Newbie- HELP ON FOURTH AXIS

[noshoesnoshirt]

Hello every body i have been programming with mcx for about two years but never had to program a fourth axis and my boss just bought one and i have to figure out howto program so we can machine three or four sides at a time can anyone please helpme to get started, any tips and advises are greatly appreciated, we are planning to build a tombstone so if you have any experience or you can send me to the right direction thank you all again.

[Superman]

What machine do you have ? (make)
Horiz. or Vert ?
What axis is it around ? X or Y
What version of Mastercam ?
Post is modified from what generic post ?

Normally:
Vertical is around the X and the rotary axis is A
Horizontal is around the Y and the rotary axis is B
There are some exceptions

Is it a positioning (indexing only, say 5° or 1° increment ) or full feed machining rotary ( 0.0001° increments )

Your post must have this axis added into it, so you have functionality
your reseller should be able to modify the post quickly enough for you

[charger19690]

As superman said you have to set up your Machine Definition with a 4th Axis and you have to have a post (.pst) that will handle it.

If you are going to do Index programming, I would really recommend getting used to or using the WCS Manager. I use it everyday for our Horizontals.

Mastercam's website has a little Tutorial about it. It is originally for V9, but works mostly the same for the X family.

http://www.mastercam.com/Support/Documentation/Files/WCS-ViewMgrTutorial.zip


Mike in MN

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