What is everyone using for CAD software for creating prints? We currently use AutoCAD Mechanical Desktop for this but Autodesk is replacing this with Inventor Which is way more software than i need. I was just looking for some input. Thanks in advance

LOL

well i just ordered 2 computers. i already have 2 19" monitors of the same brand. i knew it wouldnt be a steal. the price of the box is $2500. I did check the price on the video card and it was $1300 so i thought i was getting a good price.

oops 36GB SCSI for the hardrive and this is a flat screen CRT monitor

HP xw4100 computer P4 3.2 processor hyperthreading 800 MHz FSB 2 GB ECC DDR RAM CD-RW NVIDIA Quadro FX3000 video card(256 MB) 10/100/1000 Gigabit network card 21" Viewsonic monitor Logitech IR mouse and keyboard 3 year onsite parts and labor warranty $3095

For finishing aluminum, a little trick i learned in school where we didnt have coolant on our bridgports, was to use wd-40 or kerosene it actually worked very well. But flood cooant is definitely the way to go. Alum is great to pocket, you can usually go full dia and full dia deep with most 2 or 3 fl endmills. I seems that hi-helix endmills are a thing of the past, they pull up too much on the material. The High speed spiral method that was mentioned earlier doesnt really help in this case. The fastest way to remove material for me is to run a cutter deep and push it hard if you have 3 or less flutes, aluminum light cuts make light chips that melt quicker causing loading up of a tool. wow i could go on all day about alum machining... maybe i will just have to drive up and see this operation....lol

Matt, What are you using for tooling? insertable tools? coolant thru? and what do you have for machine capabilities? taper? spindle speed? feedrates? let me know and i will give you some recomendations.

Matthew If you start typing the folder you want to go in a directory windows will go to that folder. i know this does not solve your problem but it helps me find folder much quicker

We have used it before, but we use it for quoting jobs, not outsourcing. Maybe you can send it to me and i will quote it for you:D

thanks thad, i wasnt sure what to do about it

LOL i still cant believe people are doing this

our G49 is in the tool change program itself. i know we didnt put it there.

I just flipped one like that the other day, it went from a vertical to a horizontal. im not sure there is a fool proof way. i just did one axis at a time ie: changed all x's to x- which would give you x-- on some values then changed all x-- to x. same with y,i,j,k. i know there is a website with a utility on it i will also look for that

what i was trying to say maday is that you should at least leave the G40 in there. if cutter comp is active and you run a drill cycle it will comp the position of the drill. this can be very bad. i have also seen a couple of tenths shift in some holes and could not figure out why the location was off.

double post

maday when our machines are reset the tool length is lost, as soon as you hit reset. not only when you read the safety line they are the fanuc pro3 control (18m)

Mayday this is a standard safety line, if for some reason you forget to turn cutter comp off at the end of another program and run a program without this line you could be in a world of hurt. I think you should teach the operators what they need to read and what they do not. This is like saying that if you dont have a tool length offset that it will crash, obviously. Operator should always read the tool length offset as when you reset it clears out the tool length.

Mark They bought a tool probe, not a probe for probing parts. Oppiz We have a tool probe and have yet to use it to measure tools as we have a tool presetter. We mainly use it as a broken tool sensor or to verify the length of a tool with a tolerance, to make sure a tool has not pushed back in a holder or the end is not chipped.

IMHO form tapped threads look a lot better than cut threads, we just switched all of our mic-6 aluminum plate jobs over to form taps.

it not what you know its what people think you know

most of you have probaly seen this but i figured everyone here would like it F350 Drag run

this stuff drills great if you have coolant thru drill i dont think we run anything under 100 IPM for any size carbide drill. for hss G73 does work great, as REKD said it is brittle, the harder you push the better it breaks up

can you put it on the ftp? i do this a lot and i have never had a problem i actually just did one with 32 offsets and 16 indexes

Yes i did,that seemed to have worked. thanks Roger Now did you get my email back? today is just not a good day:D

yes it is Roger thanks