Just wanted to say thanks very much to all those who have contributed to the Vacuum Fixtures threads. I have been using small "disposable" aluminum fixtures to do a lot of plastic parts and it has been working great. It typically takes less than 10 minutes to make a fixture. Some of these thin, flat plastic pieces were otherwise very difficult to do using conventional methods. I have been using the 1/8" EPDM Sponge Rubber Cord (P/N 31944622 from MSC). It even works nicely to "stop up" holes in the pieces so that you can maintain vacuum. Once again - thanks for the inputs!

Code-Breaker, I have found some material on my Dad's service on the web. Some of the links are: http://www.skyraider.org/skyassn/classpics/hurlphot.htm He is in class "Express 36" He is the one on the lower far right. The Skyraider was his plaane of choice during the Vietnam conflict. He was shot down twice in action. I am hoping that his gun-camera film is still salveagable - I never could get him to let me try to preserve it. While in Vietnam, he flew with the 603rd ACS. http://www.skyraider.org/skyassn/spadgrup/wingrps.htm He later commanded the 407th Air Refueling Squadron out of Loring AFB. http://www.bethpage.net/loring/407thhistory.htm I remember him telling me stories about ferrying film from Florida to Washington during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He will be buried at Arlington on 25 June at 9:00am. He chose to have the Standard honors rather than the full military honors - He said that he spent enough time behind a mule on the farm and had no desire to take his last ride behind one....

My Dad passed away last night at the Camden-Clarke Hospital in Parkersburg, WV. Apparently it was a masssive heart attack - the staff worked on him for over 20 minutes. He has been in and out of the hospital many times over the past two years (more in that not it seems) and each trip to the hospital left him further down the road. He was in this time for congestive heart failure and the accumulation of large amounts of fluids in his abdominal area. His last such attack was three weeks ago and they sent him to the Cleveland Clinic (one of the top 5 hospitals in the nation). I feel fortunate that I went to be with him during his stay in Cleveland and got to talk with him at length. It is tough to be 1700 miles from them at times like this. He had made arrangements to be interred at Arlington National Cemetary. I don't know yet when that will occur. He retired as a Air Force Colonel and he was always proud to serve his country. Among the many decorations that he earned during his service to the United States, he was awarded the Bronze Star with oak leaf clusters, the Silver Star with bronze oak leaf clusters, and the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross. I have always been proud of my father, and I will miss him greatly.

This discussion arose because of the insistance of the corporate safety pukes that it MUST have an orientation. This was based on the look of the toolholder and spindle nose and of course their "expert" opinion. Naturally they had to write a Corrective Action Request against our procedures....... The bad part is that I couldn't find any documentation that discussed it.

That it what I am afraid of - so far I only have anecdotal evidence - and it is somewhat mixed. However, so for it is running about 75% to have the long ear with the un-dimpled side...... This is one of those things that the corporate safety weenies will not let go of until I document that it does or doesn't matter. Undortunately, I can't just tell em "because"....

I have been scouring my manuals and checking out various resources, but have not found a definitive answer on the following. On a CAT40 spindle, what is the orientation of the toolholder when inserted into the spindle. I was always taught that the longer ear went with the notch that was deeper (i.e. not the shallower side that has the drill dimple). However, other than everyone that I know thinking that it does go that way, I have yet to find any documented evidence of it. Anyone know of any documented evidence of the proper orientation for toolholders in CAT40 spindles? It is needed for an operators manual that corporate is making us put together.

Thanks for the leads! The Sandvik stuff looks good and I am trying to arrange a demo.

I have been using the Surface-Rough-Plunge option lately on some large boxes. However, I would like to have the pattern spiral from the center out (sort of like parallel spiral in the pocketing op). I have played with the NCI rather than zig-zag option, but it is just not making sense to me.

Afternoon folks, does anyone have some good suggestions on a plunge-milling tool? I am looking for one to use in milling out large blocks of T6061 (pockets of about 2-1/2 to 3-inches in depth). An insert-type might be just the ticket.

I also found that I was breaking a lot of the smaller (0-80, 1-72, 2-56) taps until I began the tap cycle about 0.050 to 0.100 above the part surface. Why it works, I don't exactly know. However, it seems to be working. I was getting only about 50-100 holes before breaking a tap, now I have well over 1000 holes before I start to get a measureable thread gage change when tapping T6061. I am using the VegaRoll taps at the moment.

If you have a digital camera, document what you can of the vehicle problems and contact your local Better Business Bureau as d00d suggested. Also gather copies of all the paperwork before you call the BBB (insurance forms, repair estimates, etc.). The BBB should be a great advocate for you.

