I'll have to give that Iscar a try. The Ingersoll DHU we've been using leaves a pretty good finish, but I was hoping to find something that can run faster and still leave a reasonable finish. Features they cut are +/-.015", so accuracy is not as critical, just MMR and a reasonable enough finish that we can shot blast any obvious witness marks out. Use them for cutting the water/swarf grooves on the side of rock drill bits. As everyone here loves to say, "it's not going on the damn space shuttle." Thanks for the lead!

We do a LOT of plunge cutting, nearly every part we make has at least a few plunge cuts. I've been using Ingersoll DHU series insert mills for 1" and up (going about 17-18 IPM in 495B with with about .1XD WOC) and used flat bottom drills for 1/2"-3/4" (similar MMR). They do alright for our purposes, but there's always room for improvement. Any suggestions? I've already tried using HSM practices just rotating the part off in B axis and cutting with a BNEM, but plunge cutting is faster given that there's no need for A axis indexes, our machines are S L O W 3+2 axis HMCs).

Nope.

I once saw someone broach a hole with a tap on a Haas...

On other machines that have it we just leave the machine at Z0 with axis neglect on until the program gets to where we need to drill then turn it off. I have an operator I (mostly) trust to use it, and I just don't want to have to take the time to edit in the goto and block skip lines some days. Sometimes I'm neck deep in other stuff and don't have time to disengage and edit a program for a single cycle. Kind of a moot point at the moment though, the machine in question is down for repairs for a while. Pallet clamp quit functioning. Might have something to do with the fact that maintenance and the operators don't clear chips often enough...

Can't find it on the control or in the manual. Do the NH series horizontals even have this function? Have a NH6300 we use for a lot of precision hole drilling, and if we have any issues mid cycle, need some way to skip specific holes so they don't get drilled twice after a reset. Usually I end up just block deleting and adding in extra start/safe lines, but that's a pain.

Might be able to get close. When I got to test them (management got a bit of sticker shock at the price) I ran them on one of the oldest, most beat up machines in our shop. An old komo that still had a tape reader installed. Might not be able to go quite that fast, but it's one of the few tools I've tested where the recommended numbers out of the book actually worked without wearing down the insert after 10 holes. Guess it depends on the how old and beat up the machine is. I've made some pretty aggressive cuts with a VF4 before, but it was fairly new.

FWIW, I've had great luck Kennametal KSEM, but not the cheapest out there. They are however good at taking punishment when an operator forgets to change out inserts... Sumitomo are a reasonably effective cheap alternative. If you need something that really rip through mild steel in a hurry, sandvik makes some really nice replaceable tip drills, I believe they were corodrill 870s. I think I've fed those as fast as 45ipm in A36. No chatter or squealing, just the sound of chips splattering on the housing, and come out pretty accurate given how fast they were feeding. Not at all cheap though.

We have an NLX2500, runs all day and night with a bar feeder and part catcher. Works great for what we do with it. The Celos controls do have a pretty steep learning curve over, say, an old Fanuc control. But, once you screw around with it a bit you'll adjust. Personally I like how easy it is to customize the displays, and they're pretty easy to use once you get past how alien they are. I love the control on our NVX5080, but as stated above the touch screens do occasionally have sensitivity issues. As far as service in general, it can be kind of hit or miss. We had DMG Mori automation install our first automated cell with a fanuc m10/12i robot for loading and a little mitsubishi for inspection. We have had issues with even getting info from the automation department (still waiting for them to schedule a visit to install upgraded parts they received over a month ago), but service department has been pretty solid for us for the most part. Although... we do have a few outstanding software issues that have been "forwarded to japan for review" 6 months ago and have not heard a thing from them on it. But, to be fair, the PLC in our NVX has been tinkered with quite a bit to get it to talk to all the other components in the cell.

