Re: pic: 1429 Gets a new toy
 

Dang..... I wish we could get one.... i guess that we shouldnt be complaining cause we have a mentor (my dad) who has 3. He just needs to find time to show me how to program g-code

Re: pic: 1429 Gets a new toy
 

Thanks for all the comments. I'll try to answer some of the questions.

This was something that we had begged and pleaded for over the past few years. Our school district had some extra money this year and bought us one. We did not even know that we were getting it until we got a phone call from the shipping company saying that it was arriving the next week. SURPRISE!!! It will also be used in our Project Lead the Way classes.

According to the purchase order, the machine was a little less than $31,000, and with shipping, simulation module, and training came to almost $38,000.

Don't scare us like that...:)
So far, our vendor has been great to work with.

Share, share... that program would be really great!

Unfortunately, there was no options like those that came with it. It didn't include any machine tools either. We are working with one of our sponsors to supply those.

Of course we do! Our plan is to get proficient with this and then offer milling services to all teams in the Houston area.

Yea, yea, yea...
I've seen what your guys can do with simple tools. You win enough awards, even without a big fancy machine.

Paul

Re: pic: 1429 Gets a new toy
 

It obviously depends on your part, but what you can do is make two programs. The first program does say half of the part, and in one of your lightening holes, instead of pocketing the whole thing out, simply cut out a hole (say 0.75-1"). You would then move the part, probe off of that hole, then run the second program with your new zero. Since you don't have a part probe, this will make things difficult. You could try to use a dial indicator.

Re: pic: 1429 Gets a new toy
 

We do the same thing as 190. Our machine only has 20" of X travel, so when we cut our frame rails we cut the left-most bearing housing pocket, the center bearing housing pocket, and all the gearbox mounting/access holes. We then slide the part all the way to the left, so that everything to the right of the center bearing housing pocket is inside the x-travel envelope. We probe off of the bore (since we have the part probe), but if you were to make this same part, you know the distance to offset your tool from the top face of the 1x2 to the center of the bearing bore and you can go to that distance, then just use an edge finger to find the left or right side of the bore. You can then offset the correct amount to find the center. This becomes even easier if you have a square/rectangular feature you want to locate off of.

Haas has a lot of good documentation here. I would suggest downloading and completing the Mill workbook. When I was taking CNC classes we used it and it was very beneficial to learn the formatting of various g-codes.

Will you be using a CAM program or writing G-code manually?

Best advice I can give-don't get ahead of yourself at first. You may think you've got something down pat and get over comfortable. That's when you break things (badly). Always have a second pair of eyes look over any code you intend to run for the first time, just to be sure (that, and single block with the rapid override on 5% whenever you run a program for the first time).

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Re: pic: 1429 Gets a new toy
 

Cutting Air may seem like a waste of time initially, but it is well worth it until you have your coding figured out. Especially any time you use a new feature. Also, if you ever have to start or stop a program and redo a set up, please be careful. Many autocoding programs will remove unnecessary lines as long as you are following the code. You can get an unexpected crash if you have to stop and move the table to get access.

Re: pic: 1429 Gets a new toy
 

The Haas is actually smart enough to not crash the machine (assuming your code doesn't crash the machine to start with) upon restarting in the middle of a program, so long as Setting 36 is ON.

With that setting on, it will automatically look through the program, find the appropriate tool change command, work offsets, and height offsets. It then applies those commands and goes to the correct position the tool should be at prior to the line you are restarting from.

That said, there are ways this can get you in trouble. I always make sure that if I'm restarting a program in the middle my tool is above the highest point on my part. Depending on the circumstances of what tool is in the spindle and where you are restarting the machine can either return to z0. or make a rapid move to the correct x,y position to restart the program from. It should rapid to whatever your clearance plane is above the part prior to moving in x,y, but I don't like leaving that to chance.

Re: pic: 1429 Gets a new toy
 

We are getting Master Cam to use for our Inventor drawings.



I can't thank you enough for the offer. Don't be surprised if you get an e-mail from me in next few months.

Paul