Just an update. I decided to go with the MSI 865PE Neo2-PFISR with 2 GB of Dual-Channel 466 MHz DDR memory and a 3.2 GHz Prescott P4 processor with 1 GB of L2 cache (I considered the 3.4 GHz P4 Extreme with 2 GB of L2 cache, but they are rather pricey). Considering how inexpensive they have gotten, I may also add a couple of SATA Hard drives and run them in RAID 0 mode.

With many years with AutoDesk products and a few years with ProE, I have finally gone with SolidWorks.

Welcome to the best forum on the net!

Looks like the MSI Neo 2 comes out ahead in the "Tom;s Hardware" reviews.....Don't like the loss of a PCI connector though. On the other hand, they do seem to publish a lot of helpful information on their boards - unlike some of the others.

I am looking at replacing my current system with a new motherboard/CPU/Memory. In general, an Intel Pentium 4 Extreme, 3.4 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, and 1 MB cache. Memory - 2 GB of dual channel DDR400, low latency. I would prefer the Intel 875P Northbridge chipset. I have been looking at and contrasting the Gigabyte - 8KNXP board, the Soyo - P4I875P Dragon 2 V1.0 Black Label Edition board, and the Chaintech - 9CJS Zenith board. Is there another comparable MB that I should be looking at? The reviews that I have found to date seem to place these at the head of the pack, although the overclockers seem to like the Chaintech offering a bit more and they seem to like the Soyo board the least (due mostly to the BIOS). Any opinions, experience out there? I have to get an edge on Rekd in UT2004 somehow.....

Thanks for the link Bullines, I came up green, but it was nice to be able to check it. I like this - wholistic Mastercam forum. Not just Mastercam, but the platform you run it on...

Personally, I don't trust the conversions until I measure the results in MasterCam myself and compare them to the original file or drawing. On occasion I have had Autocad drawings appear to come in just fine only to discover when trying to chain, that the lines and arcs were on very slightly different planes (sometimes as little as 0.0001 difference). That can be a real pain..... especially when you get multiple overlapping line segments.

TigerDirect seems to have a slightly better prices on motherboards - but I couldnt find the P4S800. I am also looking at the Gigabyte - 8KNXP motherboard for myself. It has gotten some good reviews.

Sounds like it is in "Run from floppy" mode rather than "Floppy to Memory" mode. Does the following help? Check the section on the diskette drive. http://www.fadal.com/_content/_documents/m...onalDevices.pdf

quote: You get what you pay for! In this case, I am not sure that get really get what you pay for, it costs a supplier a not insubstantial chunk of change. I would like to have seen more statistics on the awarded bids - like what it was awarded for. You only get to see the average bid.....not the awarded price. I was typically at or just below the average price. Wait - maybe I am reading your comment wrong - maybe it is the buyer that is getting what they paid for - cheap, late, and bad......

In all fairness, I should also state that MfgQuote DOES deliver exactly what they say they will deliver to a supplier. A constant stream of work to be quoted. They make no guarantees (and indeed they can't) that you will get work. I am am just disappointed in the "low bidder wins all" mentality of some of the buyers - low price means nothing without quality.

After two years (in some things, I am a slow learner) of using MfgQuote, I am discontinuing the service. I have quoted myriad jobs, just to lose them to a shop who apparently is running at >$25 an hour. I have even seen jobs placed at what the materials should cost. I have seen MANY jobs withdrawn at the last moment and even more that are never placed (at least not through MfgQuote). I have done substantially better at quoting local work and doing cold calls than I have ever done with the service. I have also had folks come back 3-6 months later to try to get me to take the job because the lowest 1-2-3 bidders couldn't deliver (at $25/hour shop rate - DUHHHH!!). I would love to take a swing at your part....it won't be at $25/hour though....

JM2C 1. Document, document, and then document. Have several jobs quoted by multiple shops and lay out the results in a spread sheet, including who won the job, how long it took to deliver and if delivery was on time. 2. NEVER even HINT at the possibility that the other guy might be taking a kick back!!! DON"T GO THERE! 3. When you have sufficient data, draw up a nice set of charts showing what the jobs were let for against the other quotes, show potential cost savings if the lower quotes had been accepted, if possible figure in lead times or unmet schedules due to a one-shop bottleneck. Try to figure out the lost revenue due to the lost time. 4. Lay it out for the President. Indicate that you don't know why only one shop is getting the work. NEVER ACCUSE the other person of ANY wrongdoing. Just lay out FACTS!!! Then ask the President what he wants you to do.... Once again NEVER make accusations... Particularly when you don't have unassailable FACTS.....

I have also seen this before when cutting an arc that is "rotated" from the normal 0 - 90 - 180 - 270 break positions. I think that I changed "breakarcs" to break at quadrants to fix it.