Were these videos taken down? I don't see that folder on CADCAMS FTP site

I run 3/16 2 flute 45 degree helix end mills, at a .100 depth cut and 100 IPM. Been using the same endmill for about 7 months now. Works great. Never wears out. It a niagara A245 TiAln coated Solid carbide. Although we use 15,000 rpm and coolant. These endmills do tend to evacuate the chip well though.

Yeah that option works but once i have 70 plugs in one file posting and toolpath rechaining slows a bit, my main thin is the geometry creation, it is so simple yet takes time to do. I wish i could write vb script. Anyone know about it, is it hard to pick up? And can i do it without buying visual basic?

oh, the rectangle isnt in the file, but its explained in the steps

I just lost some serious time on the job I am finishing up today. What the parts are, are parts kind of kidney bean shaped. They all have the same shape, and arc length on the centerline, but the centerline radius changes on every one. I have to redraw the part everytime, then i have to put in some offset geometry for a 5 degree taper toolpath, and then geometry for the chamfer that meets the taper. Is the someway to quickly make this part? Im going to up an example to the ftp called pocket plate example JeremyG.MC9 in the MC9 folder If anyone wants to take a look at it and tell me what I could do to speed it up? How I draw it now is: 1: Draw a circle, radius® at origin. 2: Calculate angles for a particular arc length and draw those angled lines to intersect circle. 3: trim circle to lines 4: offset half the distance each way of the width my plate is supposed to be 5: Draw a three point tangent arc to the; outside arc, endpoint of middle arc(original circle)and the inside arc 6: trim the outside and inside arcs to the tangent points 7: offset the outer profile in .0219, and out .0438 8: Modify break inside arc at length .5 inch from both ends 9: put a point and a circle at ends of break points 10: Use bounding box to find absolute center of geometry 11: draw a rectangle at point generated by bounding box 12: Translate all geometry from top right corner of created rectangle to center. 13: Import tool path from last file and rechain new geometry. It sounds very simple but its too time consuming. It sounds like it could be set up in some sort of macro where I would just enter the values? Not sure haven't done anything with vbscript yet. Any ideas?

There one i didnt know about, that way would work i imagine. alot of steps though. Thanks for the reply

I want to find a rotation angle of a particular distance of an arc. I have a line drawn from the center of a arc to the intersection of the arc. I need to rotate it at a 1 inch sweep of the radius of my arc. if my arc were a 10 inch rad then the angle would be 5.729577951 If I had copy rotated my line and trim the arc to the two lines, if I analyzed this arc it would read a 1 inch sweep

Thanks for the input. Yes I found the sweep dialog, but i dont need to sweep a full arc. I usually have a 180 degree arc laid in, but i dont want to have to lay out a bunch of asrcs at different lengths. I know I'm probably asking for too much. What would be great is you select the arc, or input the value of a radius, and then give it the distance and it would give you an angle. Right now I just have a spreadsheet set up in excel to calculate it but it would be really cool if i could do it in mastercam entirely. Maybe some other version.....

Id like to see the ability to input an angle for rotation by specifying the arc length/sweep of a particular arc. For example i have a 10 inch radius, i draw a line from the center of the arc. I now need to rotate it .400 in a 10 inch radius arc length. Right now I have to do a formula to find out what the arc length is. Although its a simple fomula, doesn't it sound as though it would be easy to implement into the angle menu? Or can you already do this and I've just been missing it.

Weve got some Bostomatic digitals that whine whenever the x or y axis move. They whistle thier own little tunes. Realy impressive I tell ya

I was not really interested in turning this into a profession. It was just a crazy idea coming from sitting in my uncomfortable chair all day staring at a bunch of geometry on my 17 inch monitor

Yeah but why would using these programs ruin your spindle? We do a warmup every day that does the same type of thing. I don't think a spindle cares unless you are doing rapid octave notes. lol Why am I arguing whether you can play songs on your cnc spindle. Its ridiculous to begin with, but I know some of you are going to try it if you havent already

What do you mean by 12345 your spindle?

Here's my bands website, see if you think our music could use a drill press or bandsaw noises http:www.thohtband.com

Those lyrics to that tune are probably true in a lot of places. I actually started a topic that became hot with a little fire on the icon. Well at least I got a good laugh in from all the comments i read.

I should bring in an amp and a microphone to amplify the sound. Maybe even get a smaller mill to take out with my band to some of the smaller venues. We could have it under a cloth and then when the lights come on you start taking a pretty heavy cut with a ski-carb in aluminum and shower the crowd with hot chips. Ah yes the weird noises, ive ran some machines with strage unknown noises, they usually made a silent noise thereafter.

Another recommendation for the lathe. "Try taking the end cap off the back of the spindle, not to use a longer bar of material, but to get a slightly better sound from your whistling."

You only need a twang driver if you play country music. Yes you got it I am a musician, I guess thats where my idea came from. And no its not drugs, I'm totally drug free and always have been. Even if spindles are different you think you could get them to work out, im using a 15k haas spindle. Maybe with differnt spindles they would just be in a different key

maybe thats the problem....

This is going to sound idiotic and stupid but, the other day while running parts with a long run time, I thought of this fantastic idea. I could make a song with the spindle of the machine by using different spindle speeds for the notes and different dwell times for the length of the notes. Now I know you are thinking this sounds crazy, but it would be funny to do. And then we could post nc files on the ftp of different songs. Hahaha I make myself laugh. Does someone want to figure out whats speeds make what note? Ive got a guitar tuner i could do it with. lol any comments

While these are all great ideas, we might just hook up some kind of natural gas line to the thing, and have it shoot fire once or twice or maybe blow up. Seriously though, its not a problem with the operator changing the parts, its just a problem of no operator. Its not really something you put a guy on, if we even had an extra. It runs for 25 minutes and then just needs a part changed. Sometimes I'm in the middle of a toolpath and can't get out to it right away. So incessant beeping at a volume loud enough to hear can be an annoyance. I realize people should deal with it, but it seems like its worth a shot to try to figure out how to get it the way i want it. Thanks for all the advice.

Yes, from sleep mode, when it wakes up it will beep for 30 seconds. this would be slightly better, but it would still be awesome if it just had like a long beep right at the end of theprogram somehow, or if there was some way to change the sleep so it only gave you 5 seconds warning. Its possible theres nothing else to do, but theres always hope. lol Thanks for your help

We currently run some parts on a Haas VF1, and we can't be out there waiting for it to stop. We have set it to beep at an M30, and that way we can hear when its done. If someone can't get out there right away it can get pretty annoying to everyone else. It beeps constantly until it is reset. So my question is, does anyone know if there is a way to make it beep just once? Maybe some other command to make it beep other than the beep at m30 setting?

Yes I see that now, thats great. You know all those things you overlook until someone points them out. I'm sure there are so many things that go unused. All these little repetitve things I do, theres probably an easier way for everything, just gotta search it out. Thanks alot for all the replys. I now have three problems solved.

Thanks, the change nci destination tip makes everything go faster. I should have known about it. Thats what makes the board so great. As far as the comment part, I don't know what I was thinking, but my post puts a comment in the same as the file name you save it as, so if I just change that nci destination to the right engraving, then when it posts it will be the first comment, then all I have to do is change the program number and its ready for the machine. Thanks alot everyone