Need Help!- Digitizing a head port

[H0gie]

we have a fadal and we can't use the 5th axis because we don't think we have enough z travel to substain to put a head on the trunion. therefore we were just goin to get a 4th axis and work from there. but like you said it should be done from a 5 axis. and ill find out from our mastercam dealer for that post to drive the probe.
again thx for the inputs

[carbidecraters]

Yes I saw that you guys do porsche heads but I doubt you could do a V8 head in that kind of configuration. 5 axis on a Fadal would work fine but you would need to have a extended Z axis to make it work. 4 axis machining could do alot of the work but you may need a couple of tools. Heck it may do all the work since most of the 5 axis guys are running on the first 45% of the ball so you may have one on them with more machinist experience.

[DRD]

There are plenty of guys using a Haas trunion on v8 heads and all kinds of heads. The trunion comes in a few sizes.
Go take look on this web page and video, he is machining heads on a fadal smaller than my machine, with no z extened. You need to plan out your project very well. I did 3 years of research before I made a move.



http://www.proheads.com/services.html

[carbidecraters]

DRD is that an actual Haas trunnion on that Fadal? That looks like a early 1989-1991 Fadal 3016! Wow with no extended Z axis. It looks like they are getting 30 degrees out of that setup....thats impressive!!! I am going to call them tomorrow to find out some details. Got any more links to Fadal's porting?

[DRD]

The fixture was made custom made by west coast. The bottom line is, there are alot of ways to port theses heads, get creative and lay down a game plan. If you have master cam and a machine, your half way there.

[b5n7i2o5]

I came across your post about cnc machining head ports. I am doing the same and building all my own fixtures and setups while using Renishaw probe and mach3. What I wanted to say was that DRD is right on, get creative think outside the box. Like DRD said if you have MCAM and a probe you are halfway there. Don't get caught up with people telling you how difficult it will be. It will take sometime though to make all the componets. Use google images to search for cnc porting and look at videos on youtube. Pay attention to there fixtures most are deck mounted and aligned off the heads dowels pins. My is going to double as my quick set flow bench slider for testing heads on my flowbench. Good luck

[H0gie]

Originally Posted by DRD I am using A 2008 haas vf3 with a 2 axis trunion table. We probe ports, chambers ect in 5 axis mode, using master cam to drive the probe . I had a custom post that was writting for my application by my mastercam dealer. We can probe a port in 20 minutes, pull the data into mastercam, tweak the data, and lay down a tool path pretty easy, and cut away. The finish on my ports are perfect, and I can push the machine as fast as the cutter can handle it. I will say this, get a 5 axis trunion table on your machine, haas makes them. I have some friends, with rotarys stacked on a rotary and so on, and they don't work correctly. The only way to CNC port heads the right way, is on a 5 axis machine, and to probing on the machine is a big plus also. You probe on the machine you cut on. There are a few companies doing this now. Talk to your mastercam dealer about them getting you a post that drives 5 axis, and will drive a probe, G31 protected moves.. The post will not be free, they will charge you for it. They have post that will drive a probe. Good luck.

we probably is going to get the reneshaw probe but will mastercams post to drive the probe give us the layout of the port (will the post they have will digitize the port for us?), im asking this because there is no software to drive the reneshaw probe

[b5n7i2o5]

What you are asking about is a program to map out your digitizing grid and which direction it will take points with G31, am I right? Like H0gie said contact the mastercam rep and see if they have solutions already made up for this I would be very surprised if they didn't. You could also write your code by hand depending how tedious it will be to get all the critical areas. Also many people think they need alot of resolution when they don't so don't waste time taking more points than practical, spend the time to get the data in the right areas. Also the post won't layout the port for you. A post is something that decodes or formats data from machine to machine so that they will both develop the same results. What H0gie is referring to is a addon to Mcam that will create a digitizing grid or strategy where you define the size depth shape and which axises (direction of travel) it will do G31 protected moves/data collection. This then will be spat out as g code from Mcam using the post for you machine and it will also save the protected trips from the probe as data points in a separate file with x,y,z spatial data as the machine runs. This is what I think H0gie was saying. Also you can bet this has already been developed in some CAD/CAM programs the big question is how much will it cost and who has done it because I know its not standard issue stuff. They want you to pay extra for that stuff.
Good luck

[H0gie]

Yes i think thats what im saying ^ lol, but i did contact Mcam, they said we need a software or something im not sure, but wut i think b5n7i2o5 was sayin is what i need, im not sure at all thats why we are needing guidance and save mone by not wasting it. MCam said that we can write a program but iono nothing bouts that, i think we need a software for the probe nest the data??? im not sure thanks guys

[DRD]

Master cam can generate a gcode to drive the probe and record the data, I am doing it now with a custom post written by master cam.
The software and post will cost you over 20k, so be ready to pay.

[b5n7i2o5]

H0gie by nesting data do you mean the collection of ponts with G31 at the control? If so the control should have provision for saving the data as a file if it is capable of G31 probing moves, it may also have a serial port it spits the data out onto another computer that reads it with a terminal program. I am just guessing here you will need to contact the control maker and find out. Also if you do just chevy heads you can write the probe movement program that will fit many similar heads for the chevy like most standard 23 degree stuff, whether they are afr, dart ,canfield, etc. The probing routine can be quite adaptable because it just moves till it is tripped. You work with a small inner profile and work outwards from there. So you wouldn't possibly have to do a new layout for every 23 degree head. Anyway thats what I am doing for my setup.

[cadcam]

DRD, your site seems to be down.
as for the Haas doing V8 I have a customer that all they do is heads acutlly a few customer and the first shop use mostly Haas for there porting and of course MC.
There are some really good 5axis posts for porting out here as one are office does for the Mastercam dragster.