Also, make sure your customer will allow EDM. None of ours will, unless we machine off the recast layer

Keep in mind that the wire EDM is going to stack the parts up, so the real cycle time might be more like 4hr to do 8 pcs. We've had great luck cutting starter gear teeth in flywheels over 70Rc using AlCrona coated endmills, using straight oil.

We had one computer that still has V9 on it. I tried running rpfan, but I couldn't get it to work. I wasn't aware that I could select an STL for my drive surfaces with Optirough. Is this new? I just tried it and it worked great. That solved my problem for the roughing ops. Thanks all

I'm just wondering if there's an easy way to do this. We have a family of parts that have been in production for several years. They were originally programmed by our customer, so I don't have access to any source files, models, etc. All I have are the paper blueprints. What I'm trying to do is to update the toolpaths to take advantage of Opti-core and Opti-rest to speed things up, smooth things out, and eliminate a lot of air cuts. When I began drawing up a model for the first part, I soon discovered the drawing is riddled with errors, missing dimensions. There are also many programming errors that seem to have never been caught by inspection. So now, what I need to do is draw my model to match the parts we've been making, right, wrong, or otherwise. I managed to draw out one contour from the G-code entering points from the program, then I had to calculate all the arc centers. Took way too much time, and way too easy to make a mistake. I know I can use Vericut to generate a STL from the G-code, but an STL doesn't help me with generating toolpaths. Anyone know of any way to generate either a model, or even just 2-d geometry? TIA

+1000

I live for programming

I'vd been resisting switching to X6, but I had a part that I wanted to use Opti-rest on, so I figured it was time. I'm running dual monitors, and I keep my operations manager and level manager on screen 2. Never had a problem with X5, but now with X6, every time I regen a toolpath, my operations manager flops back over to screen 1. Is there a trick to making it stick?

I have noticed this too, but only when running MC on a horrible Dell Costco special.

Change the tool tolerance in the options page The default value is .008, which is pretty rough

I would recommend Guhring carbide drills. If you use cobalt drlls, 15 sfm, don't peck, don't spot drill, and dont ever pilot drill. With your carbide em, try 50 sfm, .003 cpt. go as deep as you can, with a .1 step your just going to wear off the end on the tool

Yes, it should. For some reason, helixe scause it to choke. When I ran some verifies on a computer with a quadro card, it didn't slow up on helixes.

So, Our "IT" guy switched my graphics card back to the original ATI card, and was able to get a full refund at the "Store". Now my question is, with a $500 budget for a new card, what is the best choice? A lot of the work I do, I rely heavily on verify, I have my tool tolerance set to .0002, with full quality. I have found the results I get to be extremely accuarate. That being said, my main interest is Verify speed, without sacrificing verify quality. Also, I've always been curious why verify is so slow when doing helixes. A simple helix bore can take 2-3 min. WTF?

But you also changed the G55 to G54

search your post for "Rot_ccw_pos" 0= cw pos 1 = ccw pos Whatever it is, change it.

I think we have the 4th type of IT guy, he knows absolutely nothing, he's too cheap to spend over $100, and the company won't spend the money.

I beleive in V9 there is just a post entry for rotary direction.

My computer at work has a high end ATI graphics card. When using MC, it works great, I've never had a problem with it, my only complaint has been verify speed. I recently went to do a side job at another shop. They were using a Dell, off the shelf POS, but they put, I believe, a Quadro 2000 video card in it. Even though the computers performance is less than half of mine, the speed in verify was outstanding. So, I finally convinced our IT guy that I needed a video card that supports open G/L. We looked around, and couldn't find any Quadro cards anywhere, except onine. So IT guy bought a Geforce GTX560TI with 2gb ram.I figured this thing was really going to scream. I timed some toolpaths doing 5 axis surfacing, and to my surprise, the Geforce card was maybe 10% faster than the ATI card, at best. Are there any settings we're missing? It's set for Open G/L, diable hardware accel and buffering unchecked. It like to just exchange it for a Quadro, is there anyplace you can just walk in and buy one?

Is it your G55?

What kind of stainless? The difference between 303 and 13-8 is about as broad as can be!

I flipped across this thread this morning and thought to myself, Gee, it's been some time since I've had MC crash. I spoke too soon. I was working on an impeller today and crashed 4 times.

Thanks for the suggestions. It'll be ready to run next week, I've got it programmed two ways, full depth with 3% step over, and 1/2d depth and 20% step over. My concern with going full depth is I have .011 wall thicknesses I don't want to bend over.

I'm currently programming a job, it's 15-5 around Rc35. I's got some clearance issues, and I need to rough it out with a 1/16 em, .400 deep. The maccine it will run on tops out at 10K rpm, planning to use Garr 4 fl coated end mills. I'm not sure where to start on feed and depth of cut. I'm thinking .04 deep with a chip load of .0001/tooth, rest mill w/ 20% stepover. Any thoughts? TIA

Router bits also work well. A few years back we used some end mills made for cutting plastic that worked great. Don't remember what they were called, but they looked like a single fluted router bit.

I would go by the three wire method over a pitch mic any day.

Any chance of posting the model for it?