Can Your CADCAM system do this?

You shop has a legal seat of Mastercam 9. You should also post this question on the e-Mastercam forum.

Jon Banquer San Diego, CA

Vinny, I created one 6" line at z-.245 and y.0001, and another at z-.250 and y-.0001, connected lines at one end with 3d cplane, ran 3d contour at .

005 step down per pass. Each pass produced .01 of depth cutting, back and forth,,,,,,, comp off, no lead-in / lead-out, keep tool down.

"D"

tight! Thanks.

You shop has a legal seat of Mastercam 9. You should also post this question on the e-Mastercam forum.

Jon Banquer San Diego, CA

forum...as in moderated? yuk. Usenet rules...unmoderated and untamed.

Actually, Ramp will do exactally what you want. Chain your entity, comp set to off. Then in your ramp dialog, choose "plunge" instead of angle or depth. The tool will now plunge down at each end of your contour....it works with lead in/out also. Funny how that setting is right there....I never noticed it till X1MR2....but I looked in V9 & it was there all along.

Jon, I have X3, I just havent had the time to make the switch.

Many of my customers use MRP clutches, Bob has my utmost respect.

Vinny, Glad it works for you, good luck.

"D"

Do you want me to send you the X2 MR2 file that shows what we did? I can send it from work when I get in this morning. I have X3 installed on my machine but haven't had much of a chance to use it. I tried the FBM example but it produced very inefficient code. I haven't determined if X3 is worth using because FBM might save sometime even if you have to edit the "s" out of what it produces. I probably should try this file to see if it still works in X3 as someone on the e- Mastercam forum was reporting it's broken in X3.

Last time I saw Bob his business was booming and he had just gotten a new / bigger Blanchard grinder. I've made parts for his clutches.

Jon Banquer San Diego, CA

Jon, Sounds like a good idea, but, right now, I am so busy, it would be more of a distraction than a benefit to have your file.

5 machines, bills to pay, buying tools, phones, cleaning the toilet, etc. keeps me very busy, maybe later.

Speaking of which, time to hit the floor running.

"D"

Actually, Ramp will do exactally what you want. Chain your entity, comp set to off. Then in your ramp dialog, choose "plunge" instead of angle or depth. The tool will now plunge down at each end of your contour....it works with lead in/out also. Funny how that setting is right there....I never noticed it till X1MR2....but I looked in V9 & it was there all along.

Damn...you win the prize man! My respect. kickass.

LOL You've been mucking about when a direct solution was available for years. Dumbass, not "kickass". Typical Bootleg user.

Consider that Carol is a lousy salesman. TopSoid, Vero VisiCADCAM, Mecsoft Visual Mill... all products Carol failed miserably with.

This should be good.

Jon Banquer San Diego, CA

Pass the popcorn

You got your last free lesson when we all discussed pocket milling at high feedrates here. You went on about salesmen then as well until you shut your pie hole and learned something.

What "kernel" would you prefer? LOL

hmmm. very true. you explained constant angle of engagement to me in a clear concise way. Thank you. (I passed it on to my apprentice at the time, he appreciated it also)

but....

Only a salesman would remember the "one" thing he taught another person ...because...salesmen ALWAYS expect something in return...like crackheads kinda.

Shit man, I just showed a guy at work how to make ejector pins in a mold blend perfectly on a 3d surface. It's a trick I figured out on my own and have showed at least 10 people how to do it. And if anybody in here cared I would surely pass it along without expecting them to even remember who showed it to them. (not that anybody wants it, im making a point).

Now lets be real clear on this...you go back and read those old posts, you will find YOU WAS TROLLED! YEP...go back and read em! I even mentioned it in those old posts. I extracted that info from you by basically insulting you. Joo has been Haxored. Works every time.

(all joking aside, you never really own something....till you give it away, you never really know something, till you teach it to another).

Vinny:

*I'd* be interested in hearing your ejector pin trick. I've done some mold work decades ago. What I used to do is do the flat & dowel pin thing to keep the pin from turning, get the length close, assemble the mold, measure how much had to come off where, and go contour grind it to get it close. But I sure wouldn't say it was "perfect", but since it was usually on a the bottom of the part it didn't really have to be. I may not ever use your ejector pin idea in an actual mold, but you never know when knowledge might be adapted to other processes.

Besides, it's GOT to be more interesting/informative than another 100 crossposted political bickering posts, eh?

No I didn't.

Why would I bother. The thread was about coolant as I recall.

What I remember is that you shot off your mouth. No matter.

Well, I know how to cut a runner and knew long before I had your years of fumbling around behind me.

If you want the pins to stick up say.002, first grind them as close as you can. Then assemble the mold. Now stick a .002 shim between the box and the support plate (raising the cavities up.002) and polish the form AND the pins together. When done, remove the .002 shim stock and now your pins are absolutly perfect to length and form.

Dood...My Method works just as good...just as fast. Takes literally one second to copy a line the depth down and make a ruled surf. I can even have variable cut depths and variable feeds as I go deeper using the cut depths checkbox. The ramp idea was cool, it got me looking at another way of doing things, that's the reason I posted here to find some different ways. And Like usual I got a couple of "kickass" replies. (usenet rulez!)

But...

Actually...no offence to the guy who gave the idea up (free of charge) my idea was better. His way you have to have the line of cut geometry, but add a line for the first pass down and then use that in your contour. 2 lined contour locking in depth of cut. One problem...when it comes to adjusting depth of passes you have to adjust the line going down you drew. No biggie...EXCEPT..what if you want variable depths cause its a form cutter? I want to take big cuts then get smaller and slower as it gets deeper to be "efficient". So my way i can use cut depths and control the start and end depth of the operation. Drag three copies in the ops page and I can control the depth of cut and feedrate as the cutter starts hitting all over as it goes deeper.

As far as you cutting a runner....good, everyone should be able to cut a line. It shows you have a good foundation in extremely basic machining. But I would suggest against cutting the whole taper cut from start to finish at the same depth of cut, feed and rpm, unless of course it's your own money your wasting.

bootleg user...lol

Vinny:

That's pretty cool. And relatively simple when you know about it. It probably wouldn't work too well on an aluminum mold, given the drastic difference between the material harnesses of the mold and ejector pin, but that would probably be a rare case. Thanks for posting that little tid bit. I hope somebody is keeping track of all these juicy tips.