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MEW 186, Best ever issue

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John Stevenson20/01/2012 13:23:36
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5068 forum posts
3 photos
Yes David, no code in the mag unless it's a snippet for learning or like an article of doing some code using just a drawing.
 
Certainly no pages and pages of code.
 
Go to the link I posted and download the Winter 2006 file called Friestad
 
This is all the code needed to make the nested block, however you can work your way thru it but reading the article is advised.
 
If Roland hadn't been so good in commenting the code it would have tied up better to the article as it stands it's one of the best examples of talking anyone thru G Code.
 
It's a nice mag, pity we didn't lead on this before the cousins.
 
John S.
Bazyle20/01/2012 13:29:35
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6956 forum posts
229 photos
The success of MEW as well as ME shows the community is as interested in making machines as in making models. However operating them is not a popular subject. Would ME print "I drove my Loco round the track and put a big lump of coal on the fire and a little lump and a square lump....".
Gcode is the equivalent of that or "chuck a piece of brass and drill 1/8 then open out to 1/4" which is not that exciting to read and pointless if the drawing is clear. What makes LBSC's and some other author's articles so good is the bits of advice that are not obvious on the drawing and the snippets of remenicenses from their life.
mgnbuk20/01/2012 13:37:56
1394 forum posts
103 photos
G17
M3 S1000
G0 X-9.2669 Y5.8091
G0 Z0.18
G1 F100.0 Z0.0
G3 F150.0 X-6.7691 Y3.7682 Z-0.0031 I1.4063 J-0.8278

Martin,

How was this created - CAM program ? No tool call, no tool radius compensation suggests so, but Z moves incorporated in G3 moves (with no K value?) suggests a helical move ?

In my case I am to old to learn to use.
 
Dick,
 
May be to old to want to learn, maybe ? I can understand some of your positioning regarding using manual machines, the challenges that using them pose and the satisfaction gained doing so., but I am pretty sure that you could learn more modern methods if you had a reason (or desire) to do so. In nearly 30 years of teaching machinists to use CNC controls, I have not come across any (regardless of age) who could not get tp grips with it in the 2 or 3 days allocated - even the ones who were anti or belittled their capabilities at the start of proceedings Doesn't mean to say that you should change doing things how you do them for the sake of it, though !
 
I was suprised to get issue 186 though the door this week, as I cancelled my subscription at issue 184. More involved articles on CNC would possibly make me want to subscribe again. The "half way house" solution to part automate a lathe appears (to me) to be a solution looking for a problem - reminisant of an all-but-useless Harrison Alpha lathe we mistakenly bought at work. All the "diasdvantages" of a manual lathe & few of the "advantages" of a full-blown CNC solution.
 
£0.02
 
Nigel B.
Another JohnS20/01/2012 14:01:44
842 forum posts
56 photos
Stub Mandrel wrote:
 
The problem with CNC is that the real challenges are how to solve machining difficult parts, but the articles coming though area mostly about 'this is my gear'.
 
Absolutely agree.
 
I'm very technically literate, computer wise; Enjoy using my hands to make things; enjoy using my mind to create things; putting two+two together (cnc machining) is magic.
 
Nothing wrong with progressing; after all, how many of us still use carbon steel tooling, lathes without dials, (or even chucks), and how many of us mill/drill on the lathe?
 
Another JohnS.
 
 
blowlamp20/01/2012 14:14:39
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1885 forum posts
111 photos
Posted by Nigel Barraclough on 20/01/2012 13:37:56:
G17
M3 S1000
G0 X-9.2669 Y5.8091
G0 Z0.18
G1 F100.0 Z0.0
G3 F150.0 X-6.7691 Y3.7682 Z-0.0031 I1.4063 J-0.8278

Martin,

How was this created - CAM program ? No tool call, no tool radius compensation suggests so, but Z moves incorporated in G3 moves (with no K value?) suggests a helical move ?

 
 
Hi Nigel.
 
Yes, it was created with a CAM program
I just copied & pasted bit of Mach3 G-code from near the top of the file, but left out most of the initialisation codes.
 
The G3 helical move is a lead-in move to let the cutter slowly sink into the workpiece to save it from the shock of a straight plunge.
 
Martin.
 
 
Sample from the start of a different file.
 
( Made using CamBam - http://www.cambam.co.uk )
( oval 8/5/2011 7:23:10 PM )
( T10 : 30.0 )
( CUTVIEWER )
( FROM/0,0,5 )
( Select dummy tool to avoid warnings )
( TOOL/MILL,1,0,20.0,0 )
( STOCK/BLOCK,,,,,, )
G21 G90 G91.1 G64 G40
G0 Z3.0
( T10 : 30.0 )
( Tool Taper coming soon )
( TOOL/MILL,30.0,0.0,0.0,0 )
T10 M6
( Profile2 )
G17
M3 S2000
G0 X-59.8472 Y19.2799
G0 Z-14.4
G1 F100.0 Z-14.5
G3 F150.0 X-60.9424 Y18.8079 Z-14.5834 I49.9439 J-117.3959
G3 X-61.4901 Y18.5652 Z-14.6253 I41.1812 J-93.6697
G1 X-62.0854 Y18.2956 Z-14.671
G1 X-62.4621 Y18.1216 Z-14.7
G3 X-74.0 Y0.0 I8.4621 J-18.1216
G3 X-62.4436 Y-18.1302 I20.0 J0.0
G2 X-62.4033 Y-18.1491 I-6.3327 J-13.5977
 