Depending on how strong you are with figuring out code on your own... you may want to consider tinkering with the post yourself. I knew absolutely nothing about post files a year ago, and I've made several working posts for our mills over the last year. Just make sure you make backup files before you start, and before every time you make a major change. probably not a bad idea to keep multiple backups in case a change you make and save breaks the post and you can't figure out how to undo it. I've never used MCAM wire, but the posts I've seen so far for everything else are extremely customizable, and if they're not spitting out what you want, you can re-write them to do essentially whatever you want. Also, there are a lot of functions controlled by digital switches within the post file, so I'd bet money the features you want are already in the post file, but just not turned on. Having the debugging tool up when you post is invaluable for that. You can use the logs in the debugging tool to track down what portions of the post file are being used to create what lines of code in the NC output. Think of the post as a somewhat complicated script file that translates the raw NCI code from mastercam into machine specific NC code. Spend a good bit of time looking through the top 1/4 or so of the file, that is where most of the config info and switches are. Usually what a reseller/post writer wants is for you to send them two copies of the code- what it is actually spitting out, and a copy of what you want it to output. Not sure about either of the resellers mentioned here, but MCAMNW will give you one free 3 axis post with a MCMAM seat, and they'll give you three days to test and resubmit for changes, so just be sure you are having clear dialog with them and they can get you sorted out. Hope that helps.

Machine experience is CRUCIAL. Learning how to properly set speeds and feeds is an art, approaching voodoo. After a while you don't really give it a second thought, but there are always a TON of factors to consider. Workpiece material, quality of said material, rigidity of the setup and the machine, part geometry, cutter geometry, depth/width of cut, coolant flow, finish/form requirements, are all factors in that equation (i'm sure if I gave it more than 10 seconds of thought I could double or triple that list, but you get the idea). The tool supplier catalogs will give you a good place to start, but treat those numbers as reference figures until you get a feel for it. Learning G-code is important, but knowing how to tell the machine what to do is useless unless you have feeds/speeds and techniques figured out. The greatest strength of CNC machines is that they (barring mechanical issues) always do exactly what you tell them to do. The biggest weakness of CNC machines is that they (barring mechanical issues) do exactly what you tell them to do. You've probably heard this before, but garbage in, garbage out. Like machineguy said, your best bet is finding a shop that will train you. Job shops can be a bit overwhelming, but can provide a wealth of experience due to the variety of work. Production shops will teach you less, as they tend to be very set in their ways and are often slow to try new concepts, but are probably a safer learning environment.

Has your post been proven for that control? That would be step #1. I'm not familiar with sinumerik controls, but as anyone on here can tell you not all controls use the same codes. A code that calls synchronization between spindle speed and feed rate for rigid tapping on one control can unclamp the tool on another... and not all controls will stop the spindle first.

So most ring gages are made from a high nickel (or some other thermally stable material) alloy? That might explain the price. I know Invar is on the expensive side, and it's major merit is thermal stability (sure as hell isn't machinability). All the inspection and probing is handled by a cognex camera and a mitsubishi robot outside the mill, so to have the robot re-calibrate I'll have to explore the robots range of motion and design a jig to mount all the ring gages. I think the issue is with the probes themselves, but I suppose the parts themselves could be changing size a bit too. From what I was told, Ovako 495B is somewhat stable thermally.

Already extended the tolerance a bit (yay, forcing me to learn how to program the PLC controlling the cell!). The drills are already a custom grind, and for most sizes they come in close enough to nominal that we'll use them. But for some reason the 11/32 is always at the low end. I asked about changing the size we are ordering up by a tenth, and one of the supervisors said we had asked them to do so a couple years back and the batch they sent us blew out every hole drilled, and they don't want to try it again. Honestly, it's kind of a miracle that these drills will hold +/-.0005" to begin with. Until I came here I never saw anyone trying to hold closer than +/-.001" off just a drill. I guess my next step is seeing if I can figure out how to get the robot to re-calibrate the probes on it's own every 50 parts or so, or if that fails set up the macro on the mill and the MoriMessenger software to remind me to go re-calibrate.

Having a debate with a supervisor over a problem we've been having in our automated cell, and want to verify that I am assessing the situation correctly. We got a large batch of drills that have been running at the very low end of the tolerance, and the way our cell is set up, if the bore probes measure two out of spec parts in a row, the tool that made those holes is flagged as bad and it will pick up a backup tool and continue along. The cell has been rejecting a very high number of drills from this last batch we got from guhring. If I calibrate the bore probes in the morning, and re-check them a few hours later, I usually find 50-100 millionths of an inch when rechecking them against the same standard. I know some of that is just the ring gage itself changing size with temp, but I also suspect that the probe head itself is susceptible to calibration errors due to temperature changes. An important bit of info is that we do NOT have a climate controlled shop - there are temperature changes of up to 30 degrees throughout a shift, just depends on the day. (Don't judge, we make rock drilling bits, not parts for the ISS) Has anyone else observed calibration issue with bore probes due to temperature shifts? We are using the two point type that uses changes in resistance as two dissimilar metals deflect as the points are compressed. I think the calibration errors are being caused by temperature changes, he disagrees.

