[Johns tool room]

Gonna retrofit my machine in a month or two and I need help programming my first part which is more complex than a few holes and a square. Anyone out there in the Central FL area that can give pointers and a few tips?
Thanks
John Wizman

[txcncman]

Not in Florida. In Texas. But I have trained people for Centroid control on mills with Intercon. I can try to give you help here if you ask for it.

[cnckeith]

You can start now by watching these detailed training videos. watch them in order the first time.

CENTROID CNC Videos. Video Catalog.

[Johns tool room]

You can start now by watching these detailed training videos. watch them in order the first time.

CENTROID CNC Videos. Video Catalog.

If that is the one that he is showing how to make a cam with a BHP and a center bore then I saw them all, expect for the one where he shows how to program the profile of that cam. I'll watch em again in my free time.
Free Time? :violin:

[cnckeith]

yeah.. be sure to watch the tool length setup sections. (height offsets)
getting your tools setup correctly is just as important as good programming.

[Johns tool room]

Not in Florida. In Texas. But I have trained people for Centroid control on mills with Intercan. I can try to give you help here if you ask for it.

Been dreaming of moving to TX for years already. Anyways back to buss.

? #1 say I have to face an area, I see that there is an option for that and a help file to show what teh values mean. I take it that the facing cycle automatically uses cutter comp ( right or left?).

A.) say I am using a .5" End mill and the area I need to face is .650 wide. say I want .220" radial DOC on that end mill how do I program this. what I ended up getting was like 6 up and down passes. Its should only take 3 passes.

B.) what is surface height? I take it that depth=axial DOC

[cnckeith]

the canned facing cycle does not use G code cutter comp. the tool path is "pre-comp'd" from the dimension and the tool diameter you have set up in the tool lib. for the tool you are programming with. so if you select lenght = 4 and width = 6 the 1/2" diameter tool will stay within that 4x6 box.

use the step increment to control your depth of cut. so if you need to face off .220 in three passes. set depth to .220 (that is what the final pass will be) and then the increment to .0733 . or a better way I like to do that is create a finish pass by making the increment .0683. now you will have 4 passes, the first one will be at Z -.0683, the second pass will be at .1366 and the 3rd pass will be Z-.2049 and the finish pass will be at Z-.2200 which will only be taking off .0151" on that last pass.

surface height is the position of the piece you want to machine relative to Z0.0000 (not to be confused with z home). So if you set Z0.0000 on the top of the pc. surface height while programming that part will be = 0.0000

if you watch the video carefully you will notice this is explained in the videos. you'll notice that "surface height" and "increment" and many other parameters are the same in all the canned cycles. so if you know how to use it in one canned cycle , you'll know how to use it in another. surface height, increment, cutter comp, Z0, Z home are all explained in detail. these are very important to understand to be successful. that is the beauty of the video, you can go back and watch it again and again. till you get it. good luck.

[Johns tool room]

[QUOTE=cnckeith;1172576]
use the step increment to control your depth of cut. so if you need to face off .220 in three passes. set depth to .220 (that is what the final pass will be) and then the increment to .0733 . or a better way I like to do that is create a finish pass by making the increment .0683. now you will have 4 passes, the first one will be at Z -.0683, the second pass will be at .1366 and the 3rd pass will be Z-.2049 and the finish pass will be at Z-.2200 which will only be taking off .0151" on that last pass.

QUOTE]

That .220 dimension I was talking about is not in teh Z axis. Radial doc, that means that, say for example I am cutting a step in the material .500 axial DOC ( Z axis ) and .200 Radial DOC ( Y axis) and I feed in the X axis. Reason I pulled out that .220 Radial DOC is because I would like to face my workpiece in 3 steps in the Y axis direction.

I take it that if I set surface height to zero ( that would be the top of teh finished part) then I don't need to set the Depth? If I had a workpiece .020 higher than the finihsed part I either set depth to .020" or surface height to ) and get the same end result?

[cnckeith]

surface height is the top of the raw material not the finish depth.

please look at the drawings in the manuals that explain all this.