Thread: Two Discoveries in one day

First one, I was finishing up a machine I had designed for a customer, when He asked me I would take a look at a Fagor 3 axis stamping machine, he said he had had a problem on and off from day one on reading and writing to the on-board floppy cassette, it was not consistant and was getting worse, his programs were in the 100's but only a few lines long so he had lived with entering by hand for the most part.
So I got him to show me and sure enough he either got a write protect error or cannot retrieve, so I got him to pull a new disc out of of his box and same thing.
I had my laptop which I always carry a fresh formatted disc in and tried it, worked perfect every time.
I noticed he was using these bright coloured semi-transparent discs, now I have used these also with no problem, and the disc I had was one of the older complete black versions.
So on inspecting his discs, I could see right away they must have been very El-Cheapo. The write protect window, instead of being a black tab like the ones I have, had an opaque window, which you simply punch out if you want to make it write protected.
Obviously the opaque allowed enough light through in some cases to screw things up. So beware.

Oh yes #2/ Back in the shop I have to mill some fins off of a aluminum heatsink, program some simple moves quickly and wonder why the fins are bending instead of nice chips, Discover quickly - RH endmill does not like M4.
M.

been there done that.If you're not watching the spindle at start up you never notice.

why would you ever use m4 on a lathe besides manual tapping?

You've got me,why would you.
I said MILL.
M.

my baaad

well... why on a mill?

Using a boring head in reverse to turn an OD.
Greg B.

Manual programming. Wouldn't you know it, they put the 3 key right next to the 4 key The G codes inventors should have made m4 spindle off and m5 spindle reverse. I guess you only make that booboo once and then you check real careful from then on....

why would you ever use m4 on a lathe besides manual tapping?

Many smaller, slide type retrofits have limited tooling capacity; when running workpieces 3-6" in dia., it's convenient to use one tool for rough turn and bore, another for finish turn and bore, and still have tool positions open for threading or grooving. And, um, left hand threads generally require M4.

RAS

why would you ever use m4 on a lathe besides manual tapping?

You guys are so advanced. Down here manual tapping is still done with a Tap Wrench. Not a CNC lathe

Good weekend to all. Cheers Phil.

block by block tapping code is as manual as i get

Use cutoff tools with M4 and they fall in the catcher alot nicer. it seems

well... why on a mill?

I use M4 alot on a mill. It works great when you have right and left hand parts. Program one side and then mirror image it and use m4 and left hand cutters to keep all your cuts climbing. This is really cost effective on extremely long and intense programs and high production jobs.

M4 on mill - I use it for milling hex on threaded parts that are simpy threaded into a bushing.
M4 on lathe - as mentioned, upside-down boring bar doing OD and ID work, Double ended boring bar doing OD and ID work, or anytime when "use what you got" requires it.

Forgot to add: M4 on mill is best with LH endmills!!!