Take a look at Leadwell. My old shop had a couple of them and they did a really good job. They were significantly cheaper than the Haas also. I can't remember the exact price but when the Haas saleman came in and saw a new leadwell he asked the boss "how much did you pay for that thing?". When my boss told him he said "well I guess they're just giving those things away". It had Fanuc drives and controller, a 10K spindle (I think this was an option), rigid tapping, programable coolant nozzle and was pretty fast. I think the price was around 50K for the one we had w/ a 30in table.

Thanks again guys!

Thanks Code

I was wondering if any of you guys have much experience w/ Monel? I have to machine a few castings w/ some pretty crazy stuff (geometry) going on & I was just looking for a decent (conservative) starting point. Officially the alloy is QQ-N-288 w/ 65kpsi min tensile strength. Does anyone have a suggestion? The castings cost $8200 each, so I'm pretty scared about breaking a tool & scapping a part.

Thanks jmparis, After closer inspection of the tool path, it turned out that the endmill was actually trying to cut the whole outside shape and that's why the path was taking so long. After a quick call to my reseller for help, (I needed to specify the previous tool dia, not tool path) the path just cuts the corners as it's supposed to and the path is about 4min, so no worrys. Thanks again.

Quick chip load question: Cutting 5052 alum .063 thick. How much chip load can I get away with on a 1/16 endmill? I'm doing a re-machine on some pockets (after using a 1/8 endmill) and mcam says it's a 38 minute tool path. I'm hoping that I can cut that down some by actually using a resonable chip load. Thanks in advance

Thanks beagle, Learn something new every day

control

Thanks alot guys. I should have checked metric sizes.

Do any of you have a good source for non-standard ball mills? I am looking for a .177 dia ball mill, but I could probably get away w/ a 11/64. I haven't seen any in our cataloges. It would be nice if I could stay away from having one custom ground. Thanks, Charlie

Thanks for the input guys. I actually talked to my reseller and he pointed me in the right direction. Cut the size of the code to less than half of what it was. After 8 months, I think I'm finally getting the hang of this stuff. Thanks again

Hey guys/gals, I'm programming my first job using surface tool paths. Everything looks great but this thing has spit out MILES of code. I was wondering if there was something similar to "filtering" on contour paths that I could change to reduce the size of this code a little.

Hoping that one of you might have the solution to my open pocket problem. I'm using open pocket to rough all three sides of a triangular part (using transformed tool path. All was going well until I decided to change my geometry a little bit. After the geometry change (and rechaining the pocket) Mcam has decided to cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside. I've tried reversing the chain, tried both climb and convensional milling, but no matter what I do it still wants to cut on the wrong side of the line. As soon as I changed the Geometry back it worked fine again. Any suggestions? I'm really struggling here.

Worked my way through school (mech eng) as an operator. Now I work as a manufacturing eng for a defense contractor. It was pretty funny, as graduation was coming up and I was doing the mass job interview thing (applying for mech eng jobs), I was told on more than one occasion that I was TOO HANDS ON. I'm still not sure what that means but it ended up w/ me in this job which is ok. Now, I do a little of everything, programming, writing "op sheets" (assembly instuctions), make/buy decisions, etc. As far as pay for engineers goes, I think that most of the folks I graduated with started out in the 40-50K range depending on where they went.

On our Fadals (and Haas for that matter) I have to select "perpendicular" for the line movement in order to get it to turn cutter comp on during the line move and not on the G3 (ramp on) move. This was advice given to me by my reseller. Hope it helps

I guess I am too slow (twice)

As far as editing posts. There is a CD available from your reseller that aparently gives pretty extensive instruction on post editing.

"Staging tools" refers to bringing the next tool to be used into position for tool change before the tool change command. EX. T1 M06 G0 G90 G54 X0. Y0. G43 H1 Z1. T2 BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH G0 Z2. G28 Z0. T2 M06 It just saves time on tool changes.

You could just change them in Cimco (mine defaults to incrementing by 10's). That's what I usually do. Just go to NC functions, remove block numbers, insert block numbers, done. There may be an easy way to set the default in Cimco to increment by 5's but I don't know what it is.. Hope this helps a little.

I'm actually calling for the M00 between tool paths w/ the same tool (to move clamps). So I guess your second option is the way I need to go. I have to head home now but I'll mess around w/ it on monday. Thanks

I guess I should I have said what post I'm working with. It's MPHAAS. Should there still be this stuff in there?

Since you guys are volunteering all of this cool post editing info. I have a question for ya. When I try to use Canned text to put an M00 in the program that's all I get (no retract, spindle stop etc). I would like it to give me that stuff before the M00 and I would like it to give the start up commands afterwards.

Thanks guys!

Can anyone of you highly enlightend folks tell me how to draw a 3D helix? I am just trying to draw an ACME thread.

I've had great luck w/ Niagara A245 (2flute 45deg helix) and A345 (3flute 45 deg helix) end mills. Great surface finishes & tool life. Although I noticed that the corners on the 3 flute seem more prone to breakage.