How do I cut a .57 dia. x .95 depth hole with a .5 flat mill at an existing 25/64 hole? everything I've tried has not worked. There are two of these holes in my work piece and they come out with approx. a .83 dia. and the mill exits the first hole 1/2 way out at a 45 deg. angle. I'm new at VM5 and am using the downloaded study manual that comes with the program (I think). :confused:

Hey rickster, I mean emergent, :rolleyes:

You describe the mill exiting the hole at 45 degrees. It sounds like you are having issues with your exiting strategy (the program thinks it has safely cleared your piece when it makes the 45 degree move). Have you tried playing around with your cut transfer? Set it to "clearance plane". Another thing that always got me into trouble was that I used the bottom of the piece as the zero for my Z. Its a lot simpler to use the top of the piece as your zero Z. Doing this will allow you to use the hole machining features more easily. What kind of machining feature are you currently using for these holes (i.e. pocketing, profiling etc...)?

Carlo

If you are doing like was suggested to you on the MecSoft forum - a possible issue I can see is with the point creation part way into your part (ie at the bottom of an existing Counterbore). VM MAY (?) see this point as being clear of your part (depending on how your clearance planes are set(and also hole creation MOPs can be finicky as to what is actually the top of your part)). I generally like to draw my hole points on the top surface of my part and then calculate the hole/pocket depths from there.
I would like it if hole creation MOPs had a "pick" box for selecting top Z level.