Onsrud has had quite a few complaints lately the shear of the cutter goes far up the shank. Is there any shear inside your collet? This allows them to use a bigger wheel when grinding, but the use too much shank causing breakage at the collet rgds George

Kaeser screw type, is an excellent unit. I have personally worked with well over 100 of these, in router applications rgds George

Tommy I always use the filter. But when I cut high speeds, grater than 900 ipm, I draw the ellipse in autocad. In autocad at the command prompt type pellipse set this variable to 1, then draw the ellipse. It will be 12 arcs. And will cut the way you want rgds George

Ok I'll tell you Fanuc means Fujitsu Automated Numerical Control

I spent 2 weeks in Fanuc's school in Japan a few years back. It is Fan Uck I actually learned what Fanuc stands for Does anyone want to take a guess? rgds George

Jeff I seem to remember something about this, please go to your parameter manual and go to parameters related to tool offset this is a parameter that discusses tool length offset values. Lee I dont know if you have the small or full size keypad. From the relative position screen press the X or Y or Z then press CAN theis will clear the relative value. As far as the part counter press P then CAN for run time press R then CAN. rgds George

If the cycle start light stays on STL is commanded and the nc has not issued a FIN or finish signal. When an M code is executed something has to happen. Execute all the m codes through that program one at a time in MDI and see which one fails. Perhaps it is a simple sensor or limit switch adjustment. Do you have a copy of the ladder logic? This will help you find what has to answer back the specific m code that is failing good luck George

You need tool offset c so you can use one offset for both D and H ie G41D1Y1. G43H1z1. this is an option from fanuc rgds George

Eastech is this a shoda machine? I have programmed hundreds of these machines,I always rotate the part 90 degrees rgds George

Aaronis You could purchase the user macro b option for your fanuc control and program parametrically. rgds George

Most of the older Heians came with a tape reader, be sure the i/o settings are set to remote. Parameters 340 341 and 311 are for rs232 if memory serves me correctly. If you need any help with the Heian please ask me I was Heian's engineer in America from 1983 to 1989 rgds George Gerhard

If this is a Fanuc control with the pc interface you must omit the percent sign. When I say pc interface I mean there is a conventional crt and pc board. I learned this the hardway rgds George

dkintzel I have done alot of work including the original training about 18 years ago at Northway Industries. I recently modified one of their Heians with a new plc. I actually tried to sell one of my machines to your company many years ago small world gota loves this forum regards George

Ripper if you take the 45 degree tool and run it into the corner there will be a huge radius in the corners. However if at the corners you execute a 3d move equal to the tool geometry there will be what appears to be a square corner, there will always be some radius, but it will be very small. rgds George

Ripper In order to cut a square corner, whrn the machine arrives at the corner the corner the machine must move x,y and z simultaneously. Engraving will figure out the moves for you ie, G01 X1.2345 Y1.2345 Z1.6875 rgds George

danfec there are several ways, of course tooling is a major factor. Mastercam engraving has an option to do this for you. Just describe the tool geometry, and engraving will trig out the corners for you rgds George ps I have used this many times

Tom I love manufacturing, I love anything mechanical, however I dont feel people in this industry are compensated properly. Of course everyone has a different opinion on what a good salary is. I graduated high school in 1977 4 years of machine shop, in 1978 in was in the New York City apprenticeship program, 4 years later plus 4 years of college at night studying manufacturing technology I was now a journeyman tool and die maker, everyone I knew was making more money than me, I actually left so I could make more money. I have noticed in the northeast where I live skilled people dont earn their just. A sanitation worker makes more money than a cnc programmer or a skilled machinist, and has 6 weeks vacation after 5 years. Does anyone on this forum get that much vacation? I would be surprised if anyone said yes, the reason is you are not a spoke in the wheel, you are needed. I understand in the mid west tool and die makers earn a good living, and the cost of real estate is less than half of what it is in Connecticut. I paid $144,000 for my home in 1986, it was appraised a few months ago for $410,000, how can anyone earning 60k buy a home around here? Tom I have 2 sons 23 and 21, and I never encouraged them to go into this business, become a financial planner, or if you must work with your hands become an electrician and open your own business. I always felt good about myself because I was working with what I thought was high tech stuff, such as cnc and edm. However I never had the financial sucess as friends of mine who had taken up other occupations. Example a good friend of mine with one year of college works for Metlife, and made over one million dollars in 04, and I am telling you this guy cant tie his own shoes, the year before he made just under a million, so it wasnt just a lucky year. I have been lucky to earn a good salary, because, please I am not bragging. besides the fact that I design machines, and write the ladder logic, I can also make them work, I still teach mc classes and go out in the field to put out fires. As you said just one year, I would re-evaluate yourself, do you want to make money, or work with machinery? And no I am not bitter I love this trade rgds George

As acerx3 said check your work offsets. Also check the hd9 file for the block drill click on each drill and check the work offset number. Also there is a question in the post to output the lead drill bdrl_use_lead : 1 #Output the lead drill as drill position w/block drill #for all tools and Aggregates If this is one then all work offsets in the hd9 should e the same, router will calculate the distance between drills based on what you set the hd9 file hope this helps George

would someone give me a new computer if i asked?

Ryanduc on this site there is a section dedicated to books. May I suggest that you should type in lower case letters. rgds George unable to fly today

+1000 to MattW One more question MattW, do you know what temperature in necessary? 29.92 is pressure altitude rgds George

Wildcat99 they should last many many years. There are many contributing factors as to premature failure of drives. Usually the igbt fails this is a large transistor. I will ask if your inverter is being used to brake the spindle. If so the decel time could be too short. Are your cycle times short? I usually recommend a filter between the inverter and the spindle. Also check to see if you have an external resistor to aid in the braking. When you stop the spindle you remove the power going to it, but since it still rotates it becomes a generator sending counter electromotive force back to the drive. The drive can handle it but only at a certain rate, this loading of the bus is what fails drives. So to summarize how long does your spindle take to stop? rgds George

Im with James, in fact I use the exact same level rgds George

Chris under no circumstance should the machine continue to run if the spindle stopped in the middle of an operation. I would ask the mechanic from Thermwood if the plc looks at the arrival signal from the inverter. NO MATTER what he tells you this is a basic of interfacing a control to a machine. I write ladder logic for machines and I can tell you with certainty that the machine must stop if the spindle is active, the program is active and the run command is lost. good luck George

Chris are you sure there is no other command that would cause a spindle stop? Perhaps M00 or a toolchange command? Next check to see if your inverter is still receiving a run command. If it is then check to see if you are loosing the analog signal to the inverter which makes it run. this will be a dc voltage between 0 and 10 volts. at max rpm the inverter should be getting 10 volts I dont know how old your thermwood is but if it has a HSD spindle there are three sensors and one of them checks that the tool is clamped, if this signal is lost the spindle WILL stop. You can adjust these sensors they are cam mounted. There is a good chance this is your problem. Also please check all your connections. good luck George