Machinist-CNC toolpath help

I've hit my head too many times to start giving what little I have left away lol. There is no shortage of stuff to learn in this trade that's for sure. Always something new. The only people I know who know it all are the ones fresh out of college. The more time in this trade the less I know about it.

I don't have much time machining plastics, and am not %100 sure of what types they all were, but from what I remember they were all annoyingly clingy.

 

Are you trying to one up me on that too? Ok, I think I've got you beat at least on that.

 

The owner where I work now keeps asking me about getting into metal and alum .

All I say is “if you do you need to get separate machines .”

I know exactly what you’re talking about. Used to do a decent amount of plastic at my shop. It was a pain getting it all out of the machine. I used to have problems keeping it out of coolant pumps.

I just really love how relatively quiet the shop is when it’s just plastic. And like I said , the feeds and speeds I can run are crazy compared to steel or alum. We have a couple of VF6 SSS and I still max out feed rates. Not to mention our routers where I can’t take advantage of the 16k RPM spindles because even they don’t have enough feed.

I do still run some small jobs for a few customers on my machines at home just so I don’t get carried away and forget how to program and machine steel.

 

We do try to keep at least one of the VF2s for just plastic. We run this one REN (forget the number, but it's red), and that stuff just turns the coolant to mud. We've got a pretty elaborate multi level filtration system set up on it, but it's gets through. Generally go through a pump once a year. Yep, crazy feed rates, and big DOC's, but a huge mess.

 

I have a love hate relationship with renshape. Used to cut a lot of it at a past job, now it's only once every couple of months maybe. Roughs and finishes SO fast, but is such a bitch to clean up and control the dust in our shop. All the time saved machining is spent cleaning.

We cut aluminum, and steel, and don't bother cleaning the machines out for either. The scrap guy doesn't really care about the mixed chips enough to warrant spending all the time to clean out the machines between materials. Mold shop I once worked at was really meticulous about changing over from steel to copper. It was come in in the morning clean out the machine from running copper over night, rough out a core/cavity block prior to heat treat, finish hardmilling the blocks from the day before, clean out the machine very thoroughly of all steel, and setup a couple pallets of Copper trodes to run overnight. Every. day, rinse repeat. You spend the rest of the night picking tiny steel slivers out of your hands, only to repeat the cycle the next day. The owner of that place was militant. If that spindle stopped and it didn't start within the next minute he was coming to find out why. Nice shop, nice machine (pallet changer, probing, laser toolsetter, able to hold tenths hardmilling with 1mm balls....) interesting work, but the 2 owners were complete intolerable assholes. Only job I've ever quit on the spot without putting in notice. Faaaah-q.

 

You can have that crown. That's a competition I no longer wish to participate in.

 

Do you have 3 phase where the machines are or are you using a rotary phase converter to power them?
I'd like to get a Haas tool room lathe to add to my shop but I have to build a bigger shop first.

 

Im not fond of our haas tool room lathe.

 

I have 3phase.

I have a friend who owns a small shop. He started in small building on family land with no 3phase and all manual equipment. 10 years later he has 5 or 6 CNCs couple of VF4s and a couple of turning centers. Everything is run off of phase converters. Don’t know why he hasn’t paid to get 3 phase but it doesn’t seem to be a problem using the rotaries.

 

For starters, three phase isn't available unless you're a commercial property. Even if it is available, the power companies around here aren't keen on handing it out, even if you're willing to pay. My son has a house on a main thoroughfare with three phase right at the front of the property. When we we asked how much to bring to his garage, they said let's start at $25k, and go from there. No thanks.

 

Maybe where you’re at but Duke energy ran it to my shop on the lot beside my house. Granted that was 15 years ago. I think it cost me $6k. It’s out in the country and 3phase ran right by it.

It’s definitely available at my friends shop. Don’t know what they’d charge him cause According to him he’s never inquired about it. He’s sorta like me. Located out in the country where it’s 95% residential .

 

I wish it were that way here. Both Illinois and Wisconsin are really not willing to do it, unless you're zoned commercial. Heck, when I moved my plant back in 2015, I needed at least 3000 amp service, and ComEd said I could only have 2000. We have to do staggered startups as a default, and sometimes can't run everything we need running.