Help - Problems with Z coordinates in g code

[Socalsurferx]

Hello-
Our small company just recently purchased a new Haas TM-2 mill. We are all fairly new to the CNC machining area and need some help. We are trying to mill out a female die pattern out of a block of PVC Plastic that will then be cast into a different metal. The pattern is basically an open ended channel with some curve and shape to it. We designed the part in Solidworks and saved it as an IGS file and opened it in Mastercam X. No problems there, made the tool path and sent it to the post processor. One issue we had at first was the H and the T values didnt match up. Dont know how to change this in the program so I did it manually. The biggest problem is that we clamped the plastic down,went through the proper set-up procedures on the machine and start the machine and it wants to cut 6 inches or so above where it should be. I looked at the G code after and sure enough the line after the G54 line says Z6.018 which is the height of our stock in the program. the z should be clost to 0 or something i believe then slowly become more negative. the stock was not set up in Mastercam, the whole thing was drawn in Solidworks. Any ideas?

[WayneHill]

Look on the bright side. The tool went 6" too high

Sounds like a machine plane offset in MasterCam is off.

The MasterCam guru's here can help you.

[Linchpin]

If the entire program ran at 6.018 above the part, just make a -6.018 Z offset in G54.

[2_jammer]

Without looking at your program, I'd guess that maybe your tool length offset is set to 6.000. There should be a line in the program that says G43 Zx.xxx. What is the 'Z' value? I run my programs at a value of Z .100, which would be .100" above the surface of which you touch your tool off. I hope this helps. Shane.

[Ozemale6t9]

Sounds to me like you have set the stock to 6.018" thick in Solidworks, which has transferred across into Mastercam. When you have set your job up, Z Zero and toll offsets were set from top of job, rather than machine table as defined in Solidworks.

Simplest fix would be to set the top of the job as zero in Mastercam.

Of course, this is assuming that you have set your offsets correctly.

Regards, Oz