 
 
 
Tony Jeffree20/01/2012 14:45:46
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569 forum posts
20 photos
Posted by Ray Lyons on 18/01/2012 18:41:52:
I remember some time ago, Tony Jeffree wrote in these pages that there is no need to learn G-Code. He said that using a CAD programme the drawing can be transferred to the computer for cutting.
 
I believe he was preparing an article on this for MEW which would be great for many of us trying to understand the system and could be a better way of introducing CNC
 
Ray -
 
I did indeed write that, and it is absolutely true. I have been using (and building) CNC machines for more than a decade now, and I have yet to find a problem that requires me to learn G-code, so I haven't bothered to do so. Not that learning it would be a problem for me - I started my working life as a computer programmer, and in any case, G-code is a trivial language for anyone to learn. It just isn't necessary for the vast majority of things that you might want to do with a CNC machine, assuming that you have the right software to start with.
 
On my two CNC mills, I run Desk CNC; this takes CAD files as input and generates the right G-code as output, so I never need to write or even look at the G-code. On my CNC-converted ML-7 I run Mach 3, which has a number of "wizards" that allow you to fill in boxes on the screen to define the usual turning operations (threading, plain turning, tapers, facing...) and again, Mach 3 generates the necessary G-code for me. I also use the ELS and Puttnam lathe controllers with the lathe (as seen in my article in #186) and those devices don't even understand G-code - you set up the operations from the keypad, a bit like (and no harder than) a pocket calculator.
 
I was indeed planning to write something about all of this, but as Martin (Blowlamp) seems to have got there first I will be holding off on that until I see what his article covers. The other aspect(s) of CNC that might usefully be covered are an overall introduction to CNC so that readers will have a better understanding of what the components of a CNC system are and how it all fits together. Sort of a dummies guide to CNC, which would help would-be purchasers and/or builders of CNC systems to understand what they need to buy/do. I have made a start on writing something along those lines but it may take a while!
 
Regards,
Tony
Stub Mandrel20/01/2012 21:13:34
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4318 forum posts
291 photos
1 articles
Perhaps the answer is simple -
 
Allow site users to share files other than jpegs, and announce that you don't want to put code in the magazine, but if anyone is willing to share their code online to accompany an article, they can do so here.
 
Either it will work or it won't.
 
I for one don't have any CNC files but if I had a place to share them I would probably crteate a few simple utilities in BBC BASIC or as excel spreadsheets that I would happily share here.
 
For example, i a few folk have asked me for advice on bevel gears- I could describe my method in an article, and put a calculator spreadsheet up on the website to go with it.
 
Neil
David Clark 120/01/2012 21:20:27
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3357 forum posts
112 photos
10 articles
Hi There
Moderators can upload files, not sure how to do it but it has been done.
regards David
 
Tony Jeffree21/01/2012 11:20:57
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569 forum posts
20 photos
Posted by Stub Mandrel on 20/01/2012 21:13:34:
Perhaps the answer is simple -
 
Allow site users to share files other than jpegs, and announce that you don't want to put code in the magazine, but if anyone is willing to share their code online to accompany an article, they can do so here.
 
Either it will work or it won't.
 
I for one don't have any CNC files but if I had a place to share them I would probably crteate a few simple utilities in BBC BASIC or as excel spreadsheets that I would happily share here.
 
For example, i a few folk have asked me for advice on bevel gears- I could describe my method in an article, and put a calculator spreadsheet up on the website to go with it.
 
Neil
 
I agree.

There's absolutely no point in putting G-code in the magazine unless it is part of an article describing how to code in G-code, in which case it would only be short fragments to give examples. Apart from anything else, the thought of typing in a G-code program, and then fixing the numerous transcription errors that you would inevitably make, is too horrific to contemplate. So publishing G-code programs on paper is a complete waste of magazine space and the reader's time. The only thing that makes any sense is to make programs available on-line somehow, or maybe for the author to offer to email the files to interested readers (I have done that in the past for MACH config files and for the code files for my rev counter, for example).
 
Regards
Tony
blowlamp21/01/2012 12:52:44
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1885 forum posts
111 photos
Another problem that I don't recall has been mentioned is that G-codes can be machine specific, so whatever is printed in the magazine will probably only work with the target controller for which it has been produced.
 
That's to say G-code intended for use with Mach3 might not work with (say) TurboCNC, because they speak a slightly different dialect and so from that point of view it's pointless to print it.
 
Give us a space on the website where we can upload files that we are willing to share for free - we can already do it with photo's and would cost almost nothing to implement, but would be a huge benefit to the site.
 
Martin.

Edited By blowlamp on 21/01/2012 12:53:51

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