Andy, I would suggest buying what you need to single point this thread. There is also another argument that you might be overlooking - the clamping pressure on an assumed three jaw chuck attached to the machining center bed. You would end up with a thread that will spring at three points upon releasing the finished part. Regards, Jack

Andy, I would tend to turn it on a cnc lathe first; this gives you the most flexabilty concerning speed, finish, chatter, etc! Regards, Jack

What's all this talk about Mike wearing a hair piece? Regards, Jack

Straight up - yes, this machine tool is worth 150K. In Canada it would probably go new for about 400K and used about 230K. Placing Heidenhain and Mastercam aside for the moment - fly there and run your bare hands across all ball screws (This tells the real story of crashes and other undesirable things). Be wary of a horizontal for the finicky things like limit switches and rotary/interchangeable beds - personally, I would'nt touch this machine tool (I have experience of six different Deckels - Dialog controls only, and one Maho) rigidty is not their strongest suit and neither is high production - If you have a need for a touchy machine tool that does amazing five axis work then perhaps this machine will work out for you, otherwise take a pass, for the maintenance costs alone could well break your back in a few months time. In all fairness I am sure they make a fine machine tool; but if so then why is this one for sale? Deckel is famed more so for complexity vs rigidity. Their claim to fame does not include productivity or aggressive machining in MHO. Hope it helps, Regards, Jack

I also have the XPS Extreme mobile with an ATI graphics solution. I cannot understand why these problems still exist. You need to cut the hardware acceleration to the minimal setting in order to have a smooth enjoyable experience. Inventor and Solidworks seem to work well whether at minimal or maximum hardware acceleration but Mastercam doesn’t – in fact the only program that I use that requires this step is Mastercam. I’m going out on a limb here but I might suggest that the mousing operation within Mastercam might be written in some archaic spaghetti code that constantly polls the mouse video function thereby bouncing or fluctuating between both shared devices – this leaves me the choice of: - do I disable the mouse or do I disable the advanced features of the graphics card? Why this happens with ATI and not with Nvidia is very curious but I will still likely buy or lease another of these Dell XPS mobiles with the ATI video around December which will bring my own personal investment up to about 17K in the past two years. These hardware issues are not valid IMHO but related to a software handling issue that is unique to Mastercam since I have yet to encounter another current program that craps out like this. I am curious as to what approach CNC Solutions is going to use with Mastercam “X” or whether it will be an actual concern at all. Is the new interface based on a more current engine or is it still perhaps written in Pascal or FORTRAN? I am not being smart about this I am merely posing the question that begs to be asked. Perhaps one of the Beta testers could shine a little impartial light on this subject without the “ATI sucks routine”. Regards, Jack

Screw the post count - just get back in here on Monday and tell us all how you made 10K on the weekend and need help finding some guys to take for beers. Regards, Jack

3 flute 1/2" cutter with three "Z" passes will do the trick. Low rpm with a fast feed - take care to override at the corners and be sure to do a small circular interpolation on these corners as well. This is not the tough job you are anticipating; holding a .0006" tolerance across a 6" depth of cut is difficult and whether you believe me or not - it's obtainable. Hang in there - you are going to ace this job. P.S. I never ever liked a 7/16 end mill regardless of depth of cut - clearly my least favorite among many - but that might be the bad taste left over from snapping them four fluters off in aluminum of all things. Regards, Jack

I think you responded while I was editing. Please have another look; don't be shy - cut it back to 400 rpm - this will work. 6" is a deep pocket to me in H13 or 4140HT; when you get pinned with this type of work you have to learn to be adaptable and to overcome the chatter. I would not even consider 100 rpm too slow on this length of cut. Good luck. Regards, Jack

Gary, Cut the rpm back to about 25% of what it is that you are using; manually overriding the feed rate at the corners will also help immensley. Trust me - this is going to work out - ultra low rpms for any and all extended length of cuts. P.S. - go with a two flute if possible; the thought behind such foolishness is that the fewer teeth involved with the cut will render the better finish. Regards, Jack

quote: Sounds like you guys are going to get into some fun work Brendon..... So there has been a Brendon, a Brenden, and a Brendan so far as I know. My sons name is Brandon which could be offered as an excuse I suppose. Sorry Brendan - if this is correct. Regards, Jack

