Re: More progress
Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 8:37 pm
Quote: "I'm not in sympathy with CAD, CAM, and CNC."
I can't imagine going back to manual machining after working with CNC tackle for last 25 years. None of my mills have handwheels on them, I can jog to surface parts, jog to teach the machine simple routines for basic parts. And of course, CNC will do pathing that is simply impossible on a manual mill i.e. countours and 3D surfacing, 4th axis etc. I used to walk the manual mill around radius and shapes and then file it in , rotary table with all sorts of scary fixtures, no, that is not where I'd want to go back to.
The first CNC machine I ran was a Browne and Sharpe Hydrocut tape reader. There was no CAD or CAM that could be used, it was all manual programming, and it could take a day or better to program a part with editing etc. I can draw and program in a few minutes now, G-codes with 2-300,000 lines/commands. I show people that think it's slow, I can type their name out in CAD, program an engraving path G-code and have it running on the machine in less than a minute.
For making a simple flat bracket. I draw it code it, throw a piece of stock in the mill, drill the holes, run the 2D perimeter multi-pass on Z and leave a few thousandths on the last cut. While it's machining, I can go and do something else, come back when it's done, pop it out of the drop and use it.
The lathe on the other hand, I have both manual and CNC lathes, for big one off parts, a manual lathe is fine. Lathe work is mostly 2D linear moves and rarely interpolated, If i have something that requires an angular cut or radius, then I use the CNC lathe, and of course production lathe parts too on CNC.
You'd like it if you had it and were trained on it, opens up whole new worlds.
-Ron
I can't imagine going back to manual machining after working with CNC tackle for last 25 years. None of my mills have handwheels on them, I can jog to surface parts, jog to teach the machine simple routines for basic parts. And of course, CNC will do pathing that is simply impossible on a manual mill i.e. countours and 3D surfacing, 4th axis etc. I used to walk the manual mill around radius and shapes and then file it in , rotary table with all sorts of scary fixtures, no, that is not where I'd want to go back to.
The first CNC machine I ran was a Browne and Sharpe Hydrocut tape reader. There was no CAD or CAM that could be used, it was all manual programming, and it could take a day or better to program a part with editing etc. I can draw and program in a few minutes now, G-codes with 2-300,000 lines/commands. I show people that think it's slow, I can type their name out in CAD, program an engraving path G-code and have it running on the machine in less than a minute.
For making a simple flat bracket. I draw it code it, throw a piece of stock in the mill, drill the holes, run the 2D perimeter multi-pass on Z and leave a few thousandths on the last cut. While it's machining, I can go and do something else, come back when it's done, pop it out of the drop and use it.
The lathe on the other hand, I have both manual and CNC lathes, for big one off parts, a manual lathe is fine. Lathe work is mostly 2D linear moves and rarely interpolated, If i have something that requires an angular cut or radius, then I use the CNC lathe, and of course production lathe parts too on CNC.
You'd like it if you had it and were trained on it, opens up whole new worlds.
-Ron