Hey guys, I'm not sure if this is the correct area to post this but I'm in need of a few contract programmers for 5-axis work. If you are interested please PM me to discuss. Thanks Frank

We use Big Daishowa Mega Micro Series collet chucks. They're balanced to 50k, 3 micron (.0001") runout at 4xD and they have small diameter clamping nuts for tight clearance. 1/8" collet chucks have a 10mm nose diameter, not as small as shrink but pretty good for our type of work. I've never had any pullout and I can use the same holder for a different diameters. They are a bit pricey they work great. I avoided shrink fit for same reasons xirden stated. http://www.big-daishowa.com/product_page/data_01_mega-chuck.php

Yes, I can post some of the code here and I'll see if I can get the mcam file from our server to send. Thanks heaps

Hi Guys, Interesting timing of this thread as we have just received our first Variaxis i600 Smoothx and a 6 pallet changer. We have X9 with Postability's Variaxis post. We run ISO only and are having issues with feedrates, jerky cutting motion and tool breakages. We can run ~400ipm (10M/min) and have tried G05 P2, with G61.1 and using the M820-M830 options. I'm sure we are doing something wrong with these settings or we need to dig further into the controller's parameters? Can anyone offer some advice on how to achieve higher and smoother feeds? Unfortunately the Mazak techs in this hemisphere are not very helpful with 5 axis or ISO. Cheers

Interesting to see this thread brought back to life. As I have gained more experience with 5 axis, I have become a part mover. The driving factors were our Haas Trunnion using c.o.r for programming and that pre x9 was not WCS aware as Aaron mentioned above. I do prefer leaving my part where it is (my background is automotive) Any 3 axis parts remained in car position and id creat my own wcs and go from there. I hated having to merge an updated part over and over from car position in to die position. It felt like every part had 20 updates by the time a job was finished. Or merging a die design over parts that were moved to wcs zero. I don't think it's a black and white issue, it really depends on the type of work you do day to day and if X9 is now wcs aware then none of this matters imo.

Thanks for adding more salt to my wounds

I did the same research at the end of last year, and had similar machines in mind. I started two threads one was high speed machine tool suggestions and high speed machine tool suggestions part 2. The guru's on the forum provided great advice and after reading user opinions i ruled out the DMG right away. The next one to go for me was Mazak, I just don't think it has the speed nor the packaging that Matsuura, Mikron or Makino have. Mikron was out of the price range but used it to show the difference in machine capability. We ended up with a Mazak i600 with a pallet tech system. The pallettech is huge where as,the Matsuura is nice and compact in comparison. Also has a much better tool storage system In my opinion. Price for a mam72-63 with 6 pallets was pretty much identical to the Mazak with a palletech. The price difference was the Mam had glass scales on all axes. Mazak won because of local support but I don't believe it is in the same league as Matsuura for this type of work. Our reseller would have been on another continent and as a company we weren't happy with that. My money would be on a Matsuura all things being equal. best of luck with your search and check those other threads as the guru's posted some great info.

+1 to what Mick said. We went direct to mother ship with no change in support. We just haven't moved on.

Thanks JP I'll look into that

Is anyone getting this error when attempting to launch the latest x9 beta? I'm running win 7 x64 and have the latest version of x8. I've tried uninstalling x9 beta, deleted all folders and registry keys but I still get the same error. Thanks

I don't use view sheets but this cook would get me to. This is a big time saver for all plane changes required to so our parts. Great job Josh! Now, how can we get this cook? I checked the Gibbs forum but can't find it lol

Without seeing the surfaces as Ron has stated, I'd try moving my boundary inwards by .01" to get the toolpath off the extreme edge of the surface. The 2nd thing would be to untrim or extend the surfaces at the location in question and see if that helps. Otherwise we'd likely need to try out a few different things there.

