Tom, You guys have built some proto type knock downs for us over the last few months, and I can say that engineering has been pleased with the quality you have been providing. I wouldn't stray too far from the Makinos because of the molding support background that they have established. We are looking at a new purchase, and after looking around the higher up front cost is well outwieghted by the quality and reliability. Aluminum or not surface finish and accuarcy are hard to beat on those machines.

Go into your machine definition and select the control definition. In the control definition you can add posts to the drop down by selecting the post processor button. It then allows you to add post processors. Then save your control definition after you add the posts to activate them. There is a better explanation of this in the internal help. Then you can go into your properties under your operation group and select the post to activate by clicking on the edit tab, then selecting the post from the drop downs you just added. HTH

Surface mill it with the HST's finish contours. This thing rocks for something as steep as that. Remember to calculate your scallop height based off of your ball nose radius.

I told you those things rocked Shawn. I am always squemish to reccomend a cutter because of all the variables that go into running one properly. I don't have access to the MA Fords, but the numbers sound awesome. Shawn crank that bugger up and let it snow.

Just remember with those setting large parts with mulitiple surfaces will take much longer to repaint and move when you are doing transformations.

Being a small inhouse mold build and repair shop I get to run about 90% of the things I program. With that said I do a quick prove out put a M01 at tool changes, and walk away. We have alot of stuff to get through 3 machines and it takes alot of attention quickly and a good ear. The older guy in the shop who handles alot of the grinding says I look like a dog sometimes. My head will rock to the side and I will listen for a moment then I will go and check the machine. That goes for the wire, mill and ram. They all have distinct sounds when they run good and if it doesn't sound right it probably isn't. We run alot of lights out cavity and core cutting and those programs we try to prove out before leaving. Tool breakage detection has made me much more comfortable and has saved our butts a time or two. So to answer the question after a long fingered respones. Yes I get to run what I program.

Watch the shrink fit in roughing applications. Your highend collets will help you dampen some of the vibration where the rigid shrink fit will translate it right up into your spindle. The shrinkfit is wonderful for finishing, but I would rough in a centerdraw collet from Haimer or Lyndex Nikken.

Watch what driver you load for it, and make sure to get the DVI dual output. You will also need to make sure the unified buffer/ back depth setting is set to off to get a good backplot. There are alot of posts on NVidia cards if you do a search. One post actually covers which drivers have had problems and which one runs problem free. HTH

Xform project is the old squash, but it works better now with more options. HTH

I am running a .5mm ball mill right now in S-7 54-56 Rc at 30K rpm and 36 ipm with a .001" depth of cut for surface finish machining. What type of cutting do you want to do? If the ball mill is TiALN coated you can run 45000 rpm in 4140 safley with .0003 chip load and .005 doc for slotting situations. Copy milling will yield a different result. Endmill lenght to diameter will also greatly affect your cut. It all depends on your set-up. Give me some more specifics and I will tell you what I would do. Make sure whatever you do that the cutter doesn't see any runnout, drastic direction change with a pause, or overt loading in the cut area. HTH

I thought it was an unwasted mind that was a terrible thing.

Here is my .02. Why on God's Green Earth would you tie a X hundred thousand dollar machine up measuring parts for dimensional layouts. You can using the probing capabilites to validate your part to the accuaracy of your machine and set-up. My general understanding of probing was that it was for automated part set-up, casting validation before machining, and possibly work part rotation. I now you can store values on the control in the registries otherwise some Macros would be useless. I am definitly not an expert, but using a mill as a cmm doesn't sound like a good productive practice. I am not a production shop so maybe I don't understand the dynamics that would cause this decision to even be evaluated.

You can do wonders with a work coordinate system. I get the guys next door to do it all the time, because I keep the solids option like a dog with a bone. Select WCS and then select a solid face to be your orientation feature. You can then cycle through your xyz orientations to put the part exactly where you want it for machining. HTH

If you want to see your geometry you can create it with the transform operations. There are many options under the transform menus so look carefully and try them to see what each one of them give you.

The haas next door is programmed to wear all the time. It is all we use here. Under your compensations options select Wear and then under direction select which side. We use it for both contours and thread milling. Is your error from MC or your Machine?

Where are you in Laurel? I am just right up the road. Drop me a line and I can give you a call.

I would create a flat surface on the inside of the part at the top level and then select it as one of your drive surfaces. If it is flat the contour toolpath will ignore it.

Thanks for including that one Pete. When I load X2 I am hoping to be able to use these to manipulate the model and work CSYS easier.

PERRRRRRRRRFFFECT

I think the font is a little small John.

It always is and there is the chipped tooth endmill to point it out.

There is a router and art package offered for that industry. This will give you alot of option in bringing in Raster type files and converting them to the vector format that MC needs to use for toolpathing. I would definitly get the tutorials and practice parts to get started at a minmum. I would highly reccomend going to a 3 day seminar to get the basics down for 2d toolpaths and output or posting them to the machine. You will need to make sure that the customer has a post processor for the specific control that is on his router. This will ensure that the g-code is properly formated.

Brett, I would like to try you Makino post and see how much better it works than the one I have mangled. You can email me at jjoyce(at)bowlesfluidics(dot)com Thanks,

I think I am going to wait a day or two and see if there is any "real" fallout. By then all of the gotta have it nows should be out of the way. Then I can install it on the weekend and get everyone else's boxes updated with out all of the drama it causes when I do it during work hours.

I have some surfaceing toolpaths that I would love to see someone "hand" program. 100 150 200 meg and sometimes bigger than that. In all seriousness if you had to just search through these files to find where to past in your saftey lines it would take hours over the course of a week. For simple 3 axis stuff the MPMASTER.pst will handle 90% of it and with a little help from the guys here you can get the rest of it dialed in.