Have your guy save the solidworks model as parasolid binary (.x_ then File/ Converters/ Parasolid/ Read File/.x_b will work perfectly.

Welcome Ro. Remember Dori the fish? Just keep learning, just keep learning, learning, learning, just keep learning.

Welcome to the forum hardmetal.

Tantalum is most definately NOT a treat to machine. It forms easily and is much softer than cold rolled steel but is a total bitch to machine. Quote the job VERY high, then triple the quote. Don't agree to pay for material that you scrap out while learning. Sorry about not being more specific Rob, I can't write a complete dissertation on the internet.

"Billet" A word used to distinguish expensive motorcycle accessories machined from some aluminum alloy from lesser accessories made from, um..., aluminum alloy.

Check out Mighty Bite (not spelled right) clamps for work holding.

We are a moron free shop. I buff the nose of the tool and watch color change to control temp. All my tools are about 4.5" long, so the entire tool doesn't get hot. I set the spindle on the Integrex horizontal and rotate slowly, about 30 rpm. Switch out the cutter when it gets hot and then cool with air nozzle till cutter stays in. Then finish cooling with flood coolant before tooleye touch. Shank of tool, spindle, bearings etc never get hot at all. Without the horizontal spindle, I'd make some kind of a fixture that could be turned by hand while heating. If you have to make things idiot proof or need all tools exactly the same length you might need the big dollar heater. If you can just buy the tools you're ahead of me. I just wanted to say that I think shrinkers are worth some effort.

Hey Paul, welcome to the forum. Welcome to another pretty steep learning curve. Good news is, it sounds like you're up to the challenge. There is no substitute for getting along well with your reseller and post guy. Yeah there's a ton of details to address so sharpen the pencil and dig in. Realize you're one guy, this task is big, and it will take some time. When you get it figured out really sweet your boss still won't get it, but then you'll be well armed to move on. Say what machines you're trying to run. What level Mastercam do you have? Rant on if needed now and then, about the only thing that doesn't fly here is personal insults or mega-know-it-allness.

Shrinkers are great. I had to make my own for the Integrex; the geniuses at Kennametal don't offer shrinkers in KM63XMZ I just heat them with a MAPP torch.

Thanks much Dave. You are a class act.

I'd say Mastercam is the way to go on the Integrex. I only use Mazatrol to bore soft jaws on our new one. Going from EZ-path to Integrex is a HUGE step, at least 10X complexity. I usually try to be optimistic, but just from re-reading this thread, I think an Integrex is going to sink Low-tech Inc, unless you hire a very competent guy with solid experience with both. Get Mastercam lathe going first and see how they handle that. Integrex = large learning curve. Mastercam mill level 3 + Lathe = another large learning curve. Heck, just adding milling to a strictly turning guy is a learning curve. Doing them simultaneously in a shop with no experience beyond EZ-path = disaster. Make some Integrex guy, doesn't have to be me, an offer he can't refuse to come and look at what you have going on. Just my $.02

Who's getting the Integrex, high tech or low tech shop?

Backplot only.

http://www.kci-world.com/webshop/cart/prod...e&productID=373 A for fee .pdf file. I'm not recommending it, just showing you something I found on the net. Way to go Lars, you've got yourself into a job where you get to venture beyond the basic materials and onto some less traveled avenues of machining. If I remember right, you were quite new to machining when you started on the forum. Now you're tackling some pretty obscure stuff. Look for clues such as saw cut marks or take a file to areas that may have been heated. Sometimes a file or scraper can give you a feel for a material. For example, take a slightly dull file and a sharp file to bronze and see if you learn anything. Start slow, 30sfm for high speed steel and 150 for carbide. You can always go faster if the material will allow it. Most of the time when making a single part from difficult material you will get done sooner working slow and steady rather than trying to deal with smoking holes full of freshly alloyed stainless and carbon steels. Stop frequently and look for tool wear BEFORE the tool melts and alter course as required. Carbon steels often can be brutalized a bit with a carbide tool to heat them up and soften them in the cut. That is usually not true with stainless steels. Unless you hear otherwise from someone that has cut this stuff, I'd assume that sharp, slow, and cool tools will beat brute force. CACULATE speed and feed, then CACULATE any changes. The "difficult" part of difficult materials tends to be a narrower band of successful speed and feed parameters. "Successful" here means good part before dead tools, or good part and fewer dead tools. Even if you don't know what the optimum parameters are, by calculating you force yourself to learn what works and to see speed and feed as independently controlable variables.

