Originally Posted by
fizzissist
Oh boy. This sounds like a classic case of masochism....
If you don't have manuals, get 'em. They're lousy IMHO, but necessary if you're ever to get a clue as to how to fly these things.
I'd also recommend spending the money to send someone to Mazaschool for a training session. It ain't cheap, but it's money well spent...and maybe some machinery damage saved, along with a whole lotta frustration.
Couldn't agree more with the above. I started this, my first machine shop job, back in July and graduated school last Dec. We never touched on conversational in school, strictly hand coding then later getting to use cam/cad for the mills. My first day here I found out the experianced machinist I was to learn from had left for another position, leaving little ol me the only machinist here. A call to Mazak let me home the machine out and I was able to check my offsets etc to continue running the parts remaining with the active program.
The verbage in the manuals isn't the best but they did teach me enough to be dangerous. Like an OD threading crash just after starting. A combination of unclear verbage and a bad program I checked myself with from the previous guy that he must have forgotten to delete. I have learned a lot about how to use the machine and it's features from the manuals but... I don't know what they charge for training but it couldn't be more than this invoice I'm looking at that I keep over my computer. Der diem, travel time, mileage, overnight stay at a motel, ungodly hourly rate and a few dollars in parts overnighted from Mazak.
Thinking back over the time I spent banging my head over a program that wouldn't check out when it turned out that the controller just wanted me to reverse the order I defined the shapes in, the opposite of how I'd have cut the part usually, it would have well paid for itself to send me for training. Now it would still be benificial even if I can be productive with the machine.
Look into either training, and send someone with sense enough to ask questions or opt for the board that allows G-coding ($4000.00 installed was the qoute we recieved for our 640T).
My .02
Scott
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
Mark Twain