Hello All,
I am a product designer for a company that designs packaging foam inserts which we currently outsource for manufacturing. I am new to the world of machining, and have been tasked with sourcing a CNC mill to bring that aspect of our production in house. I have been doing a lot of homework recently, and wanted to post here to make sure I am not overlooking anything.
We currently use Solidworks for all of our designs, so I am looking for a CAM package that integrates directly with Solidworks. It is basically between two solutions now, Mastercam for Solidworks or SolidCAM. The machine I have in mind is the Haas VF-3YT.
[Why not look at VisualMill for Solidworks? It's a CAM module that plugs into the Solidworks workspace, and has 3 different levels of complexity, depending on what you need.You might find it both easier to use and less expensive than your alternatives.]
My questions are:
How much training is going to be required for a person with no machining experience to run this machine? Is it as simple as loading the output from whichever CAM software and pressing "Go"?
[No, it's a bit more involved than that, unfortunately. There's a lot that goes into CAM programming, and to run the machine requires a trained operator.]
Where can I find the tools required?
[There are lots of different tools available, depending on what specific tasks you need to accomplish. You could start by looking in the Links section of my site:
301 Moved Permanently ]
What kind of maintenance is required on a machine such as this?
[Regular service by trained CNC mechanics. Also, your operators have to keep it cleaned and lubricated.]
Any suggestions for milling polyethylene foam?
Thank you in advance for reading/responding.