Use a tape measure to check the tool pot pitch. As I recall 4 ½” is the maximum diameter; you can use an adjacent pocket providing you call it a large diameter tool in your tool data screen which keeps both adjacent pockets clear in the event that you use large diameter tools. Manually stick a couple of large face mills into the magazine prior to calling a tool change – just to be sure. Regards, Jack

Jimbo007, Griffo Bros. is not going to help you with this; Mazatrol, unfortunately, is the only solution or use for this machine tool. As I have said before – it takes roughly 6 months to become a cowboy and 2 years to actually know how to use these machines to their best potential. I have been banging around in Mazatrol for close to 22 years and I’m still learning things. Good luck. Regards, Jack

Jimbo007, I also found a Mazak VQC15/40 in 1989 when I bought it new. Eia is standard on the M32 control and works flawlessly with Mastercam & Mazatrol. Do a search on this forum since virtually everything imaginable has been dealt with in the past. BTW – I just received a quote to replace the “X” & “Y” ballscrews, support bearings, and encoder belts = appr. 14K P.S. if it has an M2 control then it cannot be a 1991 VQC15/40 - it would likely be a 1986 model. Regards, Jack

Roger, What about making a flyout box available to the programmer that nags the question. I know that it doesn't make much sense at your end or even at my end considering the frequency and the questionable practice. In other words - If the programmer selects a point that varies from the current "Z" level or plane, would it be possible to establish the flyout. Another question back at you is - what exactly are the competitors doing within their software packages that might address this question? Regards, Jack

It could always be worse - like in Dialog11 worse. Regards, Jack

Franck, As I recall from the Christmas movies – Bumbles bounce. Take care not to rapid into the rubber otherwise the head of the machine tool could bounce right up to the "Z" Limit and fly off of the machine killing you and all others close by. Try cutting this with some Wiss hand shears or band cutters, even scissors might do the trick. Band-sawing would also work. You might consider trapping the rubber between two thin pieces of aluminum or wood to function as rigid support and just cut right through it all. Whoops – I saw that Matt also suggested the same. Regards, Jack

Is it possible that this machine supports a G33 cycle? Regards, Jack

Ajit, I don't have the benefit of using MasterCam at home and will not until Tuesday afternoon. The standard called MPmaster, I believe will give you what it is that you need (this might be called MPFanuc). By defualt you should see a G54 at the header as well as many other standard program coding methods. Try doing some simple routines and learn from them - this is the best that I can do for the moment. Really, you should state which machine tool and which specific control is being used. This is a holiday weekend in America so I think that is why so few people are on the forum at this moment in time. Please also do a search within this forum for surely most any question you may have has been addressed thoroughly in our database. Regards, Jack

Ajit, Yes, the newer Mazak's require the extension of .EIA the older ones require .NC You can rename a program like 0099.NC to 0099.EIA through a Dos shell. Best bet is to look in your post for file extension and change the default from .NC to .EIA, this is the effortless and preferred solution. As always, save the post under another name and take it for a spin. Regards, Jack

RStuart, Did they buy it with the Mazatrol 640M or did they order it with the Mazatrol 640M Pro? Regards, Jack

+1 Thad, There is no point in flogging a dead horse. Regards, jack

Sorry George, My laptop is at work and I won't be returning until Tuesday afternoon. If your really hurting for the conversion then I would suggest zipping the files and uploading to Jayson's Ftp; surely somebody can help you if you are in a bind. Other things to consider are do a search on this forum - most everything imaginable has been done before and your solution is often found right there in a simple search routine. Good Luck.... Regards, Jack

Hey George, That's the beauty of Iges Export options in my opinion would be as follows: 1) Parasolid 2) Step 214 3) SAT There might be other options available but I cannot be sure - but none would carry the color transfer to the best of my knowledge. Parasolids uses a different math engine than Step and SAT both of which are based on Acis. It's really slow on the forum tonight for some reason (maybe Labor Day weekend holiday)- just check back in a little while and somebody more knowledgable might be able to help you better. Regards, Jack

George, Iges has no interest in colors, as few translation programs would. I used to make it a habit of turning all irrelevant layers off in Acad but now I tend to only use Step 214. Keep hammering away at these though - it's the way we learn about stuff. P.S. You could not have picked a worse translation method - Iges is the last only chance and unpreferred method of choice. Regards, Jack

foolsh, I believe you need to extend each outer surface individually - really, how many can it be? 10 or 20? It's archaic but necessary since a surface can go each way given the three primary planes. Regards, Jack