Take the cubic inch volume of your part and multiply it by .280 ( specific gravity ) and it will give you the weight in pounds.

Pete, You have mail.

Pete, ProE Datums are turned off. Mcam X2 MR2 SP1. If you have any other suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. I have researched this thing to death and have not come up with anything that is seamless or even close. Solidworks to Mastercam is awesome conversion. ProE to Mastercam, not so good.

We have tried all the different methods of converting from ProE and we get get slightly different results with each, none of which are particularly good. We have a licence of the ProE converter that we use, but we still get the same junk output that you do. You set your defaults to import only the solid, but you get the solid, untrimmed surfaces, and a bit of wireframe. It also imports on multiple levels. We have just accepted this for what it is and have to clean-up each any every file we import. Tons of wasted time. I have spoken to both sides about this issue and they say that ProE is not capable of producing a proper parasolid, and the Mastercam converter is not up to date with the current level of ProE. Better get used to it.

We do this all the time when we create electrodes on the lathe. Stock to leave is set at -.0025 or whatever is required. No problem.

I couldn't agree more, although I can't get over how many problems we have with X2MR2. As much as I like Mastercam, with every new release it becomes more of a sub-standard product. I have submitted so many things to my dealer and they just shake their heads. The can't figure out what the H is going on. Every day is a new challenge with no explanations. Six seats on different computers and none work like they should. I can hardly wait for X3 ???????????

Lans, I avoid using Raster or parallel for a variety of reasons. I would program your part a little differently. I would most likely finish it with HST waterline from 30 to 90 degrees and then use shallow or HST scallop to finish from 0 to 35 degrees of slope. Always climb milling. File size is not an issue for us as our Makino's run off internal hard drives with huge capacity. We use .0001 or .0002 for all of our finishing toolpaths in order to achieve the surface finish and accuracy that our parts require. Processing time is a beotch.

I took a look at your file and I see a few things I would change. For one, I would change your tolerance on the toolpaths to .0001 for the parallel toolpath and use a 1:1 filter. Mastercam makes a terrible quality toolpath unless the tolerance is really small. It is even worse if you use HST raster. I have submitted this problem to my dealer and they are trying to figure out why. Even using this small tolerance, you won't get the same quality toolpath as WorkNC or Powermill. I can never understand why this has always been an issue with Mastercam on such a simple toolpath.

We had this problem when our engineering dept. upgraded to wildwire 3. Since then, our conversion works OK. X MR1 worked the best and didn't bring in a lot of junk. X2 MR2 is not very good as it brings in geometry on different levels as well as a bunch of junk. You have to eliminate all the junk on every file you convert. I submitted this to our dealer and they told us it was just a case of the converter not being up to date with ProE. Maybe the next release will be better.

Everything is slower in MR2. Toolpath generation times is a joke.

X2 does everything slower. I think they are looking for consistency.

The shops that have kept up with technology will be just fine. If you do specialized work like we do, you are not competing with the guy next door. Shops that have the latest in high speed equipment and the proper know-how are thriving. The guys who are going out of business are typically automotive shops who's state of the art technology was built in 1970. They can't compete.

We use the Accu-lube system on our Makino's. The oil is like a vegetable oil, non-toxic, and not very messy at all if you use it properly. Works awesome for hard milling and especially on stainless. Very cheap also. The unit ( applicator ) is around $500 and the oil is about $40/ gallon if my memory serves me correctly. One gallon will last about 6-8 months. Look it up.

Your biggest issue is you are using a raster toolpath. In other words, you are climb milling and then conventional milling on the next pass. If you use this method, I would change the cutting to one way so you are always climb milling. You also left too much stock on your part for finishing. For best results, use waterline cutting from 90 degrees to 30 and then follow it up with either a raster or scallop for the 0 to 35 degree slope angle areas. If you conventional cut 6061 with that tool cutting .010 you will gall the material which will leave a poor finish. A word of wisdom, ALWAYS climb cut. No exceptions.

All you need to do is create a line at an angle that represents the helix angle of the groove ( thread ) You know the pitch is 4" and the circumference is merely pi X diameter. From this you calculate the helix angle. Now all you have to do is mill a 2D profile and substitute the y-axis for rotary motion. We do this all the time to create water channels on the outside of core rods for moulds.

Megatel in Mississauga is the distributor for the Awea line. The other company that works out of our shop has a new one and so far they really like it. My personal observation watching it try to cut a high speed toolpath was that either it is not really suitable for this type of machining or there was something wrong with the posted code. I tried to make sense of the manual with the operator using the tolerance control codes, etc. but I never came up with a solution. Very inconsistent motion. Quality wise, I seems like a workhorse.

