Part Machining Creativity Comes From Flexible Equipment and Software

Matt Alley’s job shop (Absolute Precision in Morrisville, VT) usually averages only 10 production parts per order, but he believes in creativity, learning during the job, and always trying new ways to do things. By adding a five-axis machining center and software to handle unique work, they have been able to produce parts from wood mandolin tops to parts for nuclear reactors, along with cutting ceramic or titanium ones. In fact, Alley’s shop is one that other job shops go to when they can’t cut it.

The Challenge

Matt Alley experienced problems translating complex part designs into toolpaths, especially for 5-axis work. The DMG 70 machining center they use has a CNC control system that doesn’t have the ability to program 5-axis parts, so another way to program had to be found.

The Solution

Mastercam CAD/CAM gave Absolute Precision the flexibility and speed to be creative with both its milling and turning parts operations.

Benefits

• Enabled Absolute Precision to program their non-orthogonal 5-axis machine.

• Mastercam allows total control of the tool that other CAM software doesn’t offer.

• Mastercam offers tool holder and shank avoidance programming.

• Mastercam’s Special Tools feature offers user defined tools.

• Mastercam’s Solid Drill detects holes. “You click a button on the program and it finds every hole, its angle, and orientation,” remarks Alley.

• Mastercam’s surfacing features allow you to use a ball end mill going at a constant Z level to finish off a flat area.

• The Operations Manager feature in Mastercam allows you to move operations in a matter of seconds

• A stock recognition feature in Mastercam Lathe helps with faster machining.

Project Details

Started by Alley’s father in 1967 as Research Engineering, Alley acquired the shop from him in 2002 when he wanted to retire and changed the name. The company does all types of machining from semiconductor work to automotive and agricultural parts. They’ve also built components from wood for mandolins and cut ceramic parts using carbide tooling. They have even machined exotic non-melting plastics for the nuclear industry.

Most of the work is either low production or prototypes. Alley remarks, “Our main customers are other machine shops. There is good and bad to that. The good is it’s usually fun. The bad is that it’s usually a hard, challenging part with extreme tolerances that the other shops can’t or won’t do.”

Alley notes, “One customer, which another company referred me to, sent me a part. It had to be made from solid round 3-3/8” steel stock. It’s a prismatic shape, and it looks as if it’s cast or forged. So, I went through the bidding process with them. Basically they said, ‘I don’t think you can do it.’ So I said, ‘OK.’ I had already taken in their part through an IGES file. I scaled it down to one-fifth of the size, machined it out of a material called butterboard, which is a proofing material, and sent it to them. When they received the part, they were surprised at its precision. The manager still has it on his desk, and we got the job.”

Absolute Precision works with tolerances in the two to four ten thousands range on many of their parts. For turned parts, they try to stay within a 10” diameter. On milled parts, they work with parts that fit within a 24” cylinder or cube. For materials, Alley says the more exotic, the better. He’s willing to try anything. They work with 316 stainless, Nitronic stainless 654 SMO, titanium, aluminum, ceramics, and even Vespel and Maycor plastics.

“We do a lot of architectural parts too for people who have a lot of disposable income, which is a lot of fun,” says Alley. “We produced inlaid stair treads from silicon bronze metal, and the risers had to be bronze to match. It cost about $1,000 per tread for the risers. The client was very fussy. They would not accept the part if you could even squeeze a business card in between the riser and tread. And it couldn’t be glued in either. They were pressed in. So the challenge for us was how do you hold a frame and mill it from raw stock to get the final dimensions without distorting it while it’s being held?”

Their equipment includes a DMG 70 evolution simultaneous 5-axis machining center, a DMG 3-axis machine, a 2-axis conventional turning center, and a 6-axis Swiss machine.

When Alley first started using his 5-axis machining center, he had a different CAD/CAM program. But he says he didn’t realize there were three months of prerequisite classes needed to use the software. Also the update cost was $368 per month. Their programmer, Josh Welles, talked to Alley about using Mastercam.
Alley says, “I’ve always worked with solids, usually the Parasolid kernel, instead of the ACIS, and I told him I’d be happy to look at Mastercam.

After the switch to Mastercam, it has made a huge difference in what Absolute Precision is able to do with its equipment, taking on the unique and difficult jobs. Alley sums it up by saying, “When we stop learning and get to a point where we think this is old hat, I’m in the wrong business. I’ll close the doors, and start something else. But while we’re constantly learning, and we all have a thirst for it, that’s the great thing. Not everybody is like that. It’s been hard to find, but when you do, you just see eyes twinkle, people getting really excited about it. To me, that’s what work is all about.”