H13 tool steel. See the topic "Extrusion Die suggestion" in the Industrial forum for more on what I'm doing. (I'm not smart enough to link it)

How much stock do you leave? I am running it now, but I only left .010" on walls and floors. Feedrates are 50 to 60 IPM. I hope I'm not gouging it!

I'm going to cut a die in our Haas EC-1600. I noticed the control has settings for smoothness and corner rounding. What does everyone use for mold/die work? Do you use the G187 or just change the settings page?

I have an extrusion die to cut and unfortunately I can't post pictures of it. Basically, it is 1 1/4" thick H13 steel with a shape in the middle that has surfaces angled and radiused down in to the shape. The radii and angles vary along the edges so that the material comes out the back at roughly the same speed to avoid bending and twisting. This is my first time with this type of work so I thought I'd ask for suggestions. My strategy is HST toolpaths: Optirough with 3/4" insert ball endmill - Rest rough with 1/2" insert ball endmill - Rest rough with 1/4" solid ball endmill - Hybrid finish with 1/4" solid ball endmill. Am I on the right track? What arc filter settings and tool step over/down should I use to minimize polishing? Being an extrusion die, it needs a very smooth finish. The machines I have available are a Haas VF5 40 taper or a Haas EC1600 50 taper. I am leaning towards the horizontal because it is newer and has glass scales and 50 taper. The vertical has air gun though. Any thoughts? I plan on using the Haas High Speed Machining demo on whatever machine I go with. Thanks for the help.

I just open the file in Mastercam then edge curve the geometry that I want to chain.

I had that happen on the last job I used HST on. So far, the job I'm working on now it hasn't dropped, but it's not as complicated. I don't use it enough to know if it's something I did or if it's a bug.

I have good luck with SGS in Tungsten Copper, but I've never ran any in Ti. The tools I have recieved have been high quality, but I did recieve some endmills that had the wrong corner radius. Luckily it was the first tools I got so I checked them. Could have been expensive if I hadn't checked. That said, the distributer had new tools to me the next day. I have used several sizes and corner rad 4 flute endmills, and several of their tapered endmills.

Thanks! I knew it had to be something easy.

How do I make a new toolpath group in X5? When I right click in the operation manager - groups - the new toolpath group is grayed out.

I don't use it enough to know if the problem is with me or the system, so I just keep stumbling along happily. At the end of the day I get the part made and I'm happy to not be writing code by hand or using the tracer like the old days. I do always wait for the CD to come in the mail before I install any upgrade though, I figure that maybe they get some of it fixed before they mail it.

I'll be watching...I'm curious to see how it turns out.

I am very happy with our Haas machines. I have been around several controls in 20+ years of machining, and to me, the Haas control is the best. I've been using Haas for almost 6 years, and I still find things that the control will do that I wasn't aware of. I think the recent re-design was great. Our machines are older and there are some things I don't like, but they have been addressed with the re-design. For the money, I don't think one can do any better.

I've heard of people keeping the parts in the freezer before machining, but have never tried it myself.

I was just talking with our Haas salseman and he told me they did exactly that for a customer. The budget only allowed for the base price of the horizontal, so they bought it and had it installed. When the new capital money was released, they purchased the enclosure and had it field installed. Not cost effective, but it worked for them. This discussion came from complaining to the salesman that our EC-1600 leaks like a sieve. He was telling me about the caulking they use in the joints of the sheet metal, saying it is VERY hard to remove. I would keep trying to get Haas to ship it without the front panel, or at least not seal it if you will have to remove it.

Fadals are box way machines also, so they require gibs to be adjusted periodically.

Check the draw bar tension. The belville washers that provide pressure to the pull stud break often in Fadals. It's been over 15 years since I messed with one, but I remember them being pretty easy to change.

I find it strange that everyone has a different limit.

My screens are set to 1600x1200.

Mine goes to 162.something. Would it be something to do with screen resolution?

When I need precision threads, I use Micro 100 threadmills such as TM-290-16 (for your 3/8 hole) and drill with Guhring carbide drills (preferably coolant fed). I use the standard tap drill size for 75% threads and write a simple helix program with cutter comp. I add .01 dia. or so comp to the tool and run. Keep checking with go/nogo thread gage and decrease the amount of comp NO MORE than the difference between go/nogo pitch diameter and run again. It's definately not the fastest way to do it, but when your part costs as much as the machine, you don't want to take any chances. With the Micro 100 tools, I use the recommended SFPM for the material I am cutting, and about .0005 per tooth feed.

Settings-configuration-Start/Exit change the editor with the drop down.

I agree. A wealth of knowledge.

Standard HSS 118 deg point works best. It WILL drill oversize. I suggest drilling .06" or so small, then bring to size with your .484. You won't have any luck reaming either. I prefer Acculube with a Micro-Drip system, but flood works if you mix it heavy. We have the best luck taking small pecks like .02" and dwelling instead of retracting. Retract every .5" or so to clear chips. Best of luck...

I had a similar problem. Mine was retracting and feeding across the top (Z zero) even though that stock had already been removed. I solved my issue by changing the "keep tool down" distance to a small value. For some reason it defaults to a large value on my system.

I just got my new desktop this week. Dell T5500 Intel Xeon dual quad core Windows 7 64 bit 12 GB ram dual Nvidia Quadro 4000 graphics cards. It is much faster than my old system at generating tool paths and manipulating solid models with a 3D controller, but it still takes a while to verify when comparing to STL files with the tolerances tightened up.