I think its looking for the lathe enhancements.

Use rough toolpath and make sure you have your plunge parameters turned on and use tool width compensation in the plunge parameters. You may want to uncheck the overlap box on the rough parameters page. Set your depth of cut to whatever Iscar recommends.

mkd, To answer this question properly, you must first understand that high speed machining in the hardened state takes quite a few ingredients to achieve the final goal. You must have all the ingredients or you will not succeed. Makino looks at it as a total process time. If you add up all the time to program in the soft state, set-up, machine, send for heat treat, program again, set-up again, machine again versus just setting it up once and cutting it to size, you will be surprised with the results. To address your issue of metal removal rate, yes you can acheive the same rate as in the old fashioned hogging mode. The biggest differnce will be that if you were to hog out a large 3D model with a large step down, you would end up with large stair heights between passes and a variable amount of stock all over the part. With the high speed approach, your part will be cut much closer to the final net shape and require less reroughing or pick out. Typically you also use smaller cutter diameters using the high speed approach which also leave less material behind. The old ways of cutting also generate huge amounts of heat build-up in the part, where it is completely eliminated using the high speed approach. To have any success with HSM you must have a great machine, control, tools, holders, etc. These are all the magic ingredients that make it all happen. Overall savings in time of 40% are not uncommon using HSM versus the old fashioned method. I have some spread sheets that I got from Makino a number of years ago that clearly illustrate the two different approaches to machining. I was a little sceptical at first, but after almost 4 years of using the new techniques, I can absolutely verify that their figures are accurate. [ 08-09-2007, 10:38 PM: Message edited by: Prosin Molds ]

I wouldn't waste my time with ProE Toolmaker. I just finished evaluating 8 different cam packages and this one ranked at the very bottom of my list. However, ProE has just purchased NC Graphics ( Depocam ) and are in the process of integrating it into ProE. This is exactly the same company that Mastercam purchased its high speed toolpaths from. Another drawback to this package is the fact that the shopfloor must also learn how to use ProE in order to do any geometry or surface creation.

With your machining parameters, there are really two ways to go. You could use a Hanita Vari-mill at full depth with 50% stepover or you could use one of the new feedmills from Jabro, Millstar, Pokolm-Voha, etc. I have run the 3/8 dia. at 8000 rpm, .013 doc and 250 ipm. Lasts forever in H13, I can only imagine you would get great results in 1018.

We use the entire Nikken Lyndex line of tools on our Makino's. As stated above, I would only plan on using the MMC holders for finishing. If you want to rough, use the mill chucks or the VC collet chucks. All are excellent and at a premium price. If you have thru spindle cooling, the MMC collets are available with "wistle notches" which direct high pressure coolant or air to the tip of the tool. Worth their weight in gold.

The Makino should have a Pro5 Fanuc control. In the tool table, you can set what limit you want for wear. If it measures more than this amount, you can set it up for two different scenarios. First you can have it alarm out, or you can have it replace that tool with another of the same description ( back-up tool ) from the magazine. So in other words, if tool #1 wears out, it will be replaced with lets say tool #20. Now when your program calls for tool #1 it will actually load tool #20. You can also set it up so after cutting say 10 parts, it changes to your alternate tooling. If this is your first Makino, you will love it.

I have used the Iscar feedmills and have to say that they are very aggressive on the spindle. Switch to a Seco feedmill and you won't be disappointed. We can run a 3/4 two-insert feedmill at 4000 rpm, .015 doc 50% stepover at 300 ipm for hours in cut. That's right , hours. We have used it on P20, 4140, SS420, H13, and even high chrome materials which give a little more wear. They have a few different grades of carbide for different materials, but this tool rocks.

CNC APPS GUY: To explain my scoring system and my particular requirements in great detail would bore most of you to death and go on forever. Let me sum it all up in a few short sentences. We all are paid to get a particular job completed in a reasonable ( or in most cases, unreasonable ) amount of time to satisfy the boss and the job schedule. When you are using a cam system that is preventing you from accomplishing this simple task, it is time to look elsewhere. No system is perfect or will satisfy everyone as everyone's requirements or opinions are different. Look at it this way, our shop rate is almost $100 an hour. We have determined that Mastercam is "costing" us more in lost manufacturing time than it would cost to replace it with a faster system over the long run. Mastercam would literally have to triple or quadruple its processing speed to be back in contention. I would love to continue to use Mastercam as we have a considerable amount invested in it. Sorry to be so vague on my scoring system, but understand that processing power is my number one requirement and the evaluation reflects that.