Hey Guys,

I was salivating over you-tube videos of the Hardinge Conquest T42 lathes with their sub-spindle and live tooling, and it reminded me of the M19 spindle orient function I tried to get working on my CHNC-1 last summer.

Well, having nothing to do today except window shop for my next machine (yes, a T42), I went into the garage and started playing around with the M19 function again. Sure enough, I got it working this time! I was convinced, being an optional function, that it wasn't installed. Turns out I was incorrect.

Anyway, I went into MDI and started typing M19, and of course it doesn't do anything from a standstill. So, I tried instead to spin the spindle and then command an M19, and this time it worked:

S100 M3 (Spindle forward at 100 rpm)
M19 S0 (Spindle orient to 0 degrees)
G4 X2 (wait two seconds)
S100 M3
M19 S60
G4 X2
S100 M3
M19 S120
G4 X2

...

S100 M3
M19 S300
G4 X2


and so forth. Thinking, if I could get this to work, I could possibly put mini live tools on my turret and do offset milling and drilling =-)

BUT, I wonder... can anyone tell me why an M19 won't work from a zero-spindle speed start? Or for that matter, why S10 (10 rpm) throws a "Hold: No Data Transfer" error, but S50 or S100 works fine. It's not a big deal, since the spindle orients and locks in the correct position anyway, but I'm wondering why I must activate the spindle first before commanding an M19. The Sinumerik 810 GA3 manual suggests that M19 should work from a standstill, so perhaps I have an older version of the control. I don't know how to check what version I have.

So, is anyone doing anything interesting with M19, other than, for example, spindle positioning eccentric parts for a robotic assist?


Torin...
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www.walker-tech.com