Run a few different cycles that also write data to #139 and see if any of them will still write. That will help you narrow your search down to a problem local to your program, or more global ie parameters. That's a good point, we have a 31i that way. I usually put a M1 in between my cycles and turn the block skip when trying this stuff out.

I don't remember the parameter, but you are correct that there is one to reset the variables at M99 or M30.

We have a small jib crane beside one of the load stations on our FMS. We load a lot of parts between 300-700lbs this way, it's a lot safer than cherry pickers and forklifts, but either of those methods can work fine as long as you don't have dummies operating the equipment.

P20 polishes better, in general it is made to finer tolerances than 4140. P20 is specifically made for the mold world.

Nope, P20 can be ordered annealed or PH.

Soft, PH/HH (prehard or high hard), or Heat treated? It's not difficult to machine at all, especially if you are already familiar with machining pre hard 41xx alloys. Compared the 41xx-43xx it is about the same in abrasion, it only work hardens for the most ham fisted machinists.

The one thing I don't see being discussed here is accuracy, which is a big concern with these systems depending on the tolerances you need to hold. They all claim things like .0002" repeatability, which doesn't really mean anything. You need to determine what kind of parallelism and square will work for you and your parts. There is a massive difference between Lang and FCS in this department, Lang being really fast and easy to use but substantially less accurate, and FCS being substantially slower and more cumbersome to use but being much more accurate. Which is best is application dependent.

I'm a pretty big fan of Union Tool for this (copper electrodes), they have different tolerance levels you can buy but I think the worst is +/- .01mm which is just shy of .0004"

It's been buggy since at least X5, and still is up to 2018. It worked fine in V9 which is the only older version I've used. I wish it worked better as I like the idea of using incremental, but it is more unreliable than using associative wcs' (which is also unreliable), but when you have a hundred plus wcs' to manage you use whatever method screws you the least.

It's a nice idea, but there have been so many bugs associated to incremental that I wouldn't recommend it. This works well when the WCS associativity actually works, which isn't often enough, but it does seem to be more reliable than purely using incremental.

Once you go HSK you never go back to BT or CAT.

When you get this small I actually think Harvey Tool sucks, their run out and diameter tolerance in this range is going to give you grief. Not that I dislike Harvey Tool at, but when you get into cutters under 1mm, everything gets a lot more important, really quick. Union Tool is usually my go to for this type of stuff - not the best, but still very good, and pretty affordable for what you are getting.

I'm familiar with that, but not with 2020 (haven't used it yet). I should also mention after X9 I switched to MCfSW, which also has this issue, but the method I posted seems to resolve the issue. I've been wondering how many tens of millions of dollars of parts and spindles have been scrapped worldwide over the last decade of this issue?

This has been broken since at least X7, possibly X6. The only thing that has ever made things sorta reliable for me was creating the plane, then editing the plane to be associative afterwards. Ie: -Create a WCS using two lines -Name the WCS and assign a work offset to it -Create a point at the orgin/center of the WCS -Edit the WCS and make WCS associative to the newly created point

For certain features, sure. But many features are burned not just complexity, but surface finish as well. More molds have EDM texture than polished finishes by a country mile. I still mill as much as I can, but burning really does make life easier, even though it is slow. It is easy to do sub 5 micron total work with good edms. Doing sub 5 micron total work with mills requires a lot more skill, and a lot more stress.