Mark, I looked at your file and uploaded my solution "FALEXSHUTTLE-surface.zip" Surface/finish/project w/ depths has some problems in V8. But, you can see that once you have removed the material around the verical walls, the part will be a cake-walk. Good Luck.

What about Xform/squash? Would that fix your problem?

Although I have never heard of it called Nema, if it is what I am thinking of, we have always just called it G-10. It dosen't cut bad. The material is very abrasive though. Coated carbide works best. If it gets too hot,the fiber can burn and discolor, so slow SFM and a healthy toothload. Because the material is abrasive, I have always covered the machine with pastic or paper and cut dry. Vacuum chips. I wouldnt like to get too much into the coolant.

After dating for two years, we are celebrating our second aniversary next month.

I wish to thank everyone for their input. The reading that I have been doing, on the subject of high-speed milling, has been vague at best. Sometimes the best way is to just jump in and get your feet wet. I generally produce prototypes and often my tools are broken or chipped before they are dull. Therefore, unless I have a specific use, my tools of choice, tend to be nothing-fancy-uncoated-carbide. They are the most cost effective endmills for my use. I did happen to have some AlTin coated micrograin with a .02R, which was purchased for another job. After experimenting with the uncoated endmills, I switched to those with better results. In the end, I settled on running these (5/16 dia, 4 flute) with full diameter engagement at 10,000 rpm, 110 ipm (.0045 toothload), and .010 doc. I wish I had a greater quantity of parts to experiment with, but perhaps, once again, the members of this forum could share their wealth of knowledge. In a similar application, what generally is the best place to start experimenting? Depth of cut or higher toothload? Also, by taking shallow depths of cut and using such a small portion of the endmill’s cutting edge, how does this effect tool life?

I'm using what I have for endmills. Standard 2 or 4 flute uncoated, stub length. I have the plate clamped to the table.

I'm profiling some parts from 1/8 thick, O-1 plate using an uncoated 1/4 dia carbide endmill. I thought this job may be a good canidate for high speed machining. Could someone offer some suggestions for a starting point for speeds (limited to 10,000 rpm) feeds and depth of cut.

crazy.....I never saw that before. This apears to be a useful tool. Why wouldn't this be the default backplot setting when MC comes out of the box? Are there any drawbacks to having this the default backplot setting?

You could try Rhino's "MeshToNurb" or "drape" commands [ 10-01-2003, 11:02 AM: Message edited by: Surface ]

Service is always a large factor when I buy new equipment. If and when the machine breaks, how long will it be down? A few days of downtime can add up, both in terms of lost productivity and customer satisfaction. Where and how competent are the service technicians in your area for the respective machines?

Where is Chippy, his faithful side-kick?

It has been my experince that if you need to check the boxes eg. "misc-values" before modifying, the changes will not be effected by the "edit-common-parameters" The way to overcome this is to have these boxes checked by default.

Tiff is a raster grafic format. You could use rast-vector or convert it to a bmp and use it as a background

Wasn't there something called "production pro" at one time that did something like that? I remember looking at it, but I was doing prototypes and it wasn't much use to me. This was mabee V5 or V6.

I don't know how thick die shoes are, but I do know that clamping a part 6 feet x 14 feet, by the perimeter, it is dam near imposible to get it flat. I have done a lot of machining on big stuff. My suggestion is to hold side 1 with bondo. Use Car-wax on the machine's table to prevent the bondo from sticking too much. Bondo is cheap and it will suport and hold the plate in it's most natural state without stressing the plate with clamps. Once set, you can add a couple clamps to insure the part won't move. Bondo will machine easily off side 2 and prevents chatter. Side 2 can be clamped down. Life is so much easier when you know you have one flat side

quote: Ms. Huffington does not even have a chance I would have to agree after what I heard on the radio today. It was reported that she paid less than $750 income tax over the last two years. She accomplished this feat with "legal" deductions. One of which was 10K for hair and make-up while on a book tour. Take your pick.....either she is a tax cheat or a very ugly woman. Either way, it doesn't fair well. the full story [ 08-21-2003, 04:42 PM: Message edited by: Surface ]

Artical 2 SEC. 13. says "Recall is the power of the electors to remove an elective officer."

I just finished up a job of the same stuff. 1/8 thick. It didn't cut bad, but it takes its time. The stuff wanted to harden. You may have better results cutting with oil or air instead of coolant. I didnt have enough parts to really play with numbers and methods.

Recalls can be launched to remove corrupt officials, and to remove officials whose policies and performance are found wanting. This action is taken agaist an idividual and not a party. So what would happen if Davis were to step down? The Lieutenant Governor would step in as acting Governer, but would that also force a new election? What would that do to the current recall inititive? [ 08-18-2003, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: Surface ]

There is an old saying "If all you know is a hammer, then all the world is a nail" This is true for many trades, but none more-so than machining. After being in any trade long enough, you think, work and behave like a member of that trade. But also, when I was learning the trade, a mentor corrected me one day. I said to him, that I had just seen him do the same thing. He told me "The difference between a tradesman and an aprentice, is the aprentice does it the right way." After reading this board for two years, I have come to know many of the member's atitudes and styles of machining as well as life. This has been an interesting thread, because I can better realize where and how those attiudes were/are-being formed. [ 08-16-2003, 03:14 PM: Message edited by: Surface ]

I literally learned to walk in a machine shop. When I was 2, I was old enough to pick-up coke bottles, at 6, could run the saws. By the time I was in high school, I knew more than the shop teacher. (he wasnt good.) Started programing (MDI) in 1986 and purchased MC 1994. After 15 years working full-time for my Dad, I had enough and left while our relationship was still intact. Framing, roofing and general carpentry for 24 months and realized my body couldn't sustain these activities for 20 years (especially in the cold/hot New England area. Bounced around differnet shops for a couple years, then started my own shop a few years ago. BTW: I use my grandfather's Gerstner and my uncle uses his grandfather's (my great-grandfather's) [ 08-16-2003, 03:29 PM: Message edited by: Surface ]

Also could place an island in the middle and use pocket-spiral with helix entry.

modify/break/draft-line

It could be fun to "wet my beak" with some local forum members. My shop is in Wilmington and I live in Ipswich. Whiskey is the key that sets the monkey free

Murlin, you are correct. A Haas should be able to follow a 2 inch coutour @200ipm without any problem. I followed the manual. On my machine, following the instructions, my machine is over-traveling while standing still. Yes, my machine is a peice of .... so, what does that mean to me? I think what the instuctions should be telling you is, if you want to test your machine, push it untill it is aparent that it is overtraveling. Not tracking a little off. The instructions don't want to offer any base-numbers, because machines and controls vary so much. But I would imagine on a new Haas, .15-.2G would be in the ballpark.