Thoroughly test your post, crashes on a horizontal tend to be pretty nasty/expensive. As was already stated, be aware of CG of your tombstone/workpiece set up, and make sure it is VERY solidly mounted. The way I hear it, our Mori NH6300 has mangled Z axis way covers due to the previous programmer trying to hold a quarter ton of tombstone and C axis indexer with 4 toe clamps. It is semi-permanently bolted straight to the pallet now. If you have not already, look into getting dynamic work offsets set up if the machine supports it, and take the time to determine exactly where the centerpoint of rotation is. Will make programming and set up way easier later.

I'd recommend avoiding mastercam pocket toolpaths and stick with dynamic/HSM toolpaths, if the machine can handle it. Much quicker for hogging out lots of material, it uses more of your cutting edge, the tool keeps more consistent engagement, etc. Just be careful with those back feed moves if you have look ahead...

I used them once and was not impressed, but I had some really cheap ones and I was tapping 6061.

Using G54.2,so we might need to adjust distance to center of rotation if the replacement is not exactly the same. More concerned with getting the robot touched up than the mill program. We don't have much tolerance for depth on the features machined there, but we also probe in several locations to get more accurate numbers so there's usually not much more than a thousandth variation from one part to the next, even if the previous ops are a little off. Not too bad for parts that are loaded by a robot... but getting the robot to drop the part in just the right spot was not easy.

Refilled and bled the hydraulic system for the brakes with the mori tech on friday, pressure switch lit up like it was supposed to when we were done, so assumed it had just worked some more air bubbles up and we left it at that. Come in this morning after the weekend, and no pressure. I guess it must have an internal leak somewhere still. Those mori DDRTs have an inner and outer housing, so if the hydraulic system for the brakes is leaking, you will almost never see it outside the unit. Uses an air over oil system with the brakes, so a few bubbles can cause major problems. Are we the only ones having this issue, or has anyone else had issues with the brakes on these things? I asked them this morning (still under warranty, thankfully) if they will just swap it out for another unit and we'll deal with reteaching the robot and adjusting our drilling macro. Unfortunately, I can't just crack the damn thing open myself, as that will void the warranty.

Yeah, still has brakes, and those brakes can still fail. The really crappy part is that when the brake is engaged, the feedback system is disabled so if the brake does not have enough clamping force, the axis will deflect away from and not re-position until it receives another motion command. Not an issue if you're doing 5 axis simultaneous milling since it will constantly be adjusting to stay in position, but we're just using it in an NVX5080 as a 5 axis drilling machine for rock drill bits... had to make some adjustments to the vision system and the PLC program after the first time the brake failed. It just happened to start failing when we were running it lights out for the first time, so it made about 80 bad parts and the cell was not programmed to handle that contingency so it ran all of the inventory that was loaded that night. Hopefully, it's just a bad DDRT and they'll replace it this time around.

Don't get me wrong, it is fast as hell and accurate when it's working, but this one has been down for repairs 3 times since June. They don't want to replace the entire unit since it would require some reprogramming on the robot side of the cell, or be a huge pain in the xxxx to line it back up where the old one was (and still have to tweak the robot program a bit). And I can't just tear into myself since that will void the warranty, so here I sit with my thumb up my xxxx waiting for Mori service department... Thanks, just wanted to know if anyone else had issues, or if we just got a defective unit. I think it probably is the latter.

We just had a shiny new NVX5080 with a 5th axis DDRT installed this last summer as part of a robotic cell, and we've had several issues with the DDRT. We've had issues with internal leaks, causing problems ranging from the brakes failing during machining (yep, it moved with a tool buried in it...) to the machine just halting code execution when it reaches a lock/unlock code. Initially we were told it was a design flaw with the size of the oil reservoir, but they came out and went through a retrofit to supposedly address the issue... fast forward a few months and it just failed on us again and will not respond to lock/unlock commands again. Has anyone else had major issues with one of these, or did we just get a bad unit? Any pointers? The cell Mori installed, as a whole, works pretty damn well now that we've ironed out all the kinks... but no DDRT means no chips.

Haha good luck holding tenths. I once interviewed at a shop that machined PLASTIC and had no AC, and they could not figure out why their parts would measure good off the machine and get rejected by the customer. Laughed the whole way home and ignored the call back.

In our robotic cell, some of the components are programmed in metric, and some imperial. One of these days, it's going to be mars pathfinder all over again.