 30 minute demo of the new control at IMTS and i was very impressed by it. It has dynamic type pocketing built into Mazatrol now and you can program off a solid model. Not really a big deal for alot of people but it is cool nonetheless. Also you can't beat the extremely improved processing/feedback speed! Another cool feature is that you can preview your gcode program and the control will show you where the machine will have trouble keeping smooth motion, accuracy, and keeping up with the programmed feedrate. If you have any more questions feel free to PM me and i'd be glad to help you out with some first hand info.

Ya we have 120 and thats not enough. Watch out for the pot to pot time on the 120 mag. If your tool is used less than 30sec your going to be waiting on toolchanges.

I run/program a i700 palletec cell and i love the ergonomics of the machine. I can walk fully into the machine and measure features. Bores and bore gauges are easy to use and read. I am only 5'7" but the machine works perfectly for me. You can teabag the part if you wanted! Only thing that i hate is when coolant drips on my head, but a quick airgun usually takes care of that.

got it and double thanks for sharing!

Daniel, i tried to pm you but your inbox is full!

i am trying to set this up for a Mazak VRX i-700 with a matrix 2 control.

Is anyone actually simulating G54.4 in vericut? As in actually putting offset values in the (simulated) g54.4 register and having it simulate the dynamic compensation. Not looking for 5 axis but 3+2 would be sweet.

YES! as always Colin you are the man! Thanks for the help!

how would i reformat the suffix of a numeric variable? i want my zabs to output to look like this Z[1.0+#1] but i need to modify the prefix and suffix on the fly. nwadrs only does prefix as far as i can tell. What function can i change suffixes with? Thanks!

I got a demo of the Zoller Tool Data Management software at IMTS this year and i was very impressed by what it can do. Also it integrates seamlessly with their presetter too. We had the local rep out to our shop for a demo and everyone was very impressed as well.

those are sweet! props!

Yup you gotta pay to play!

BALLIN OUT NOW! ya langs are sweet. Got a bunch of them in our 5 axis cell and they are very flexible! Their zero-point system is pretty slick too if you can justify it.

Yes this is exactly my feelings also!

Personally i don't see why cimco edit pro isn't included with every seat of mastercam. Probly would eliminate half of the "we need g-code verification" rants and raves! Hell, if you have a solidworks license, then download HSM express (which is free) and it has cimco edit pro as its editor. Point the MCX config at that file for the editor and BAM, you have g-code backplotting right after you post. I used it to backplot all of my programs that arn't fully vericuted. HTH

Serial-ed tools. We use tool group#'s. Unique to that tool. T1001 will always by my 3" Roughair, etc.

We are not currently but plan on in the future. I would look into the zoller tool management software. Its is VERY impressive and ties in very nicely with their presetters. The demo we got at IMTS pretty much had my jaw on the floor and hit every point i was concerned with when it came to this type of software. We have mazak RFID pull studs in all the holders for our variaxis cell and it is really nice. Especially when 120 tools isn't enough. Just grab a tool from the qualified tool rack and pop it in the magaize, hit "IN" and your off to the races. We plan on implementing a shop wide system along these lines at some point with RFID in all holders with standard tooling throughout the shop.

hey all thanks for all the input. Always nice to see how other people are doing it and not reinventing the wheel. Looks like i'm headed down the right track! We'll see how far i get before speeding off of it!

all i can say is WTF!

I am looking to comp everything lol. Work offsets, tool wear z, tool wear D. So i sat down with our guy who is running our cell, who has lots of previous cell experience, and we hashed out a strategy that should be flexible to be able to comp almost anything while still being easy for the operator to use and understand. In our system we have decided on a few types of compensation you can have: -Work offset compensations: i.e. use a different offset for each face of rotation and then be able to shift a whole faces features if necesarry. Set using Work offset setting function from cell controll, program will interpret specific work offsets(ie G54.1 P101) as a shift of an offset. So you can still set G10's in the program but shift it from the cell controller, forget to shift it, no big deal, forget to set work offsets= big deal -"Universal" Tool Z Wear: - Tool wear Z value that always stays with the tool on the machine. Always comps by this value, set in machine control -"Universal" Tool D Wear: - Tool wear D value that always stays with the tool on the machine.Always comps by this value, set in machine control -"Specific" Tool Z Wear: - Tool wear Z Value that is specific only to this program. Always comps specific tool by this amount+"Universal" Tool Wear Z Value. Set in program header -"Specific" Tool D Wear: - Tool wear D Value that is specific only to this program. Always comps specific tool by this amount+"Universal" Tool Wear D Value. Set in program header -"Feature" Tool Z Wear: - Tool wear Z Value that is specific only to this feature. Always comps specific tool by this amount+"Specific"value+"Universal"Value. Set from cell controller through work offset setting interpreted as comp values. -"Feature" Tool D Wear: - Tool wear D Value that is specific only to this feature. Always comps specific tool by this amount+"Specific"value+"Universal"Value. Set from cell controller through work offset setting interpreted as comp values. "with all of these comps combined" it seems as if you could comp for almost anything and get parts in spec quickly and efficiently with a mix of tools at different wear levels. All feature comps could tie into a key of what Work Offset Register(i.e. G54.1 P201 X Value) controls what feature. Kinda long winded but this is the concept that we came up with, opinions much appreciated!