Until now I've been using the "manual tool" option for everything, but as I've recently started using Tormach tooling I now want to make use of the tool table properly.

My issue is that on my little benchtop machine I use different tools and my speeds/feeds are totally different from the defaults. What I would like to do is to blow the whole thing away and put a new one together from scratch.

I know how to add tools through the main dialog box I get to from the CAM tree, but this is slow and it seems like I have to do things more than once sometimes to get the changes to "stick." It is also slow as the devil. Are there any other ways to do this?

You can setup tools in the database that have their own speeds and feeds.

Every time you use a system tool and it's a size that isn't in the database a new tool it created.

If you are using system or manual tools, speeds and feeds are created by the material you are using. Or you can override

What I would do is setup tools in the database, ( it's not like you are using 100's of tools )

Put in the feeds and speed to go with those tools, so when you call a tool the default is what you set it to.

And go from there.

I'm having a lot of trouble with the tool library. If I let the system generate the tools for me, the tool numbers are always different than what I need. I probably screwed up, but i went in and deleted all the tools and tried to add my own, but it doesn't save my numbers and it doesn't calculate any of the speeds and feeds.

I'm trying to figure it out, having a good tool library would take out a lot of my mistakes right now. It seems that most of my problems are coming from errors in tool settings.

Can anyone share how they build and control their tool library?

Lynn,
I always use the system tool selection when picking tools. You can change the tool number of the system generated tools by just right clicking on the milling tools and choosing the verify tool assignment, then unclick automatic tool numbering, then just pick the tool number you want to change, enter the new number in the box and then click on the next tool to change.

I think I've had the same problems (or similar) to what Lynn is describing.

What I want to do is blow away the tools in the library completely, and enter all my own tools from scratch. Right now, it seems like sometimes it "remembers" system tools which I thought I deleted.

For instance, it likes to select the 1/2" endmill as the primary roughing tool, but I deleted that because I use a small machine which the 1/2" is too large for. Also, all the speeds and feeds are way too high for my machine.

Our machine is large enough. I'm not sure it has ever given me a tool that wouldn't work, but it is common that it asks for a tool that I don't have at the time. Our budgets are cut to the bone right now. I just need to be able to dictate the tool selection so that I can work with what we have.

Thanks mmc, I'll see what I can do with your suggestions. Hopefully I can work something out. I really need a good tool library.