Why aren't shrinkers an option? From the sound of your application you won't need to change tools very often. You can do it with a MAPP torch. (I guess I wouldn't want a total moron doing it, but I can handle it.) Just shine it up with Scotchbite and watch the colors to control temp. Shrinkers are cheaper than hydraulics by far if you don't pop for a fancy heater. The improved coolant access without a fat collet nut in the way is another huge plus.

Are the cutter and rod going to be co-axial? Or will the cutter and rod center axes be perpendicular? How are you holding the rods? How many pieces?

Good morning Rich, Could you enlighten us on HPCC? Perhaps someone would know that by another name.

Levels are used by carpenters to ensure equal probability of the bowling ball rolling into either gutter.

A boring head produces a cut similar to lathe turning and is usually preferable for producing a close tolerance hole over circular interpolation milling. If the machine's ways or ballscrews are sloppy at all, boring with a boring head will produce a rounder and straighter hole than milling. Boring with a boring head in steel will normally produce a superior hole to plunging an endmill straight in, if that's what you were thinking about. The term "tight tolerance" is subjective. One milling machine might be capable of holding .0005 inch tolerance in circular interpolation and the next incapable of .003 inch tolerance. I always climb cut on a CNC unless the material surface is very abrasive and the base material is soft. Edit: Hi Bernie.

Andrew, check your email for a sample .MC9. The G128 as issued by Mazak works, to the limited extent that I've tested it.

Dixon, did it work out? Looks like Andrew called it right. I'd add that you should contact Mazak and get G128 also, if you don't have it now. It will allow use of tool radius comp on a 3D contour.

quote: the form taps are working great so far (SFM 45 with Hy-Pro Tin coated), but my drilling is giving headaches. my HSS 1.45mm drill for the M1.6 is breaking every 10 hole, I am running 55 SFM with 0.0009 CPT drilling 6mm deep, with 0.026" peck. 45 SFM form tapping 316 is WAY faster than I go, but I've been told I go WAY too slow at 6 SFM. On small HSS drills I usally run 30 SFM. They don't last too long, do they? The thing with drill size and form taps is that the distance the workpiece material upsets into the root of the tap is based on the volume of material that the tap displaces. Imagine a cut-away view of a form tap in the hole. Now just focus on one side of the hole. You can see the major diameter points of the tap have pushed into workpiece material, and workpeice material has flowed into the tap toward it's minor diameter. If you examine a formed thread you will see that the material that flows into the tap toward it's minor diameter has a cupped appearance. (This is just the same thing that happens when knurling a lathe part.) As the material flows deeper into the tap, the cupped shape is less obvious and the thread is more pointy, like the minor diameter of the tap. A smaller hole means that the tap must displace more workpiece metal toward the minor diameter of the tap. The minor diameter of the tapped hole becomes smaller and more perfectly shaped. If the drilled hole is too small, the tap tries to upset a greater volume of workpiece material than there is room for, and the tap is doomed to break. If the hole is too large, the tap displaces only a small volume of workpiece material and the cupped shape is very obvious. The thread looks very much like like a double lead thread with one lead only slightly deeper than the other. In this case, the screw having a tapered end, can't tell the difference between the two leads and will sometimes try to start down the minor diameter cup rather than the major diameter point. Since the area of a circle varies with r^2 (A=Pi*r^2)the amount of workpiece metal being displaced also varies with r^2. All this really means is the tolerance on hole size for a form tap is more critical than for a cut tap. Don't guess. Drilling with HSS then form tapping in 304, 316 stainless: These steels work, (strain) harden. This means that they harden as they flow, or bend. If a dull drill is used, the workpiece metal is not cleanly cut as the drill lip comes along, and it gets pushed around, flowing and hardening in an area very close to the surface on the walls of the hole. Also, the HSS that used to be part of the drill can be getting embedded in the hole walls. Now along comes the lobes on the form tap trying to plow through this hardened mess like a boat bow through rocks on mud...

Welcome Chuck. I can't help much either but someone will be able to. Weekends tend to be a bit slow on the forum. Keep checking in, you never know when someone will hit a homer for you.

Form tap. If you cannot form tap (stupid boss forbids it or something) drill on the large side of the chart and peck tap. If your drill is "wearing" that high speed steel is getting stuck to the walls of the hole and can cause huge problems tapping. Coolant fed carbide drills are the best.

Bump Do we have a definitive answer on the Quadro NVS card? I'm trying to talk a guy into letting me swap an ATI for a Quadro NVS. Guy I'm swapping with doesn't run MC.