Basic-basic stuff. Haas Mini-Mill + HSMworks = Don't Crash?

Took a new job this summer, and have now got sole access to a Haas TM1, a Minimill, and a HL-1 lathe.

The lathe and TM-1 are both old controllers and the lathe is not under power.

I am in the process of cleaning up the MiniMill, as when I powered it up, the spindle warmup program hadn't been run in 494 days...and the coolant tank is really, really bad.

Anyway, I use Solidworks and HSMworks2016, and now need to get it to output good code to run the Minimill with. Since it's not my machine, and I do not have formal training on this machine or toolchain, I wanted to run it past you gentlemen first-as I need to learn more about HSMworks than I already know.

First off-Setting up the Haas and getting tools setup is not a problem. I do need to make sure the tools in the machine match the tools in HSMworks.

Second-Need to practice setting up tools in HSMworks.

Third-Sometimes HSMworks does silly things that I want to change. For example, when using a 2d pocket operation, the program cuts air above the pocket first, then goes back and starts the actual pocket operation. It's as if it's trying to pocket through the material that was faced off prior to the pocket operation being called.

Anyone have any tips for 2 and 3?

Setting up a tool, you want to open the tools tab either from the operation first tab or from the CAM add-on tab.

Make a new library and name it appropriately for you, then you can start adding tools. It's pretty self explanatory at that point.

I'm working mostly with HSMXpress which has the same 2D ops as HSMWorks, the air thing is an issue I haven't solved easily either. It doesn't recognize the prior material removed by other ops.

Any suggestions would be great for me too.

Just as a workaround, you can set the starting height for the operations in the fourth tab iirc. You can set it as height above the model and then put a negative value equal to the prior cut, plus the actual margin you want to leave.

Oh, it occurs to me that your origin might be to blame. Make sure that your z-zero in the CAM origin and the machine are the same. For instance, if you base the Z-Zero off the top of the vice/workholding, then make sure that in Solidworks you set the CAM origin the same. You can make a coordinate system feature, or you can do it in one of the mini tabs the CAM will generate once you make a Job.

For the router at work I always set the z-zero reference to the top of the stock, rather than the spoiler board we use for fixturing. In the VMC we always set the z-zero to the top of the vice or in the air above it a few thousandths. You can see in the attached image where I put the origin for this part for the router table.

EDIT: You can also set the origin to use in the Job settings, the far right of those three mini-tabs for CAM.

EDIT2: If you are on the MiniMill, the SOP I've always been taught is to center by center of area of the stock, not a corner like I do for the router. Since I'm cutting 2d parts on the router, I'm just concerned with located the part or part pattern, not the overall volume of material.

Thanks Strawberry.

I'm going to start with Mark T's instruction on the TOD videos, and I just got informed that there's no way in hell we'll ever be allowed to use HSMworks or Fusion at the school anymore, now that it's a subscription service. We are not allowed any kind of recurring payment or any kind of service fee anymore, the state even rejected us getting rags washed at the local laundromat. We have to obtain a washing machine and we're not allowed to buy that either...

I'll still be using it at home, but I have to figure out what kind of CAM software we can afford now that isn't subscription/cloud services based. Oh, and it has to run on a Chromebook...the school will no longer be allowed to use any other computer.

Looks like my CNC classes are gonna get cancelled next year.