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MetalMarvels

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Everything posted by MetalMarvels

  1. If you had access to a vacuum setup, this sounds like a perfect application. However, getting the vacuum setup can be a little pricey. For my own shop needs, I went with a portable refrigeration-type vacuum pump and a 10 gallon air tank as a vacuum reserve. I used 3/8 flexible tubing to carry the vacuum to the fixture. Works well for my purposes, but it is probably not as robust as one of the purpose-built vacuum systems. For the vacuum to hold well while using a solid sub-plate, you need to mill a grid of "runners" into the surface of the sub-plate that connect to the vacuum inlet - under the footprint of the plate to be held. I typically use a 1/2 inch grid that I cut with a 1/8 inch diameter ball mill. That allows the vacuum to be "distributed" across the bottom of the plate to be fixtured. I use a closed-cell neoprene "cord" that is 1/8 inch diameter and held in a 0.100 wide by 0.100 deep groove around the perimeter of the part to provide the vacuum seal.
  2. I have also had two pull-studs break in 5 years - both events were expensive , costing me parts, vices, tool holders, and spindles. Both were coolant-thru types. I changed out ALL of mine for solid, ground-finished premium pull-studs and have not had another problem. However, I also change them out annually with new units that have been tested. The couple of hundred dollars a year to change them is cheap insurance especially when you consider that they can be exposed to very high pull pressures. The other "cheap" insurance was the acquisition of one of the hydraulic guage type spindle pull testers (http://www.dynamicmachinetool.com/html/accessories_clamprite_gage.html).
  3. Heh. Not only do I run what I program, but I get to shovel the chips too. The joys of a small, part-time shop.
  4. Hats off to Marc!!!! The reset on all the options under CNCReg.exe did the job beautifully! All these years mucking with MC and I didn't realize that was there. Thanks much!
  5. quote: Do I hear an upgrade to X2 coming..... Nope - not in the budget I am afraid - one of the hazards of owning your own small shop. Can't readily justify the upgrade at this tiem.
  6. Forgot to mention - did update the NVIDIA drivers to the latest - no change in the problem. Messed with H/W acceleration on video card with no change. Also completely reloaded MC - same deal. Also upgraded to 4 Gigs of RAM (games run much better, but no real change in MC - previously had 1 Gig).
  7. Running 9.1 SP2. Just changed from a CRT monitor to an Acer LCD - native 1280 x 1024 resolution, with an NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT video card. My problem is that some of the pop-up menus are missing parts of the menu. For example, the "File", "Save" menu - everything below the "File Name" box and everything to the right of the "List" icon is simply cut off. I have tried different resolutions (including 1024 x 768), different fonts (larger and smaller), etc. and can't get the "missing" part of the menu to display. I switched back to the CRT at 1024 x 768 and the missing parts are displayed - flip back to the LCD and it is gone again. Any thoughts??????
  8. Thanks, Jim. That put me on the right track and I figured out how to get lines and arcs out also - imported nicely into MC. I wasn't looking forward to having to measure the whole business with calipers and try to recreate it. You have to DEFINE the feature first, THEN MEASURE the feature, then..... ARGGGGGHH. Thank the Lord that MC is NOTHING like the CMM software!!!!
  9. I am trying to get the iges file output from Starrett Apogee S/W for a CMM to contain the arcs, circles, and lines that I measured and not just 8 zillion touch points. Starrett sold the business and can't provide any help. Anyone out there have any experience in getting an IGES output from Apogee with something other than JUST points? The only other option I can find was a WMF output (I can read it with the Raster to Vector option in MC - but it isn't scaled.
  10. quote: Gotta agree connormac, let the rooks learn The lesson DOES tend to stick when it is YOUR $150 end mill that you just blew away because of the solid slug you didn't screw down in the middle of of the hole you just contoured......
  11. quote: If you start putting to many up with the combined force of them all will start to bend your fixturing/tombstone. Hehe - did THAT one!! The center raised up about .012 across a 36 inch fixture (now where did those middle hold-down bolts go to??????). The pitbull clamps really shine on parts that you need to hang onto by a small portion of an edge and you want to hold a bunch of parts at once. They can be a pain on a vertical mill because of the pockets that hold chips and cutting fluid - even when you take the time to cut "channels" to allow drainage. They are great on a horizontal - all the chips and coolant just fall away.
