No go. Previously as long as any cycles were canceled and the machine had an M105 to turn the turret spindle off you could go straight to the main turret no problem. The weird thing is that it just skips the line as if it isn't there. Previously it would stop there if it couldn't go to the main spindle. I'll look up some old programmes and find out what is going on. Bruce

Ahoy! Having trouble going from rigid tapping with milling tools back to turning mode. At first I thought I hadn't canceled the tapping cycle correctly, but am not so sure now. The machine taps, then does a TC, then completely blows past the spindle start command and keeps going. Normally if the turret is still active and I try and start the main spindle it just pauses on that line and does nothing. code: M28 M95 M91 G97S100M103 M29 G88X22.F0.45 Z-23. C120. Z-6. C240. Z-23. G80 M96 G0Z300. G28U0.M105 T0202 G97S600M3 <=============Skips this line G0X42.Z-32. <============waits here M26 G1X23.F0.12 G28U0. G0Z300. M9 M27 M30 Any ideas? Bruce

Anyone who uses the WCS in their normal day to day 3 axis programming to keep a single partfile should take to 3+2 pretty easily. Simultaneous 5 is only really a matter of learing what all the buttons and knobs in those toolpaths do. 5 axis is a state of mind. And I don't mean that in an elitist sort of way. If you can keep a mental picture of what is going on and are methodical in your approach an operations layout it is a breeze. Definately helps to spend some time on a 5 axis machine hands on as well. Maybe learn a machine by doing programmes for fixtures and simple 3+2 parts at the control. Bruce

Thanks for that Mike. I'll have a look first chance I get. Bruce

Ahoy! How do I adjust the toolsetter offsets? Is it in the parameter tables or in settings somewhere? thanks Bruce

quote: AFAIK right now it is not expandable. Bugger. I'd hate to be 5 tools short and consolidating tools on 31 pallets just so #32 could be loaded up. Anyway, sounds like a super-cool job. Hope they find the right bloke for it. Bruce

Is that magazine expandable? 240 tools is a bit light for 32 pallets?? Bruce

I suspect that if this top dog needs a manned second shift to keep the machine running, then he isn't such a top dog after all. Bruce

Busy as anything at the moment. Don't let anyone tell you being a shop owner is easy. If I was in a position to James, I would love to have you give me some training on a MAM. Would need to be in metric though. There is one thing I miss doing now and that is programming 5-axis car wreckage. Getting bored only doing an hour of 2d here and there. Some 4th and 3+2, but not much. If there were more of those jobs available here I might not have taken the leap to my own shop. Dave/Greg, You two got itchy feet or something? Bruce

Getting easier by the hour Bruce

I have a Tormach in my garage and could hold that tolerance no problem. Go for it. Bruce

I have a Tormach in my garage and could hold that tolerance no problem. Go for it. Bruce

I set mine as a misc integer and have it in the default ops for non-drilling cycles. There was a post about it a couple of months ago, I'll have a dig. Bruce

Maybe, I actually had about 10 made Bruce

Del, do you have a link or anything for that? Bruce

Make up your own pillars with different dovetail clamping "heads" so that you can change sizes. I think I have a few pics at home too of some I had made before. Only costs about a 5th of the price of buying, IF you have the time to do it. Biggest advantage is having the right sizes for what you need. Bruce

December was my busiest month so far and now january looks like beating that by a good margin. We do a mix mining/medical/hydraulics/general eng. Bruce

quote: quote:...he also got machine gunned with a stream of bullet chips starting on his forehead and going diagonally across his body and arm... This seems like a VERY good reason to leave the machine door interlocks in place. It's usually people that have no clue that get themselves hurt. He's lucky he was not seriously injured. Idiot. And a big +1 to door interlocks. Most aggressive cut I have done was in 7075 with a 63mm iscar Helialu at 25000RPM, 6mm DOC, 45mmWOC and 10m/min. If someone had opened the door and been hit with that stream of chips, we would still be picking bits of him off the opposite wall. Bruce

Should have said I wasn't using MC to programme. I am only programming at the control. In i-guide the safe start and end point aren't actually in the cycle. It just rapids to where it was before the cycle started. So we: Move to a safe point, call the cycle, define the shape, move to home, TC, repeat. Bloke last night was making some spigots for fixturing on the mills. First was 150mm OD and the second was 200mm OD. After the first part he changed the defined shape in the cycle and re-ran the programme. Only problem was the machine was at X155mm when the cycle was called, so when the diameter was finished the machine went back to X155, Z5 at rapid. This will catch any turner eventually, no matter how careful they are. While not a bug in fanuc per se, it is a landmine waiting for someone to step on it. The safe entry and exit point should be in the cycle and hopefuly I am not the only one to bring it up and the i-guide software will include this in a future release. Until then I thought there may have been a parameter to control motion on exit from a cycle. Everything else in fanuc is a parameter so I thought I would try my luck. Bruce

Luton in the UK? Bruce

Ahoy! When doing an i-guide cycle on an Oi-mate control the point that the machine is at prior to starting the cycle is where the machine rapids back to once complete. We have had a couple of bumps because of this and I was wondering if there is a parameter controling how the machine retracts from these cycles???. Seems to me a bit bogus if the control has been told the shape of the part and the stock definition only to rapid straight through it if a position called outside of the cycle is "unsafe". Should rapid by default to a position on the Z+ side of the stock boundary and not do an X move at all if you ask me. Seems that this would be safe and idiot proof 98% of the time as opposed to the landmine situation that the current method creates. Any ideas? Bruce

Not 100% sure on your machine, but on a mazak running G-code there is a page for offsets G54.1 etc. If one of these is called in the programme then the machine calculated the position relative to COR for you. Should be something similar for the Mori. From your code it looks like you are just calling a standard G54, which might not be what you need if you want dynamic comp. If you have a table that you bolt on then the COR would need to be entered as a parameter each time I would imagine so that the machine knows where it is relative to home. HTH Bruce

That one is an option Dave. M19 S??.??? I think?? Bruce

You could just use contour with a start point at the centre. That is what I would try first. Bruce

Cam, The arramgement with Iscar was that we would do the purchasing and stocking ourselves with whatever WE wanted to use. So long as our monthly spend with Iscar was above a certain amount the crib was free. They did monitor usage of items and would from time to time suggest their substitute, but we were 95% iscar for all our insert tools anyway so it never bacame a problem while I was there. They also accepted that we had "signed up" other brands for solid carbide and drills etc. At the other end of the scale they could have taken full control and the company would have used what Iscar told us to use. Maybe the right thing to do in a high volume automotive cell or something, but not for us at the time. The other big thing to get over is people no longer having access to their favourite brands. The critical thing that made a big difference was plenty of charts explaining grades and cutting conditions. We also went as far as to make a board with Iscar inserts glued on with their description, what material they were recommended for and what the speeds and feeds should be. Nothing worse than someone burning up a packet of inserts because they "just used the speeds and feeds I used with the other brand". If the shop floor staff don't have access to this data they will quickly resist every little change made on the grounds that the new tools are a backwards step. Bruce