That's the ticket, thank you!

Stupid questions, using Win7 and Soiledworks '11. When clicking on links to .sldprt files it used to ask me to open or save. I usually choose save so I clicked "Don't ask me again" and it defaulted to opening the file instead of saving. Now I can't get IE to save it, it just opens it in IE and I can't access my macros from there. I tried to fix it in File Types in Folder Options but it appears the idiocy that is Microsoft decided we don't need that feature any more so I can't find the box to deselect "open in same window" to stop this stupid xxxx. Any one know how to edit the Registry to fix this? Thanks!

Did you have two friends hold you first?

The easy answer is yes. You might check the VB section. If you can run your post via a VB script you can easily add VB code to launch it afterwards. It's been a couple years since I've done posts but it seems to me there was a way to do that back in the day even without using VB. If you don't get an answer (I can't imagine you won't here, these guys really know their stuff) I'll see if I can dig up an old post with an example of how to do it.

Trevor, how's the kids?? My youngest is hinting about joining a soccer team. Personally I think he'd be better in the UFC or even doing FMX but whatever.

Thanks all for the info. Our demo was done by Bob Borchelt and I didn't bring up support but I will. I am looking at RYM and will be contacting Cimco as well. Appreciate all the advice!

JMWorks, thanks for the heads up. I will surely keep that in mind! Good stuff, James. I'm forwarding the website for RYM to upper management.

Thanks Tom. We are looking at this for one of our Southeast Asia facilities.

Excellent. Thank you.

Who's a good contact person for Cimco? (You can send via PM if you'd rather) I am looking at this for one of our Southeast Asia facilities but they don't need to be in this area. The Predator demo we got was from a guy stateside using skype. Thanks again for your time.

Thanks Mick. More than just DNC. Predator can use Macro B (or PLC boards) to report machine status in real time. Generate reports. File management. Lots of stuff. The DNC part of it is a minor consideration for us compared to other things it does.

We've got a fairly large operation here, 60+ HAAS' with plans to expand. Today I caught the tail end of a presentation for Predator Software Suite. The reporting aspect of it looks good, but what else can it do? Is it worth it? Are there alternatives or is this the bomb? I'd like to look at all possibilities before we pull the trigger and you guys are the best in the business so I value your opinions. Thanks

Thanks Bruce. I've got our supplier looking for the downcut end mills. I think that's the best approach considering if we deburr them by hand we will eliminate our ability to measure the +-.001 tolerances often put on these chamfers. For the life of me I can't imagine why we would need that kind of tolerance but it is what it is. The beginning of my career back in the early '80s was with plastics, mostly acrylics and nylons. I don't ever remember having the grade of engineering plastics we have now (maybe they were in existence and I just never heard of them) and we never had to worry about these kinds of tolerances. Will let you know how things turn out.

Thanks Phil, I considered that but there are too many different variations in our designs for this to be feasible. Matt, that's genius! Thank you.

We are already using diamond tooling. I know there are different methods for different plastics and there is a certain rate you have to get up to temp, stay at temp, then come down to room temp and that affects how it works.

I'm going to try climb cutting the top surface .0005 or less after the chamfer is in to push the burr into the top surface (see below). Not sure what I'm going to do about the inside wall. James, we don't do that here but I have suggested it months ago. As you can see the shapes we do are very complex and warping is an issue so heat treating may be the best bet. Have you done it?

I've got parts made from platics like torlon, vespel and simitron etc. Many of them have similar features where there is a pocket with a chamfer around the edge of the pocket. When doing the chamfer/wall/top it creates burrs on the edges of the chamfer that are difficult to remove. They simply roll over the edge instead of cutting off. Here's a profile of one of the parts with arrows pointing to where the burrs are... I'd like to be able to deburr them on the machine but they just keep rolling out of hte way. Aside from sharp tooling is there a technique that I can use to quickly/efficiently get these burrs off? Thanks!

Jonathan! That was his name. Yea, the guy is brilliant. We used to call him Dr. Mengele (kind of weird considering he was Jewish but he didn't seem to mind ). We would run those Varimills like a bat out of hell. Machining flame-cut surfaces that were super hard it seemed like when a flute would break off it didn't slow it down at all.

Thanks Joe. I'm checking them out right now, waiting for the catalog to download.

Not a problem, James. I've used Varimills before and the support we got was absolutely stellar. An Israili guy came to our shop when ever we had a question and showed us amazing things with the endmills. I finally got a decent response from "Joe" after I told him I'd talk to the competition. I've already got a great response from True Broach so I'm going to try them as well as Hanita. Joe's a fool for not taking this seriously. We spend a large fortune on cutters in the US, Germany and 2 countries in Southeast Asia. A company that wins our business will be very happy they put the time into working with us.

Maybe I'm just stupid... here's how this is playing out. --- Thanks Joe. I’m afraid I’m not sure how to read the legend on the chart you sent, the same problem I had on your website, it’s not very user friendly... I know a 4 flute will be used in stainless. I’m doing 303 stainless, which is a yellow M on the chart, but what’s the 1,2,3? What’s the difference between TiAlN - LT and AlTiN - MT and TiAlN - LW and AlTiN - MW and which would be better for stainless? Matt --- Hi, The 303 SS will fall under M14.1 group. Regards, Joe --- I don’t see that anywhere on the .pdf. --- Hi Mathew, It is the M1 group. Some charts will have M14.1 and this number breaks the material into sub groups. Regards, Joe --- Joe, I’m no closer to knowing what EM to order than I was Monday. I will try Fraisa USA and True Broach. Thanks for your time. Matt --- :twak: (Goderators, feel free to move this to O/T if you think it should be there, but I wanted to share my experience with Widia (Hanita))

I asked for info and here's his first reply... "Attached is the catalog pages of the VariMills. I would suggest using the 4 flute for slotting." Really? 4 flutes? In stainless? Thanks, Joe. I never would have guessed!

Ok, the support from Widia (Hanita) is crap. A guy named Joe is "helping" me with the most vague answers I've seen in a long time. When did they switch to Widia? I never had this much trouble choosing which endmill to rough 303 stainless with. :twak: Contacting True Broach and Fraisa USA as well. Maybe the service will be better there.

Thanks for the link. Them are some small effen inserts! They won't work for me now but I bookmarked the site for future use.

Thanks SledGeek. looks like they only have Metric inserts. Will call to verify.