FATAL?????? OM LMFAO!!!!!!! How long have they been dead?

I'd think you could put an Interapid (or something similar) in the spindle and sweep in the tool.

We did a similar part on a Robodrill 3 axis with a full radius wheel cutter. We used a flow line toolpath with gouge checking turned off so we could control surface finish. Ours was peek and we used breakaway tabs and the burr bench cleaned it up in about 3 min.

That job will return in high quantities so we're looking at a Nakamura NTMXto do it out of bar complete with no burr bench work. We've got a little NRE money to develop a faster process. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

AICC-II can have 1,000 block look-ahead too. NANO Smoothing is a worthwhile acc/dec algorithm. Our old MAM with a 1st. gen 30i des not have it. We can't make our blisks on that machine. The surface finish pattern is not quite as consistent and our customer likes the ones run on the new machine a little better. No difference in accuracy just the "look".

Started sweeping floors, the lead-man in one department saw me with a broom and asked me a few questions, took the broom from me and said "brooms are for dumb $#!+$, come with me". He took me over to a Bridgeport. They had some castings (actually there were about 1,000 in there if I recall) that needed the flash removed. He showed me how to turn it off first, how to change tools, how to tell when a tool was dull and said see you tomorrow. I brought the box back to him 4 days later and said what's next? He introduced me to a Hardinge Chucker and the rest is history.

That's too bad about loosing your CAMplete key. That's a BS policy having to re-buy the software if you loose a key or it gets stolen. I mean if there's a Police Report or a letter from the CEO/President of the company attesting to it's disappearance, that should suffice and you should get a new key for a nominal fee (to cover the paperwork, cost of the new key, time, etc... - like $250~$300).

We don't use Inverse on our MAM's. We use CAMplete and Feedrate leveling. It's better all the way around. More control over axis velocity and none of the Inverse Limitations.

Looks like you're expecting Forward Compatibility...

ROFLMFAO!!!!!!

so if you wanted to swarf an impeller blade 90°, you would need to synchronize the trunnion at 45 and the spindle to 45?? sound like a recipe for double the chatter and backlash.

"synchronization"??? "swarfing impeller blades"???

Oy vay!!!!

Get Karlo's 5-Axis book. Read it, then come back and talk intelligently.

what would be the point of having the trunnion AND the spindle rotating on the same axis??????

It's the most common configuration for 5-Axis VMC's. You still have a C-Axis on nutating head machines which makes up most gantry style machines. Si? No?

 

horse###!

Double horse$#!+!!!!

It's not confusing if you have a brain and don't have dumb$#!+$ in the shop. just because you get away with that horse$#!+ doesn't mean it's right.

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As for preventing crashes, there are a whole lot of things you can do with macros (specifically the toolcahnge macro) to prevent them.

 

Mike

What we've done in our tool change cycles is if there is a 0 or a 99. in the offset, it automatically runs the tool length measurement cycle. Easy peazy no crashie. Negative offsets are just a ridiculous way to address tool lengths and I've never understood the allure. I mean I guess it's easy but the problem is the numbers don't mean $#!+. You look at the number and it's like "... ok, how is that relative to the part?". I don't know, all of our machines are multi-pallet so I have one tool intgeracting with a minimum of 2 operations on at least 2 differnt part numbers at any given time, so that negative offset bull$#!+ just doesn't cut it in that environment.

We use AxiSet for checking our CL or rotations;

http://www.renishaw.com/en/axiset-check-up--11353#

Our Matsuura AE set us up with a plug and play cycle that does A/C and/or B/C depending on our machine. Works Bad@$$. We just eyeball the probe about 10mm above the element and hit cycle start. It dpes all the rest including generating the report.

My Matsuura AE loaned me his copy of Peter Smid's book... a week later I had my own. Another Solid resource is http://www.programmingunlimited.com/product.htm Don't let the outdated website scare you away. It's good stuff as well.

Negative tool offsets are for rooks that don't know any better. Try using an offline tool presetter to get those numbers. Yeah, have fun with that.

We can play "what if the operator forgot..." all day long. If he's to fecking stupid to figure out where the DistanceTo Go positions are, well, then he's too fecking stupid to even be working in a machine shop. I'd never hire that guy even if I just needed a warm body. I can't remember the last time I worked in a shop that used negative tool offsets. Even the strictly VMC shops with no rotary equipment in the early 90's... positive tool offsets.

We're a Matsuura house. Service and support has been exceptional. We don't run much aluminum. Mostly Ti, Inco, CroMo, etc...

It has nothing to do with brand loyalty, we found that they have been the machines that meet our needs best and the local Apps support is exceptional. Our dealer just stole a guy from Makino so that would be a good add to an already stellar group.

X5.... Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Applications support is everything, now more than ever. Companies are running leaner today than in the past.

Says almost $900 on Amazon. Not bad.

Hate to say it but this is one of those toolpaths that is hit and miss. I use it all the time, but the percentage of times that I guess right the first time is about 75% now. At first, it was about 25%. It just takes time to get a feel for it.

Yeah, it's under parameters. It may need to be enabled to see it.

Depending how your parameters are set, there is a keystroke history. Reading it is a bit like reading hieroglyphics but, I had a good teacher so I can usually figure out what was done.

@ Rob, you can unbunch your drawers. I essentially said the difference between the Mitsui and the Mazak is the difference between Matsuura and Haas.

If you're going to get into writing Macros, this book in invaluable

http://www.amazon.com/Fanuc-CNC-Custom-Macros-Programming/dp/0831131578

I have this book. Of all my reference materials, this one gets the most use by far.

Mitsui Seiki... Mazak. Hmmmm, Matsuura.... Haas. Decisions, decisions.

Not!