If this were a function which you wish to use often, I would agree about creating a macro or using a custom drill cycle, but for a quick fix, may I suggest turning off the canned bore cycle in the post. This will output a G1 down and G1 up. A simple "find and replace" would allow you to modify the feedrates.

These are for O-ring grooves? Try www.harveytool.com for 45 and 30/60 degree tools or try www.abtoolsinc.com for 48/66 degree tools. Both companies have nice carbide cutters for that purpose as stock items.

I've tried that in the past. I make the level with the lines invisible, but if you Xform the solid, MC creates new geometry for the solid, leaving the old geomerty behind. After a couple of moves, there can be quite a mess. I supose masking is the answer, but I'm curious what other people do.

Moto, that control is still very buggy. There have been several software updates since that control was released. It is difficult to know exactly what to modify untill more of the errors are resolved. The control has a lot of difficulty with G02-3 when defined as I,J. That is one place to start. Changing arc format to "R"

Another modification is a new G8.1 code which the machine did not default to.

"keep tool down" ?

Jayman, you could try create/line/polar and when it prompts for an angle, input "A" to choose the line which you want to get the angle from.

I don't think that the stl file format is capable of exporting surfaces, but I think what you are asking is how to shade an stl. That can be done in MC or there are several other viewers which do a nice job and are free to try.

I usually shut my machines off at night. A few years ago, lightning struck the powerlines outside the shop. It fried anything that was on. For this reason alone, I turn everything off.

Congratulations Elad. My Boy is just 5 weeks now.

Tre

Take your time and enjoy your time together. They grow so fast. Since Tre's birth, he has almost doubled in size. I'm pretty sure work will still be there when he is a little bigger.

I'm using a 4 year old box. It was a pretty hot when it was new, but it begining to show its age. Although it can't compare to some of your times, it ran a respectable 68 second 2nd run.

AMD 700 mhz

256 RAM

9G 10000 rpm scsi HD

TiAlN and AlTiN coated endmills should be run fast enough to generate sufficient heat to form a hard aluminum oxide layer at the cutting edge. These coatings are made to run hotter and are stable to almost 1500 degrees F. They need heat to work properly. Without enough heat, they will not last as long as they could. Although you can use flood coolant, an air blast allows the tool to run at a little higher temp. and evacuates the chips. Further, air does not thermally shock the tool the way that water does. Whenever posible, I run them without coolant.

It depends upon the angle of the tool

David, I looked at your file and see where you are getting some strange tool movement. I think this is caused by the tolerance of the surface and is exagerated by the flat bottom. I re-created the surfaces (revolved) and my toolpath looks fine. Often when I get some unusual tool movement, if I leave just the smallest amount of material (stock to leave), or in this case, by adjusting the maximum depth, it will fix the problem.

Woodshape, I dont understand where you are having problems. Is it the geometry that is troubleing you?

Congratulations on the first step of the journey. You deserve a lot of credit for being able to admit you have a problem and then doing something about it. Good luck.

Ron, that’s exactly what I did. Years ago, I had modified my old post processor to do this as well, but it was such an old post (V5) and things have changed so much, that it was time for a new post to take advantage of canned_text, WCS and other enhancements.

Although I can understand the secrecy behind version X, it would be nice to know what direction MC is going. I suppose there will always be a need for mis_integers, yet who knows? Canned_text may be their demise. Similarly they may imbed the text file associated with the post processors and Chooks. Again, I have no idea.

Tweaking posts can be a time consuming thing. It’s always nice to be on the same page as CNC systems, so that when they institute enhancements, we are working together.

After a little more investigation, I guess I will be forced to use the Mi10 as the trigger for this. The canned_text outputs at each null_toolchange. Therefore if using canned_text, if I were milling a countour with multi-passes, it would output "M0" before each pass.

Gcode, thanks for the reply, but I don't think that that would do it. I am calling for an actual toolchange, but even if I weren't, a toolchange would not necessarily make the machine go to a home position for a toolchange. It would however raise the head to the home position. I am hoping to move the X and Y axis to the home position also.

Thanks to the Emastercam members who recommended the MPMaster_fadal post. My re-seller got me a copy and it seems to work great.

Today, I am setting up to run some parts where I would like the machine to run one side of the part, retract to the home position, M0 and then machine the second side.

This postprocessor appears to provide two triggers to output that "M0", yet it does not return to the home position. So I guess a little post-modification is in order.

Since this post seems to provide two triggers to accomplish my desired result, my first question is whether it is recommended to use Mi10 to output this string or to use the canned_text method.

And I guess my second question, since both methods use the Cantext string definitions, is where is the easiest place to modify this post to output these separate lines of code i.e.

N, G0 E0 X0 Y0

N, M00

I'm working on the same idea. I have parts with different outside shapes which I was hoping to hold with a vacuum. Although smaller parts have a tendency to slide, and therefore enjoy being held inside a pocket, I think these are all large enough (8x30) that they can be just "sucked down" without fear of moving.

I am currently leaning towards the grid idea and using 1/8 tubing to contain the vacuum where needed. I hope creating a 1/2 inch square grid, will allow adequate surface area to hold the parts down sufficiently.

I’m curious what other members have to say.

I think James is correct, Haas or Fadal are not made to cut steel all day long, nor would I even purchase one of these machines for production milling of aluminum. You get what you pay for and with these machines, you get an afordable general purpose machine that can make parts for 10 or 15 years in a job-shop atmosphere. After that, it is time to get a new one.

For the type of work I do, I would rather have a lesser-new-machine every 10 years and be more up-to-date with the electronics.

My new Fadal is still not running up to it's promises. The machine itself runs very nice, but the new control still has some unresolved issues. I have new hardware and software on-route, and hopefully when that is installed, I will have a favorable recomendation. Till then, I'm still on the fence.

I am proud to announce the birth of a son. 6 pounds 4 ounces of bad attitude in a loveable little package. Our first child. His name is John Martin Graney III, but in being "II", I understand the difficulties having two people with the same name living in the same household. He will be called Tre (Tray) which is Irish for three.

It's not just the price, but the volitility that gets me. I recently quoted a stainless job and the quote I recieved for the material was valid for 24 hours. Beyond that they would not honor the quote.

Here.....

4gb of RAM. Holy smokes. I've got a 9gb hard drive which is only half full, even with all the crap I save. Is this they way the computer industry is going, all RAM, no hard disk?

Does anyone else remember the old days, when you would boot your computer with a 5in floppy and then switch it out for your application disk. Everything was running on 64bits of RAM. Have we come that far, or I am I just getting old?