Thanks everyone. I check in once in a while. Skulking in the background.

Jim, Signed sealed to be delivered to everyone here on Friday. Probably end up in St. Gobains hands if it goes like Magic and Holz.

As of this Thursday, I will be Layed Off (voluntary). I will be starting a new job within the next couple of weeks and will be taking a much needed vacation before starting. My new position will be Secret so I can't say anything more on it. I just wanted to thank everyone here for thier help over the years and I hope I've helped some also. Good Day All.

Bruce, I think you'll find it will save your butt over and over. Did you get the Autodiff addon? It's a neccesity for comparing cut stock to customer model. It catches stock left in finish paths and a lot more.

Thad, I had a brain fart. What I've done is set up Source Template files for diferent types of parts i.e.: fixtures vert machine parts , horizontal machined parts and parts that will run on both. I have default tool paths, no geometry, arranged in order of use with a basic tool library of common tools. When I open one of the groups, operations and tools are set up and ready. I add/delete what I need and assign WCS and geo. Cuts a lot of time out for repiticious processes. Chris, sorry for the bad info. Good Day

Chris, In Screen Configuration you can set up the tool path defaults. Name the group what ever suits you, then save it. A new program will now default with the name you give it.

Thanks for the input everyone. I tightened up the Curve Cordial Deviation in my configuration menu and the mesage went away. I think it was causing the cutter to touch a check surface. Good Day....

Thanks Lee but it sounds Like a workaround.

Happy Tuesday All, Little problem.... I have a 4th axis helix. I'm using Curve 5 Axis with y as the rotary. My initial path is good but I want a spring pass. When I turn on Multipasses, Finish Passes set at 2 at .002, then regenerate I receive a “Message 28 in [msurf5ax] not found”. Does anyone know if this is something to worry about? Code looks O.K.

Jerome, #999

Jerome, Well, that's not what I call myself. About your gaskets. Dennis Gerka said there is a shop here in the Bay Area that has the 3-D printers. I think he mentioned San Leandro.

Jerome, There is an alternative to Stereo Lythography. I'm not sure what the name is but I will get it for you. Instead of using a light activated polymer it uses a resin which is printed out like a printer. Much cheaper and, I believe rugged enough for your application. I'll get back to you. Rick

Decomaster, Try reducing your depth of cut to around between .150 and .200 axial, increase your feed to around 400 IPM. Make sure you coolant nozzles are on the tool tip from all sides. Your cycle time will be reduced proportionately to the material romoval rate increase.

Go with the GUI. User friendliness is a good thing.

Tryon, We have had this problem for a long time. We modified our post to prompt for the actual B axis face when we post. The post does the math and updates all work offset angles.

% O8701(BACK CBORE MACRO) (G65P8701R.7Q.4E8.D-3.F3.I-.5J-.45K30.Z1.) (D= SPINDLE REVERSE WING OUT POINT) (E= CLOSE WING FEED RATE) (F= CUT FEED RATE) (I= FINAL FEED Z DEPTH- TOP OF MTRL TO CBORE BTM) (J= FEED TO POINT TO CLOSE WING AFTER CUT) (K= CLOSED WING FEED RATE) (Q= CLOSE WING 'FEED TO' POINT AT F FEED) (R= INITIAL RAPID PLANE HEIGHT) (Z= RAPID PLANE- MUST BE GT TOOL TIP LENGTH) (SPINDLE FEEDS INTO HOLE M04 AT S RPM TO D VALUE THEN STOPS REVERSES SPINDLE M03 AT S RPM) (SPINDLE STOPS AND REVERSES M04 AT S RPM PRIOR TO FEEDING OUT OF HOLE AFTER CYCLE IS COMPLETE) IF[#4EQ0]GOTO2000 IF[#5LE#4]GOTO3000 IF[#5LE#7]GOTO4000 IF[#8LE0]GOTO8000 IF[#9LE0]GOTO9000 M50 M8 M04 G90G0Z#26 G1Z#17F#8 G1Z#7F#6 M05 M03 G1Z#4F#9 G1Z[#4-.02] M05 M04 G1Z#5F#8 G1Z#26F#6 M99 N2000 #3000=121(VARIABLE I MUST BE DEFINED OR CAN NOT BE ZERO) N3000 #3000=122(VARIABLE J MUST BE GREATER THAN VARIABLE I) N4000 #3000=123(VARIABLE I MUST BE GREATER THAN VARIABLE D) N7000 #3000=126(VARIABLE D MUST BE LESS THAN THAN VARIABLE I) N8000 #3000=127(VARIABLE E MUST BE DEFINED OR CAN NOT BE ZERO) N9000 #3000=128(VARIABLE F MUST BE DEFINED OR CAN NOT BE ZERO) M30 %

Thanks Guys, I broke down and wrote the macro. It will be added to all of our controls. Our posts will be modified to add the custom drill cycle.

Hello All, I hate to ask, but does anyone have a basic back counterbore macro for the reverse flip out type of back spotface tool? I'm a haven't written a macro in years and I'm very rusty. Thanks in advance.

Jergens, Carr Lane and several other companies have solid models of many different components on thier websites.

Russel, I have found that if any geometry other than the model is on the screen, even a point, the STL will not be water tight. Did you have any visible geometry when you converted the model?

James- Mail Check

Or look into Mitsubishi feedmills. 'Highfeed' cutters do come with "Pucker Factor".

Great for door knobs!

Try a plain old M5 or M3 S0 (your machine doesn't alarm on S0 depending).

Michael, I was testing on a pocket with several differant radii an diferant line lengths. I wanted to get a feel for how it was going to break the paths and see how much the decel feed rates were going to be. I turned CC on so I could run the same path in the same test piece several times, all I had to do was comp the tool out a liitle bit to recut the material. Thats when I noticed the bad path. Try making some test geometry and seeing what it does for you. We have V9.0 SP2 Level 3.