Thank you all for time and your input. Your expertise and experience makes the MC-forum such a valuable resource. They are all good suggestions.

To see the exact application, I put a file on the FTP. (Multi pole coil.MCX)in the MCX-directory.

HRS is crap, but I was afraid CRS would curl when facing. (BTW; my facing-problem was answered yesterday. Thx Kannon) Therefore I am looking at #3000 lbs of HRS and if I can make money on this job, there are plenty of these parts to make. I don't mind investing in tooling.

The reason I chose a specialty cutter, over a ball-endmill or even an indexable, is the radius terminates in a sharp corner. I couldn't find an indexable cutter which wouldn't cause a different specialty-cutter-issue, and a ball-endmill required moving up-and-down the radius rather than along.

I'm going to try a TiCN coating on this tool, with identical speeds and feeds. I will report any increase in tool life.

I think this outside-radius is costing me too much money. I am hoping someone can offer a suggestion to get more parts per tool or a less expensive method to do this.

I am machining a .203R along the length of a part using a 5/8OD (.218 tip) uncoated, solid-carbide, 3-flute, corner-rounding-tool. Plenty of rigidity and coolant. Cutting HRS.

I'm running this tool at 2300rpm([email protected]) and 9ipm (.0015 fpt).

I'm currently getting about 100 linear feet before the cutter is dull.

Each part requires 19 inches or radius and at $150 bucks for a double ended cutter, it is costing me $1 each to machine the radius.

Any sugestions?

Bruce, solids have a lot of advantages, but you are not losing any functionality by not having the solids package.

Very clever Kannon. I wouldn't have thought to use Transform/Mirror. That's exactly what I'm looking for!

I like to use high-speed-loops at an increased feedrate when transitioning between cuts, but I was never able to do this with any other method.

Thanks Kannon.

Can this be done, or should I add this to the "wants for..." thread.

I am facing a 3.5 wide part with a 2 inch face-mill. I want the cutting to begin at the top left corner, move in the X+ direction, Y- direction and then X- direction.

In other words, I want to climb mill the edges. This is healthier for the carbide inserts and will minimize the burrs.

No matter what I change, the "Facing" toolpath wants to conventional mill the edges.

Burgon Tool Steel has some big grinders.

Tony,

It was done a little different in older versions of MC, but in X, Trim the dwell-arcs to the desired angles. Then use Create, Spline, Create-blended-spline.

Adjust the magnitudes to give you the desired shape.

I have been using A.B. Tool's Shearhog in my 40 taper with excelent results. You can push these untill you run out of horsepower.

I can't say if yours is the same problem, but I was getting the same error message. What I had done was installed V9 after installing X.

I guess they share some files which were over-written during the V9 install.

My problem was corrected by inserting the X CD and choose "repair"

Just a thought, but if the radius is a spline rather than a true arc, it could be giving extra code as well.

Anything like "if mi1$ = zero | mi1$ = one" in your post?

John, I'm sure it's possible, but that right-click/change-at-point, at least for me, requires a whole new skill set.

I think it would be a whole lot easier to create a seperate toolpath-operation.

I got this in my Email from hitech Machinery Sales. A few years old, but a good deal on a low-hour machine.

1998 Roku-Roku GR655N Graphite VMC: Fanuc 16iM CNC “High-Speed” Control, 24” x 20” x 16” Travels, Direct Drive 15,000 RPM Spindle, BT-40, 5 Hp Motor, 12 Station ATC, Air-Tight Enclosure, Spindle Chiller, Broaching Capability, 1.2 Gigabyte Hard Drive, Ethernet Protocol, Amano PIA-30 Filtration System – ONLY 821 HOURS!!

Stock #2170

Sold New for over $260,000

LIST PRICE: $88,000

The software eliminates dogleg by converting rapid moves into linear moves at a rapid feedrate.

It works almost flawlessly. My crash was logged as a bug.

Mark, I sent you the file with some screen captures from Verify.

The fun thing is that Verify does not detect it as a crash because it is moving at a feedrate.

Currently, I have the clearance set to "Minimum Vertical retract", which on this part, should not be an issue.

The "Full Retract" method is the sure-fire way to insure this does not happen, but I'm thinking there must be another way.

It shouldn't, but it is, feeding, at rapid feedrate, through material.

Is there a setting to increase the clearance-to-the-part between passes?

Oh hey....That is better. Now when I left click on the levels-box, a whole new window opens. Cool.

Thanks Gcode:)

Before I repair/re-install, are there any files I should save or copy? Or is it pretty safe.

I'll give it a try and let you know how it works.

I recently installed and am getting used to VX.

I have a problem with the Level Manager which has me completely and utterly baffled. I hope someone has an idea.

It appears to me to be completely broken. Using the help button, what they describe as "field definitions" are not there. I would think that these are the bars at the top of the manger and should say "level number, name, visable, ect".

They decribe these as "Table columns"

The only "table columns" available to me are Level-number and Level-name and even then, I can't even figure out how to rename a level.

I have tried sliding the "table-column-bars" thinking that more options could be hiding, but have not had any luck. Right click does nothing, left click closes the Level Manger.

Any thoughts?

what about moving that text to the bottom of the program?

Not to hi-jack this thread, but I was recently watching a television program, which was showing some aircraft machining. They claim one part was in the machine for a ridiculous amount of time. Something like 6 months.

Accidents happen. I was curious if there were some type of insurance that would cover this type of thing.

May I also suggest using a G code to disable the feedrate and spindle-speed override pot.

Hi Harbec, Welcome to the MC forum.