Hello All, Our lathe programmer is on vacation, so I was asked if I could do a part for them by the leadman. It's a pretty sinple part but I'm a mill programmer and haven't really spent much time with MasterCam lathe. What I can't figure out to do is a single sided dovetail groove in the face of a plate. I have drawn the groove and the tool that I want to use and created a custom tool from it. The problem is that the tool goes too deep and too large in the x axis when roughing and doesn't finish the groove at all. I've tried everything that I can see. I looked at the MC8 files and none have anything that I can use for a non-rectangular face groove. The help file says to create an outer boundry using stock defination. I've tried using the actual stock boundry, offsetting it away from the stock boundry, and all it will do is plunge outside the groove and go deeper. I'm sure it's real simple, but if you don't know how, then its not. If I have to, I'll just analyze the drawing to get my tangent points and offset as needed for the width of the tool and type it in manually. It's just a matter of pride, not being able to do it on MasterCam. You can bet when the lathe programmer gets back I'm going to ask for some lessons. Anyhow, sorry for the long post. Any help would be appreciated form a mill guy to anyone who can help

MACHINEMASTERG, The MPMaster post will work just dandy with the Haas. Everything I've done for quite a while has been with a version of the MPMaster that I've added to or customized to get what I want out of it. You may want to change some things yourself, but the MPMaster is THE place to start. Much better than the Haas post included with MasterCam

Sorry it took so long to get back to the forum, but I've been pretty busy. The suggestions didn't really give me what I wanted. I want something pretty foolproof and automatic, so here is what I ended up doing: pmisc2 #Movable stop pdrlcommonb pbld, n, pxout, pyout, pfzout, *feed, e pcom_movea #start of changes n, "M0 ", "(MOVE PART AGAINST STOP AND CLAMP)",e "G0 G91 Z1.", e I used the pfzout to pick up the z from the drilling parameters page but I couldn't figure how to get it back to the reference point so I used the incremental move you see here. Also had to add logic to not turn on the coolant as below in ptlchg: [if sdrnote = sdr07, next_tool, e else, scoolant, next_tool, e] It works great! thanks again Jamman for the push in the right direction

What kind of customer would specify cut over form tap and why? Nevermind, we get a lot of that kind of stuff here too, the "do it cuz we say so and I got a degree" excuse. But I've never seen threads specified that way. Good luck

All we use is rigid tapping so I have the regular tapping cycle set up to do what we want. Misc 2 should be ok. I'll try it out this week and let you know how it works. I agree that the MP master post is fantastic. All the posts we use for V8 (one guy is still using V6) are based on MP Master except for the subroutine post I got from the website Thanks again for all the help

Wow, Thanks guys. I'll give them a try. I think Jamman's idea will give me closest to what I want with a minimum of messin' around. Might as well make the most of MasterCam. Thanks again

I'm looking for some help in programming what we call a "movable stop". Usually it's added by the operator on the floor but it sure would be dandy to do it in MasterCam for them. What it entails is taking a 1/2" or 3/8" dowel pin in an end mill holder and moving to an X & Y tangent to the edge of the matl, whether it be saw cut or finished from a previous operation, rapid to .1 above matl then feed down .5" or so and then a program stop with an instruction to move matl against stop and tighten vise, then rapid up and start machining part of program. This works great when milling ends to length. I've thought this could be acomplished by using some type of drill cycle but so far I've been unable to think of a way to do this. Any thoughts to point me in the right direction would be appreciated. I'm fairly comfortable modifying posts. We're using V8 (hopefully the powers that be will spring for V9 soon) and a massaged version of the MP Master post. Thanks in advance for any ideas!

Thank you for all the info. Will give it a try on Monday. Have a good weekend all!