  12. I am with Chris and hardmill. The Niagara 3-flute 45 degree helix for aluminum mills are fabulous for producing nice finishes at relatively high feed rates - not unlike the Destiny units. I won't go back to a 2 flute at this point.
  13. oh.... It is HIGHLY recommended that you save a backup copy of your post processor in a safe location (not in the "Posts" directory) BEFORE you tinker with it. Been there, hosed it up, OMG no backup, start from scratch.
  14. Victor. To edit a post, open MasterCam, select "File", "Edit", "PST" and then select your post processor from the list (should direct you to the C:Mcam9MillPosts directory). You would be looking for MPHAAS.PST "arcoutput" should be found under the "General Output Settings" section in the post processor. If you don't find the MPHAAS.PST file, you need to locate it on your hard drive and move it to this directory. MasterCam must be set to "find" the post processor in its current location. The "Posts" directory is the default location.
  15. I have been running Blaser 2000SW for a while now. No more red swollen hands or other problems. However, keeping the H2O level up is always a challenge here in Colorado. It usually takes two to three 5-gallon buckets of water a day to keep the coolant at the right mix.
  16. The only thing I could locate was the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) K-0102, which is a family of testing procedures for testing industrial waste water (or so it seems, since I don't read Japanese very well). The only other likely possibility was an odd-ball polymer compound (plastic).
  17. In MC 9.1, I get no finish passes with depth cuts selected (but no bottom finish selected - number = 0) and either multipass not selected or multipass selected without a finish pass selected (0 selected for the number of finish passes). With multipass selected and a number of finish passes selected (1 or more), I can either have a finish at every depth cut or a finish at the bottom. Works right every time. However, I have found that contour ramping a larger hole gives me a smoother cutting action with inserted mills.
  18. I should read more carefully........
  19. The other possibility is that the "header" switch is turned off and the date and other "stuff" won't show up. For example, in MPMASTER_FADAL: In the "pheader" section: the following code only works if the "IF" statement is in effect: if output_hdr = yes, #Enable / Disable output of Header n, "(DATE - ", *smonth, "-", *day, "-", *year, ")", e output_hdr is found in the beginning in the general output settings and is a "yes" or "no" question. In MPFAN, the date is in the "psof" section, but there is no "switch" to turn it on or off. "(DATE=DD-MM-YY - ", date, " TIME=HH:MM - ", time, ")", e
  20. HEY!!! I may be driving and owning a Dodge Dart (read FADAL) but it gets me to work and pays some of the extra bills!! Maybe someday I might get a Cadillac (Mori).... Sorry, but California is not in my future and I am already at about that salary level in my day job. That IS a nice part of the country though!
  21. GAWD - doing that myself right now for 2-56 inserts - 1680 of 'em this batch. Little suckers just disappear if you look at them too hard.
  22. Holler if you have any more questions!! My current quest is to figure out how I can interface a tool setting probe to my Fadal without buying a gazillion dollars worth of interface card and probe just to detect tool breakage....... There just has to be a way.....
  23. Mark is right - I missed the p_wcs variable in the section you copied. You would also need the format statement: fmt P 4 p_wcs #WCS P address All of the other variables used in pcws should already be defined in the original post.
  24. If you added in the code from MPMASTER, you will need to define G_WCS (assumes you pasted in the MPMASTER pwcs section). "fmt G 4 g_wcs #WCS G address" tuck it in with the other fmt statements - such as after: "fmt S 9 speedrt #Spindle Speed - Rigid Tapping fmt M 4 gear #Gear range"
  25. The last version of MPMaster_Fadal that I got had the Servo Coolant option built-in. It is now one of the questions in the "General Output Settings" section of the post. "Servocool : yes #Use Servo Coolant option" I did change the peof block to add a "B-0" to return the servo coolant "stinger" back to zero without wrapping it around the wrong direction on a move to home. peof #End of file for non-zero tool pretract #pbld, n, "G28", "X0.", "Y0.", protretinc, e comment #Remove pound character to output first tool with staged tools #if stagetool = one, pbld, n, *first_tool, e pbld, n, "M6", e pbld, n, "E0", "X0", "Y0", [ if rot_on_x > zero, "A-0"], "B-0", e n, "M30", e mergesub clearsub mergeaux clearaux "%", e "%", e

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