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rx8pilot

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  1. I took a blank set of jaws and designed "carriers" out of them that I bolt special (but very simple) soft jaws to them. It eliminated the challenge of re-creating the the special Chick geometry. Now I use these vises for production and prototyping without the huge cost of the jaws. I have 3 of the vises that sat around for a very long time until I figured this little trick, now they are in daily use.
  2. I don't usually operate anymore and I have never personally broken one (I pay the bills and therefore take a more gentle approach). One of my operators does use the "more is more" method, but only with the t-handle wrench. No mallets or long L-handles. It breaks at the bottom of the c'bore where the material is very thin. If it can break with the T-handle wrench operated by a small guy - it's too weak.
  3. I use Raptors and we do only small runs. The concept is that you dovetail the stock which is about 30sec cycle time for us. After that, all the 5 axis work is done in a single shot with only a small patch on the bottom of the stock to deal with. After the Raptor, we generally put in a variety of vises to do the last remaining setup with soft jaws. Almost everything we do can be done in two setups - the part I am doing now has 18 index positions (or setups on a 3 axis machine). We do it in 2 and it happens very fast - even for one-offs which we do all the time. Downside of Raptor is that the clamps are weak and crack. They sell replacements for $80/pair. It's a poor design IMHO. 5axisworkholding.com has an alternative but I have not tried them. For first operations in 5 axis, I don't think I would be happy with vises - they get in the way.
  4. I could not go back to the days without mine. I have a few versions on different computers. For the first few days, I hated it. I discovered the learning curve was not so bad, gave a some time. It save TONS of time. I use it exclusively in SolidWorks and MCfSW.
  5. I have hired a number of contract programmers over the years. I can say this - it is all about your speed and focus followed by the quality of your program. I don't care about your software expenses or taxes - that is your problem as a contractor. The purpose of the contract programmer is to get CNC machines up and running efficiently at a cost that is palatable to the client. That means that the not only do the machines need to be turning something, it cant be breaking tools or cutting air. It also can't take 10 hours to program a square block with a hole in it because you were messing around with a software bug from the latest update. Also, if you are truly self sufficient and don't need to ask a boatload of questions to get started - that goes a long way. Our "go-to" guy is the most expensive option, but he gets it done right without taking my time. I have hired others that spend half of the time picking my brain for details that gets me questioning why I am paying them. A shop that needs 200 programs probably knows what it "should" take in terms of time spent and they will be sensitive to that. I know I am. The guy I use the most, charges $75/hour for our prototyping work that is generally quite sophisticated on multi-axis machines. That quickly got out of hand after he spent a few weeks on the clock, so now we give him a budget to work with and he must assess whether or not he wants to take it. In general it probably averages between $50 and $65 per hour but it is based on his speed. When he is done, the quality of the program is graded critically. For a prototype, I don't really care how it was made. With a production part, the order of operations, speed and feeds, tool choices, air cutting, approach to workholding, etc, is critical and has a LOT to do with what I am willing to pay a contractor. Think of it this way - If I paid a programmer $100/hour and got a program that is very easy to setup/operate, documented, and has a cycle time of 10 min it would be WAY cheaper than a $30/hour programmer that makes the same part that is difficult to setup, has no documentation and has a cycle time of 16 min. In short, it depends. I don't pay for learning curves or software bugs. I pay for programs that work and I don't think I am unique in this way. Your resume that tells the world about your decades of experience making miracle parts doesn't really factor in either. Like all businesses, it's about the bottom line when it comes to the rate you can charge. Good luck.
  6. Hilarious! Obviously I spend more time engineering than socializing.
  7. So let me get this straight....you can't bring over defaults when upgrading from version to version? What am I paying for? As a former software developer turned mechanical engineer/machinist. This is pure laziness and the end users are paying the price with lost time and frustration. Just because you can work around it certainly does not mean that it is not broken. I can understand why BR is "mad as hell"
  8. I have seen that for sure. I have been using SolidWorks since 1998 and I have to say that the stand alone Mastercam is remarkably crude in terms of geometry creation. I did not even consider the stand alone for that reason. I sure hope that MCfSW is the future of the product and not an afterthought or off shoot. Leveraging the graphics engine of Solidworks is very powerful and allows MUCH tighter integration from design to engineering and manufacturing. A little surprised to not find many resources on MCfSW.
  9. Hi Jay - it's Carlos. Did not take long for you to pick up on my story. Are you using MC for SW?
  10. gcode, Thank you for taking the time, I certainly hope I can benefit from the collective knowledge in this forum. One of my goals is to be more compatible with the huge installed base of MasterCam. I, of course, also want to feel like I moved up at least a little in terms of performance and productivity. It is good to hear that you have not had too much trouble with crashes - I guess I will find out soon enough. I have two machines built for Solidworks, one is a loaded beast and the other is fairly modest for working with one part at a time. The reason I purchased Camworks in 2006 was because it was a Solidworks plug-in. The geometric associativity is life or death for us. My company designs, engineers, and manufactures complex and high precision assemblies for motion picture cameras. We generally go through multiple prototype cycles with minor changes during each phase. Camworks has made that part of the process an absolute breeze - no need to track, document, or search for changes. As time past, it was clear that Camworks would not rise to be the dominant player n the CAM world and we need to have a clean path to work with other shops and freelance programmers.
  11. I just committed to MasterCam for SolidWorks. I will receive the software next week and I am almost excited about it. I have been using Camworks (in Solidworks) for 6 years - programming a huge number of very complicated parts in our 3-4-5 axis machines. We are an engineering house and our volumes are relatively low with many new designs weekly. This keeps us in a constant programming mode, each part having its own challenges and many changes are common. Even though I can eventually get the program I need, I have been frustrated with the crude nature of the software and its horrible stability issues. Crashes 10+ times per day are not uncommon along with a long list of silly bugs, extra useless steps, etc. On top of that, we need to be compatible with outside shops and freelance programmers to help us through busy times. Since Mastercam is so prevalent (especially compared to Camworks), I wanted to switch. Here is my concern - I have been digging around and it is hard to find anything particularly positive about Mastercam for Solidworks. The gripes seems to be very similar to what I have been living with during my time with Camworks. Instability and bugs that last for many versions. Are the happy users just quiet and busy making great parts very efficiently or is there real "show stopping" issues? I am about to go through the learning curve and would love to have a sense of when I am making a rookie mistake and when the software is just being dumb. My experience in Camworks was generally that it was all my fault if anything went wrong. Graphics card, RAM, OS version or service pack, blah, blah blah.... I have gone through a myriad of different hardware and OS configs and as it turns out - Camworks was indeed the delicate flower. (I was a software developer/coder before this carreer, and have little sympathy or respect for an industrial software company that focuses new features and ignores old problems). Fairness disclaimer: I stopped updating Camworks after mid-2010 too frustrated to pay maintenance. A few questions if anyone is kind enough to chime in. Does anyone use Mastercam for Solid works? What is your opinion? Did you transition from stand alone? Was it a step forward or backward? Is MC for SW prone to crashing? Has anyone seen "random" errors or bugs that are hard to repeat? Bonus extra credit quesion: Anyone with Camworks experience that has moved to MC for SW? Thanks all...

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