[The New Steve H]

I put a CNC mini-lathe together, and I'm trying to get it to work with KMotionCNC. I have it set up with a KFlop and KStep.

l was considering buying a full Mach3 license, but I feel like I should be able to use KMotionCNC if I can get past the learning curve.

KMotionCNC requires the user to specify the tool he is using. It comes with four or five prefab tools in the form of WRL files. There are a few things I need to know about these.

First of all, I will be doing a lot of my cutting with cheap Chinese triangular inserts. Because the lathe is very small, the inserts are tiny. KMotionCNC comes with a prefab TNMG tool, but it's large, and it's oriented so it points straight toward the work. I need to know if there is a source of WRL tools out there that will provide me with inserts that are more like the one I have, and I also want to know how I would go about changing the insert's radius and orientation. For example, to use a triangular insert as a right-hand tool, you turn it so the left side is parallel to the motion of the cross slide.

I would also like to be able to make the program work with hand-ground HSS tools, such as spooling tools and threading tools.

I hope someone can help me with this.

[The New Steve H]

I've been reading up on this, and it sort of looks like KMotionCNC is not a good program for lathes, and that I am wasting my time trying to make it work without spending the next year learning C programming.

Is that pretty much how it is? I'd rather learn the truth now than continue wasting time.

[TomKerekes]

First of all, I will be doing a lot of my cutting with cheap Chinese triangular inserts. Because the lathe is very small, the inserts are tiny. KMotionCNC comes with a prefab TNMG tool, but it's large, and it's oriented so it points straight toward the work. I need to know if there is a source of WRL tools out there that will provide me with inserts that are more like the one I have, and I also want to know how I would go about changing the insert's radius and orientation. For example, to use a triangular insert as a right-hand tool, you turn it so the left side is parallel to the motion of the cross slide.

17 3D tool models are currently provided. They were mostly donated by a user.

Simple tools like Art of Illusion should be able to rotate and scale them fairly easily if that is critical for you.

Note the tool visualization shouldn't have any impact on the operation of the machine.

I think Art of Illusion is a great free tool and works well under W10. But right now his site seems to be down. The Code is available on Sourceforge:

Art of Illusion - Browse Files at SourceForge.net

Regards
TK