| Author | Message | ||
     Toona |
I need your input. I just agreed to buy a Haas VF4, '99 with 10k hours. I've run a little knee mill with a DRO for about 5-6 years, but the CNC deal is ALL NEW to me. Which CAM package do you like best and why? I've looked at Gibbscam, Mastercam, Surfcam etc. Can you "draw" in any of the basic CAM programs like you can with SolidWorks or do they require some kind of upgrade/additional package? I've taken a course at Penn State and passed that as well as becoming CSWA certified thru SW. Thanks for your input! Now to learn how to turn perfectly good blocks of aluminum into little worthless chips! | ||
| Gunut75 |
I use Mastercam for HAAS machines. The whole thing starts by drawing the part in 3D right off the bat. It's already part of the package. Unfortunately this is the only system I have experience with. | ||
| Mr_wizard |
Mastercam is the best in my opinion. sufrcam is a little harder to use. With Mastercam you can imort any kind of a drawing and even pictures. I have the most experience with Mastercam so I might be a little bias. I know mastercam has a trial version, if you would like to try it pm me your address and I will send you a copy! | ||
| Texastechx1 |
Haas' are damn nice. worked on one for about a year. it used mastercam as well and worked great. | ||
| Ulynut |
I'll take all those "worthless little chips" off your hands for you.  | ||
| Paw |
Not going to waste a lot of time here because a few guys already told you which one you need and I agree, Mastercam is what you want. | ||
| Toona |
Anyone have any pictures of stuff you've machined? For newbies like me, please include what kind of run time it took to make the part. | ||
| Paw |
I would but I could get fired if GE found out I took a pic. of their steam turbines and posted it. These things are so big that it takes 3 shifts about a month to complete a turbine finish turning only. RPM never exceeds 70 the freaking diameters are so large. I have cut a 14 foot diameter at 1 RPM on the cut clearance operation. Most of the cut clearance work is cut using high speed steel. Add the horizontal and cut clearance work to the finish turn and you can add about another month to the cycle time. One cut can take as long as 2 hours to complete. I doubt even if I could post a pic it would help you. The smallest rotor I worked on weighed 78,000 pounds. The heaviest was 280,000 pounds. (Message edited by paw on April 21, 2010) | ||
| Toona |
WOW! Paw that's a big hunk-o-steel! Obviously, I don't want to get anyone in trouble. But if Steve Mackay wanted to show us some of the stuff he was working on for Buell....  (j/k Steve!) | ||
| Hacksaw |
Gee Toona I have never ever run a machine tool with digital readouts much less all the stuff you listed. I apprenticed as a maintenance machinist, made journeyman in 1971. | ||
| Pattio |
At a previous job I was trained to use solidworks to virtual gibbs to a haas and they worked together very well. I am unqualified to say anything other than that this unqualified person learned to do it (to a point) and never destroyed anything. For relatively simple parts (2d stuff) solidworks wasn't needed, you could crank that stuff right out in gibbs alone. | ||
| Stalker |
Mastercam has alot of really good resources to learn the software fast. There is a tutorial out there for the milling part that is really good. It should be free, and should get you up to speed pretty quick. Get the book from MC (or the same one) and you WILL be all good. If you cant find the tutorial let me know and I can mail you a copy. | ||
| Gjwinaus |
Another very capable CNC program is Delcam's Powershape and Powermill. In Australia it seems to be gaining ground on Mastercam even though Mastercam has been the iconic CNC program for a very long time. | ||
| Steve_mackay |
VERY Capable. Mastercam and Surfcam look like primitive toys compared to Delcam stuff. I've been successfully using it for 13 years. PowerShape/PowerMill combo is going to run about $22K. I'm sure Toona is looking for something FAR cheaper. He could look at Delcam's cheaper suite of CAM software. Featurecam. I have no idea what the cost is on that however. If you're looking for even cheaper stuff.... OneCNC. Inexpensive, and very capable. 99% of what you get with mastercam, at a fraction of the cost. http://www.onecnc.net/ Here's a site you should delve in to extensively. http://www.cnczone.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5 Good luck! | ||
| Steve_mackay |
Don't worry Toona. It wouldn't get me in any trouble. I unfortunately will not be officially working for that employer after May 3rd. So yes, I probably COULD show ya. You wont recognize ANY of the parts I've done, except for the chain guards. Everything else was under the fairing in the form of ducting. Not glamorous by any means. But, because of my respect for EBR's suspected future with these parts, I wont show anyone, anything. | ||
| Steve_mackay |
oh... WTH... Here's a pic of something I was working on for Buell   Like I said, not very glamorous, unless you're a CNC or tooling geek. 4 compound angle slides. a little over 1 week design, and 4-5 weeks to manufacture the mold was pretty impressive for a 5 man crew. 1st shot was perfect. But it needed extensive engineering changes that we were prepping for on black thursday. | ||
| Gjwinaus |
Hey Steve, I put the curser on it but I couldn't get it to spin. | ||
| Steve_mackay |
Graeme, I'd be worried if you could spin the jpg | ||
| Toona |
I'm going to blame Steve if I'm late getting into the shop tomorrow. I've been reading thread after thread on the CNCzone site and just realized it's 2:45 A.M.! The OneCNC looks promising, thanks for the tip. |
