perfect, thanks.

I'm trying to dwell after a movement on the lathe, and the post (mplmaster, X2) is producing the wrong time... G4 P8420 when it should be G4 P842 causing the machine to dwell for 20 revs instead of 2. Any ideas where to look in the post on control config? Thanks!

420 comes in plenty of sizes, and is fairly easy to machine.

Modify, Break, At Length, .400. Xform, Rotate, {a} for rotation, Arc sweep, pick arc segement. Modify, Join to repair arcs. Only about a dozen keystrokes and mouseclicks

I felt it roll thru yesterday. Made me feel right at home

steve, I was thinking the same thing, but is there a way for the post to know if the 'drill tip comp' box was checked on the operation page? That way I could account for both conditions.

Oh yes, Kill Bill is going in the DVD tonight. Thanks for the idea!

Harryman - that's about the simplest idea. Perfect. Thanks. James -I have no problem with the A2100 control, other than the fact that it's soooo damn slow. Forever to boot. Forever to swap screens, etc. It has a ~lot~ of nice features that oughta be in other (fanuc/yasnac) controls in this day and age. What I hate it the absolute junk iron it's bolted to. Cinci arrows/sabres are the flimsiest, weakest, unreliable machines I've ever used.

But, I WANT the comp in the machine. It's handy to have. And I don't want to edit the > 300 programs that already use it. I want mastercam to operate the way I do, not the other way. I'm thinking maybe put something in the post so that I can have drill comp on, then the post reverts to the depth without the comp.

Sure, I can turn it off. But I like it there. Too many jobs are in production to change it. And when I'm programming a quickie at the machine, I don't have to do any figuring out to get my drill to the right depth before I tap it.

On my A2100 controls, they automatically account for the drill tip angle in the drill depth (if I program a 1" hole, .500 deep, it will actually go ~.800 deep). Is there some way to compensate for this in MC lathe? Here's why... Programming a bore that is .625 deep. I need the full dia of the drill .650 deep. If I add drill tip comp in MC, everything looks good, but then I drill to deep on the machine. If I program it knowing the machine will go farther, then when I run the bore in the drilled hole, the backplot shows the bore digging into undrilled material. Usually I'll turn on drill tip comp while programming, then turn it off before I post. But, that's a pain.

Oops, I just went and looked, the shiz is bt-40. The arrows have a plate riveted on the spindle cover showing orientation.

On my Cinci Arrows, the dimple goes away from the key. The toolholder simply won't fit in the spindle the other way - but it will fit in the toolchanger either way. On my shizoka, it doesn't make any diff.

At a previous shop, I ran a Compumachine VibraFree mill. Bitchin' machine. Had a few quirks (what mill don't?), but overall, very good. Very heavy, very rigid ganty design, 20x16, about $125,000. 40,000 rpm ibag spindle, fanuc 16 control with all the high speed and data server options. Cut 'trodes and hard 420 daily. Very accurate (.0002" on a 1/16 hex programmed at 400 ipm). Tech support at the time (about 3 years ago) was excellent. I had never heard of the machine or company, and certainly wouldn't have bought it personally, but after spending a year with it, I wish I still had it to play with. here's the link: http://www.compumachine.com/Products/VirbraFree/VFMain.htm

Nice to get some positive feedback. Just so you know, the news/feedback forum on the board is the only one that anons can post to...