Thank you for your response What I have now: T4 M6 G54G0G90X1.Y0.S640M3 G43Z.2H4M8 G98G84Z-.5R.2F20. G80 and so on What I need is: T4 M6 G54G0G90X1.Y0.S3000(M3 here optional) G43Z.2H4M8 m54s640 G98G84Z-.5R.2F20. G80 It's probably not too dificult to do but I just can't figure out how to get a different speed in the G54 line. Thanks again for any help Mark C

Good evening all. I need to modify my post to allow for rigid tapping. Machines are Kitamura verticals with Fanuc 0M controls. What I need to do is force it into high range with a S3000 (M3 optional) in the command line with the x & y move and then a M54 and the commanded spindle speed before the G84. I can do the m54, but how do I get the S3000? Am currently using a slightly massaged version of MPFAN. I am new at this shop and MasterCam is new for them as well Any ideas would really help as i don't have the time to go in and try to figure it out myself and I'm getting tired of editing it all the time. Use the technology I always say Thanks in advance Mark [ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: Mark C ]

No, No, No Jamman, I believe you are mistaken Ford is "First On Race Day" Mark Coates (owner of a 65 Mustang that really flies!)

hunt down the folks who committed this act. And let the persons who lost family and friends dish out the punishment. Tis a truly dark day for America. I fear freedom will not be the same from now on.

I'm using the .set one About what time next year? My boss thought it would be about the first of the year. He said if I wanted it he would get it, but if I could get along with V7.2 for another few months that would be better. business is booming but we are a small shop (9 kitamura verticals) that could use the money in better ways if it were available

sometimes I feel a little left out by not having (real) kids. My wife and I are childless by choice and have two dogs (check out my website) that we truly adore, spoil and treat as good (some friends say better) than children. We include them in our plans whenever we can. Then I hear about people having problems with theirs and I don't feel too bad. Don't get me wrong, I'm not comparing my dogs to anyones kids, but I do have less grey hair than most people my age. any how just my 2 cents worth this forum is great!!

Hello all, Gotta couple of questions about posts. I just started at a small shop that has v7.2 mill. We were planning to get V8.1, but the local rep said V9 will be out in a couple of months. Waiting seems like the financially responsible thing to do Sooo..... Is it possible to use the dandy MPMaster post with V7.2 with some mods? I used V8 and in a previous job and really liked the things that the MPMaster could do. Also is it possible to define a different type of comment? What I would like to do is enter all the setup instructions in the beginning of the program file and have them show up in only the setup sheet and not the NC file while allowing the comments for each tool operation to remain in the NC file. Is this asking too much? Ireally want to make things to be as foolproof and as automatic as possible Thank You in advance [ 09-06-2001: Message edited by: Mark C ] [ 09-06-2001: Message edited by: Mark C ]

James, Congrats on the new job. I just got one myself after being laid off and unemployed for over 3 months. They use MasterCam too. Every place else that I interviewed used SurfCam, G-Zero or some other cam system. Feels good to be back Again Congrats

Thanks for the information, guys

Thank you Rick

I just accepted a job with a small company here that does a lot of work with Kovar and Carpenter-49. I have never worked with these materials, but I did find some info on the web about general speeds and feeds to get a start. Anybody have any tips, like potential problems to watch out for, depth of cut and stepover rules of thumb? Thanks in advance Mark C

Thanks guys, Oakley is where I live, in the east S.F. bay area. I used to work in Livermore, which is becoming kinda like Silicon Vallet North. I do have the V8.0 demo installed here at home that I play with from time to time to keep in practice. I can't really afford a seat, but I really liked V8.1.1! Hopefully I'll be called back before too long, but the reality is that I might end up taking another job and end up using another system. So James, you actually included the spindle nose in the tool drawing? Neat!! I know that we didn't do that, so there is something else there. We were using V8.0 then. Oh by the way, I'm the same ont that started the thread, I just changed my user name. Mark Coates

James, Boy this thread is an oldie. Unfortunately it was so long ago that I don't remember, and I was laid off from this company 5 weeks ago so I can't go back and try to recreate the problem. The other programmer was fairly new to MasterCam and had just started using V8 when this problem popped up. He wasn't using any custom tools on purpose, but may have done so by accident. I don't ever recall this happening on my computer with any other files than the one he had created. Hope this helps I still check this forum every couple of days, even though I'm not working yet. Lotta good information here. Had a couple of lines for jobs, but they don't use MasterCam. No other Cam product seems to have a forum like this. I'll miss it if I have to go to another product. Like lotsa other people have said before "You guys rock!!!" Mark Coates