Cleared for takeoff: Drilling Performance

According to David Gale, the former IT manager and current manufacturing manager, “Troy said this machine is coming, here’s what I want you to make, figure it out.” Jared Spencer, the pilot, was responsible for learning Mastercam to produce toolpaths.

Spencer’s familiarity with CAD/CAM was restricted to some architectural CAD study in high school. However, the discipline and focus a pilot requires helped prepare him for programming a CNC machine. “Both are tremendously challenging,” he said. “A lot of thought processes go into them.”

Spencer received help from Josh Sinykin, who represents Mastercam reseller Remote Machine, Sandy, Utah. Sinykin noted that he frequently works with business startups and is used to dealing with inexperienced programmers. “When we have customers who are inexperienced or even an experienced machinist who gets a new, more capable machine, we go in and help them make sure their code is good and show them how to set up and program their first part.”

The major portion of Spencer’s CAM education came via CNC Software’s online Mastercam University. The video training program offers courses covering programming basics, toolpaths and machining principles. The classes are available 24/7, allowing users to learn at their own pace and at their own locations.

The online training fit Spencer’s approach to learning. “I’m a hands-on kind of guy,” he said. “I would watch and listen to what the instructor said. If I didn’t get the point, I would rewind it and listen again. I didn’t have to feel like I was stopping the class and frustrating people who were picking it up faster than me. I could listen to it 10 times if I needed to.” The classes are application-oriented, Spencer said, noting that each instructor “shows you on the video the exact thing you are going to see in the software.”

With the training, Spencer learned to program toolpaths, import solid models and STL files, work in surfaces and perform various operations, such as engraving. Sinykin pointed out that many colleges employ the online program to enable students to gain Mastercam programming certification as they earn their 4-year degrees.

In October 2010, Spencer accepted responsibility for programming the reamer. November and December were consumed with getting the new multitask machine up and running, and the shop produced a part for customer approval in January 2011. The customer’s satisfaction with the reamer SDP produced immediately resulted in contracts for further work.

Just as there are different flight paths to a selected destination, Spencer found that CAM programming offers many ways to accomplish a given task. He said: “Josh showed his way of doing certain things. The instructor on the Mastercam video had some different approaches that made programming even faster. We also have a manufacturing process consultant on staff, and he has been showing me other ways to speed up and improve my programming. Everybody has their own way to get from point A to point B.”