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IndustryArena Forum > MetalWorking Machines > Tormach Personal CNC Mill > Intro to CNC milling - Suggested books or other resources?
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    11

    Intro to CNC milling - Suggested books or other resources?

    Hi All,

    Can anyone recommend a good book or other resource for a complete newbie? It would be great to get my hands on something that walks me through the basics.

    Thanks!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Posts
    51
    CNC Programming Handbook, Peter Smid

    Peter's book is an excellent reference for G-Code, but it does not address CNC machining strategy. It will give you exposure to all the available G codes, background on each, which will help you later as you want to do more complex work.

    I am not aware of any books that teach strategy (i.e. rough down to 10 mils stock, use a ballmill with 10 mill stepover to get this surface finish etc).

    Regards,

    Geo

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by gjvander View Post
    CNC Programming Handbook, Peter Smid
    +1 CNC Programming Handbook, Peter Smid

    Don Clement

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    720
    By coincidence, just a couple of hours ago, I ordered a different book by the same author, from ENCO, which seems as if it may cover a lot of what Geo mentioned.

    It's CNC Control Setup for Milling & Turning: Mastering CNC Control Systems by Peter Smid.

    If you want to check it out at ENCO, it's item # BX404-0020 if you apply the current ENCO promotions, it would be about $43, I didn't search around because I was placing and order with ENCO anyway, you might find it cheaper elsewhere.

    Terry

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    161
    Machine Shop Trade Secrets by James Harvey and Metalworking Sink or Swim by Tom Lipton are both good resources that talk about both CNC and manual milling. Both are actually fairly interesting reads and have a lot of good bits and pieces to pick up on. Do you have experience with manual milling, or are you completely new to metal working? I'm about 5 months in to learning how to machine, and its a very fun (and at times, extrememely frusturating) process.

    I've also stumbled on some great youtube videos that have a lot of good info.

    The Geek Group have a great series of videos on youtube (Geek Group CNC #1 - TM-1 Button Tour - YouTube) that are a great general introduction to CNC milling. The 5th video in the series has a fantastic explenation of feeds and speeds, and other videos have some great explenations of various G-codes.

    Glacern Machine Tools also has a decent series of informational clips on their site as well: Glacern Machine Tools - Premium Quality Vises and Tooling

    NYC CNC also has a lot of great videos on the Tormach specifically: John NYCCNC - YouTube

    John Grimsmo, a knife maker, also has a fantastic video series that documents the process of him making knives on a Tormach. There is a lot of information in his videos, but they tend to run on the long side and there were over 60 of them last time I counted. Do a google search of "Knife Making Tuesdays." Great information, but you'll have to invest a lot of time to get at all of it.

    Finally, Tormach themselves have a few informational videos. Check there blog: Milling Around

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    14
    I second the recommendation for these 2: "Machine Shop Trade Secrets by James Harvey and Metalworking Sink or Swim by Tom Lipton"

    Even with manual mill experience, work holding in a CNC can be quite different, and these 2 books have some good examples.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Posts
    789
    I recommend cnccookbook.com . While not a full tutorial, his articles were invaluable to me while learning CNC.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Posts
    1543
    These are all great

    Machine shop trade secrets
    Jig and fixture design fourth edition
    Machine shop essentials
    CNC programming handbook 3rd edition

    YouTube is great, type in "Tormach" to watch some really good ones, Tormach themselves has some great videos with Mike C. All the other great YouTube stars were mentioned. GeekGroup videos are great because Iscar Rick is the man, he has his own channel aswell.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    340
    Thuss,
    You are new to CNC so I would not buy Peter Smidt's CNC Programmers Handbook until much later. It covers much that is not relevant to the Gcode used on the Tormach machines. While Gcode is a "standard", there are many flavours of implementing Gcode because of differing machine capabilities and software controllers.

    I would strongly recommend downloading the Tormach machine User Manuals which cover not only the applicable Gcode but relevant ways of setting up, multiple tool use, et al. And they free.

    The other books/websites mentioned above are all good and will help you get on top of all the important aspects of CNC, of which Gcode is just one. You will need a CAM program which will produce the necessary Gcode programs; in the early days you only need familiarity with a few Gcode commands for making small changes to those programs.

    And if you are a newcomer to metal machining then concentrate on which CAD CAM programs to buy, understanding tooling, feeds and speeds, workholding, and so on.

    Good luck.
    Bevin

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    0
    Good luck with it.



  11. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    166
    These videos John NYCCNC - YouTube were the reason I bought a Tormach and started machining my product myself as opposed to getting other shops to do it for me.

    When people ask me where did I learn cnc machining, and I respond youtube, the reactions are amusing; then they actually see what I'm making, how, and with what, and they stop laughing.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    11
    machineries handbook ? i dont know jack but my brother does :P ( this is like a bible you can make space shuttles out of this stuff...) its a reference book tho. ty for the list ppl because i was just asking myself what books to get... but im looking more into technical details of milling and not cnc specific.

  13. #13

    Re: Intro to CNC milling - Suggested books or other resources?

    There is a new book out for newbies

    BLURRING THE EDGES all about assembling and learning to use a Tormach 770

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Posts
    591

    Re: Intro to CNC milling - Suggested books or other resources?

    I highly recommend signing up for an in person class, somewhere, in some fashion.
    Some community colleges have them.
    Some youtubers run them.
    Some vendors have them (for their particular hardware.)
    Some maker spaces have them.
    Being able to ask people real questions is invaluable.
    This will cost some money, but will totally be worth it -- the one thing nobody can ever take away from you, is learning and experience inside your head!

    Also, you will want to buy Machinery's Handbook, so you might as well get that over with sooner rather than later. It's not at all a gentle introduction or tutorial, but it does have all the information in it that you'll want at some point.
    What you learn in class, and by doing, and studying videos by other machinists, is essentially preparation to give you enough context to understand what the Machinery's book is telling you.

    Earlier videos from Tom Lipman are very good for general machining thinking: https://www.youtube.com/user/oxtoolco/videos
    I also like what Peter at Edge Precision teaches on his giant lathe/mill: https://www.youtube.com/c/EdgePrecision

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Posts
    6248

    Re: Intro to CNC milling - Suggested books or other resources?

    Hu Thuss - Look up Titans of cnc academy. They have videos from zero to advanced. Peter

    https://academy.titansofcnc.com/

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    653

    Re: Intro to CNC milling - Suggested books or other resources?

    Guys, the original post and entire thread is from 2013 until it was necro-bumped to push a new book.

    If the OP hasn't figured it out by now he's not going to.

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