How do you guys organize your tools across machines?

[CuttingEdgeManufacturing]

Hey guys,

ive got a long runtime and was thinking about organzing or standardizing how i organize tools.

the problem is i have machines with different numbers of tools to hold.

our new haas vf2ssyt hold 30+1 while we have 2 milltronics that hold 20+1 and an old haas that holds 10.

my problem is that on the milltronics we use tool 12 as a 1/2" endmill. but on the new haas i have enough tooling to have a 3 and 4 flute 1/2" so 12-13. for instance. but on the old haas my 1/2" endmills tool 4.

does anyone have any really good way to approach this kind of problem? mainly we have some production jobs now and id like to minimize setup times. but we switch between machines based on workloads.

thanks for any insight and advice!

[seth.madore]

I've always questioned this approach and wondered if it actually resulted in time savings. Almost all the work I do is in stainless, so as such, all my tooling is typically spent by the time the job is complete. So, I don't bother with static tooling assignments.

Curious if anyone has anything to offer..

[M&GToolWorks]

It really depends on your machines, your shop and your CAM capabilities. 

First big shop I worked in had standardized tools for all of the tool room. If you were running a machine and saw a 1280 in the tool list, you knew it was a 1/8" .02" cr hardmill (probably not correct anymore!). 

The next shop I worked at hired me to set up their machine and their CAM up and running. I built a 400 tool library along with a spreadsheet and speeds and feeds and tooling. The Doosan they had purchased was limited to 400 offsets. Solidworks was fantastic for building a tool library like this. Tool 263 was a 1/2" endmill if I remember right, but we might run it in 1018 one job, A2 the next job, etc. So the library was built by materials adjusting speeds and feeds accordingly. 

When I went to work for myself I had a dilapidated old POS mill, and I never really bothered making a tool list or anything. When I bought my Brother, I started to, but then found out that building a tool library in Fusion is a PAIN in the you know what. That coupled with my Brother only allowing 99 offsets, I never got very far. 

If I were in your shoes, I would take a look at the machines capabilities. How many offsets are available? 

Do you want to move tools and tooling between machines, or just have a standard for the tools (cutters)? 

For my Brother, I have a pretty standard set of tooling, items I use constantly, that stay put. 

3 - 1/4" rougher

4 - 3/8" rougher

5 - 1/2" rougher

Finishers vary, but usually they are 6-8

9 is a chamfer tool

11 (T99) is my probe

14 & 15 are face mills

20 is a 13/32 carbide I use all the time for popping holes in parts for my 3/8" rougher

[CuttingEdgeManufacturing]

i have never used offsets like you describe. ive always used tool 2 is offset 2. your saying you would basically just assign offsets to a tool, then program it for any tool number and give it the correct corresponding offset?

[rhdfmail]

As said above, depending on control/machine you might be able to have all your tools in one (or more) libraries in fusion and then have the corresponing toolnumbers in the machine.
So when you post a program with tool 2580 the machine have the right length-offset etc 

On our 5-axis we have room for ~30000 tools in the tooltable. But only 30 tools in the magazine. 
Wen we set up a new job we only have to edit the pocket-table and load the right tools.

Tools that we dont have rigged in holders has a tool-number in Fusion, and also in the machine. 
We then just check the stickout (body length) in Fusion, put it in a holder and re-measure that tool. 

[vworpi]

I standardise our tools across our machines as much as possible. For example, T27 is always a 6x90  carbide chamfer, T7 is always an aluminium facemill, T32  is always a 13 carbide drill.

There's usually a cluster of tools which are very common for our work, so it makes sense to leave one in all the machines and cut down on setup times. When programming, it speeds things up as I'm selecting tools from an already available kit.

When I need to deviate from my standard tool numbers, I try to build a new tool number kit for a group of parts. That way we're again re-using existing tools instead of moving (proven) tools in the magazine or re-numbering tools in the program.

I Fusion I just organise these tool kits into seperate lists, eg MC1 - Standard, MC1 - Ally, MC1 - Stainless, etc

It would be much tidier if Fusion allowed subfolders in the tool library.