It is a great feature for sure! I'm often using split solid face to cut through window framed parts (thanks Ron!) to thin the frame where i require tool access. Remove solid fillet works great too! It has even done some things in 2 mouse clicks that would have taken our Solidworks designers 20 minutes.

just finished up 2 80 plus hour weeks so I finally have time to participate in the forum. We are crazy busy and growing like weeds hence why we were looking for a new machine. We made our decision last week and the Mazak i600 with the palletech system is the winner. The next phase is looking for a full time programmer to get this machine humming and sort out verification software. Then i have to learn as much as i can about running it beofre it hits the floor in 6 months. Thanks to everyone for your time and insight it is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for that. I'll PM you some questions soon. Cheers

Mr. Leghorn, do you know if this is done using a Matsuura supplied air connection or if the company in Washington designed this system themselves? We have one job that requires vacuum fxturing and it is long cycle for us so it would be ideal for the pallets if possible. Thanks

Oh, one thing I forgot to ask is we have a vacuum chuck, does anyone know who if it will integrate with either Matsuura or Mazak's pallet systems?

We looked at DMG/Mori and Mikron as well. Both companies are not well supported in our part of the world (like everything else). Mikron has only one HSM in Australia and it's a 3 axis and no pallets so support is a big concern. DMG didn't have any of us fooled we couldnt take them seriously, the machine's look great though lol. Mazak's support and service isn't great either but at least we know what we are getting with them. Matsuura is supported via New Zealand and are trying to enter the Aussie market so we'd be their first machine in Australia. They do pretty good in NZ and theY made a pretty good pitch to us last week. As for the price of the Matsuura vs Mazak they are pretty much identical here. I have heard that many Aussie machine tool dealers like to overcharge which is why they are so even on price.

Hey foggy, Thanks for the toolchange numbers and the probing idea. How do you program the probe to measure the parts? Are you using mastercam's productivity plus or are you using a macro or something else. This is all new to us and we are trying to understand as much as possible before we sign a PO. Are there any aspects of the MAM's you aren't happy with? Do you have the lift up chip conveyor with hyper disks? Thanks mate!

Ron showed me the MAM72 in Chicago and I was very impressed. Plus I have yet to hear a bad thing about the machine from users on this forum and out in the field. The access to measure the part is something that is a bit of a concern for us. Ron,or any other MAM users, how do you find the access to the part when you need to measure it? As for our relationship with MAZAK, it's not great. As some others have stated about MAZAK charging to get machine models for simulation we had a similar issue getting our 3 year old Integrex's software unlocked so we could use CAM software and do 5axis simultaneous. That was an extra 10k and we were not very happy about it. Mazak has big presence here while Matsuura is starting to get back into the market after 20 years so there is a confidence issue regarding support. Thanks Hebrew Hammer, we do have instances where the tool use is 30 seconds. What is the tool change speed like with 120+ tools on the MAM? Another question for you Hebrew, what post and verification do you run and does your machine have the Smoothx control? Thanks

Our company has narrowed our search down to two candidates for a New high speed 5 axis CNC. The race is between a Matsuura MAM72-63v PC6 vs a Mazak VRX i600 with a single level Palletech system with 6 pallets. The MAM72 is equipped with a 20K BBT40 spindle, 120/240 tool base and all the fanuc 5 axis options. The Mazak features an 18k BBT40 spindle, 80 tools and the Mazak SmoothX control. Both machines look very good but we have some questions about machine access with the pallet option. We are concerned about getting at the part to measure feature's while it's in the machine. Is the standard procedure to move the pallet to the loading station, measure it and then return it to the machine and continue proving the program? Or is there a better way to check bore diameters and tap depths/sizes before running more parts? Thanks in advance.

Thanks foggy!

We have a 2014 VF4 with a TR210 that we do simultaneous porting with and this never happens to us, at least not yet.

Double post

Yes that is Global. I spoke with them in regards to a Matsuura and they were very helpful but that's the etent of my interaction with them. Hopefully we buy a MAM72-63 and then i'll give you more info lol.