Cam, I did this at a medium sized place a few years ago. I looked at using internal numbers as reference since all bought items had one in SAP, but decided against it since shop floor staff had better access to supplier catalogues than purchasing data. Step one, cull the crap, step two, pick a supplier for each type of tool you define i.e all HSS drill this company, all carbide drills this company, etc, etc. Get the suppliers on board to do swap outs where possible. Have a big ebay sale of everything left over. As part of this project Iscar installed a robocrib for us so I would look and see if one of your suppliers would be willing to do the same thing. Just try and retain final control of what gets put in it. HTH Bruce

I am glad I won't be in the same hemisphere when the new mill/turn package is released and needs to be bought as a separate package, not an upgrade for maintenance lathe customers. I think it will get ugly. I am surprised it didn't get ugly when it was mentioned on here a few months ago. Anyway, I don't want to sound too doom and gloom. There will soon be some hard decisions to make regarding old and new toolpaths in MC and I don't begrudge CNC the fact they need to make them. Maybe once that is out of the way their markeing people will stop trying to be all things to all people. Bruce

I am a beta tester AND I paid for my own seat for my workshop. I won't be renewing maintenance when it runs out. The marketing that now surrounds MC to support continued maintenance revenure will kill off a great piece of software in the next few years IMHO. Bruce

quote: Hunting down work that anyone with a VMC in their garage can do is nothing more than a race to the bottom. You want the jobs that are exotic materials, tight tolerances, stuff that everyone else looks at and says "thanks but no thanks". That is where the real money and job security is and always will be. I know some of my stands on some of the new features of Mastercam (FBM, etc...) are unkind, and certainly nor popular among some circles at CNC, but the reason I have those opinions are because the shops I see on a regular basis, shops that are growing, buying millions of dollars in capital equipment, that use Mastercam, this stuff does absolutely positively nothing. Their parts are the parts that nobody wants to do, their parts are just wicked difficult for seasoned programmers. So, get out of your comfort zone, challenge your best people, do the stuff noone else wants to do and GROW!!! BINGO! I get annoyed when people use the term "bread and butter" to describe this type of work. To me, if this is all you do, then this is just a description of what you can afford to eat. I have my own shop now and know that if I focus on these customers and type of work I will slowly grind into the dust over the next few years. I have been told that a $40hr job is better than having an idle machine, but I would rather spend that idle time looking for customers that are going to keep me afloat long term. End result: A few lean months to beging with, but now I am flooded with really good paying medical and mining work that some others balk at. Just took on my first aerospace part too (very minor, nothing to get excited about yet). If I had just "gone with the flow" I would by at capacity, but barely making wages doing "bread and butter" stuff. Bruce

On this side of the world same thing. I am crazy busy at the moment. I only went home two nights last weeks and am in all weekend as well. By all weekend, I mean, 24/7. Other shops here are slow, but anyone doing medical, mining, or aerospace work is busy. At the moment 80% of my order book is medical and mining, so I guess I won't be back to a 40hr week for a while. I actually haven't chased up some aerospace leads because I couldn't possibly fit them in at the moment. Bruce

UG will take any surface and create a flat pattern. SW sometimes needs it to be a native modeled part. Bruce

Try Romheld and Imao. Bruce

I think that too Mick. I lost a lot of hours work when I first started using MC. Bruce

Barry, Did you get the spreadsheet I sent? Bruce

Thanks G, using X2 at the moment though until MU1 comes out. I'll ring my reseller in the morning. Bruce

Ahh, I did a search and remember this coming up before. I think I need the generic haas trunnion post and MD. Is this a re-seller question or can someone send me a link for download??? thanks Bruce

I see there is a HMC table table MD available on the download, but not a VMC???? I was sure this was a standard thing, where would I find it? thanks Bruce

Barry, I have done a lot of R&D on cutting that grade. Shoot me an email and I will see if I can help you out. Bruce

Greg, We use #500 #500=1 M98 P0001 In sub T#500M6 or M6 T#500 depending on TC type. HTH Bruce

You in Brisbane Bazz?

Dave, Using 5ax curve with lines as vectors is definately the most fool proof way to chamfer 5ax parts. To get the chamfer right, just adjust the vector depth and offset. Bruce

http://www.emastercam.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...t=015219#000007

I have done augers the same way. What I did was draw the profile, split it into segments, projected lines across to X0, and drilled the ends of these lines. The used find replace to change the G81's to G76's. This was in a different programme than MC, but the same thing could be done. Just need to remember to adjust the geo in the mill programme to allow for the radius vs diameter issue. After just reading what I posted I guess then answer is no, there is no easy way. Maybe CNC can add a "surfacing" toolpath for lathes using the threading cycle?? Bruce

Lucky ba$tard. I might go next year. Bruce

David, How much are you leaving for the reamer to take out? Bruce

When, oh when, are we going to have a English (Normal) option??? Bruce

I have a customer whose product is sensitive to 0.000000000001mm or a pico metre. The only way to "measure" this is by guaranteeing the process used to put the instruments together. Confirmation only comes once the instrument is in use and there is enough data for statistical analysis to confirm accuracy. Bruce

I usually use geometry. If I have something where I think there may be access issues I put two lines on a layer and name it. That way if I have access or clearance issues I can rotate the geo a bit and re-gen. Bruce

Doh!! Found the retract on index switch. It was looking right at me. (must get more sleep) Bruce

Ahoy! My current MPmaster based post posts a G28 Z retract between indexes and then calls the height offset and a new work offset before the next operation. I used to have a post that didn't do this, but can't remember what I changed. I think it was a switch, but maybe it is in the CD/MD now??? Bruce