CNCzone.com-The Largest Machinist Community on the net!



Home Page Mark Forums Read Today's Posts My Replies Classifieds Reviews Photo Gallery Web Links Share Files Advertise With Us Ad List
Go Back   CNCzone.com-The Largest Machinist Community on the net! > MetalWorking Machines > Bridgeport and Hardinge Mills


Bridgeport and Hardinge Mills Discuss Bridgeport and Hardinge Mills here!


This forum is sponsored by:

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1   Ban this user!
Old 05-23-2008, 07:39 PM
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 17
Harb is on a distinguished road
Help a Total Goose !!

Hahaha
Hi guys !
I'm totally new here and this is my first post on this fantastic forum....what a source of info.

Well I have Never had a single thing to do with CNC gear before, all my machining has been previously done with a manual Bridgeport in the past.
Now I have an opportunity to get my hands on a Interact 1 Mk 2 with a TNC155 controller.
My trouble is, I really would like to go down that path, but I have absolutely no Idea how to do anything at all.

To give a hypothetical example.....
If I was to say, want it to machine the word CNC in a piece of plate, what is the process to do that?

DO you somehow input the info from a CAD program ??

I'm sorry for the totally silly question, but in the past, I have been the control interface !!

Also, what do you think of the mill I have mentioned.... it appears to be in mint condition with very little use......

Thanks in advance, and I recon , I'll become a regular here ! hahah thanks guys, I just trying to find out if all this is just going to be to hard for my application which is one off milling on my offroad race car building stuff...

Harb

Last edited by Harb; 05-23-2008 at 09:56 PM.
Reply With Quote

  #2   Ban this user!
Old 05-24-2008, 10:44 AM
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: usa
Posts: 47
kdhBOSS5VRAM is on a distinguished road
Programming the Bridgeport

That's a nice little mill. We have the identical one where I work. You can do a lot of stuff right on the control if you have the book for it to explain them. The Heidenhain control has a lot of cycles you can use like pocket mills, slots and circles. We never use it that way because we have an EZ Cam Cad/Cam system that is really easy to use. You just program a part on there and post it for that machine and transfer it in thru the RS232 port on the back of the control. Sounds like a nice setup for the projects you want to do with it.

Kevin
Reply With Quote

  #3   Ban this user!
Old 05-24-2008, 11:02 AM
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 17
Harb is on a distinguished road

Thanks Kevin, I have always wanted to go down the CNC path with milling and just recently decided to take the plunge.
This mill just came up and I thought bugger it, I will do it !!
So what is this program you are using....Is it easy to learn ?
I guess just getting in and having a go will be the secret, but a few learning shortcuts never hurt either.......
Reply With Quote

  #4   Ban this user!
Old 05-24-2008, 11:28 PM
sdantonio's Avatar  
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: USA
Posts: 904
sdantonio is on a distinguished road

Hey Harb,

In a nutshell the process will go something like this (I use Rhino3d, so I will refer things to that software).

1. Write out the letters CNC in rhino (or your favorite CAD, btw CNC's an acronym, not a word).
2. Open your chosen CAM software (in my case rhinocam).
3. Define your tools and tool paths.
4. Output your gcode (a process called posting) from your CAM.
5. Load your gcode into your chosen gcode interpreter (in my case Mach3).
6. Hit the start button and watch the magic happen.

Of course, each of these steps can be expanded into a chapter (or a book) all to them selves. Your in the right place if you want to learn though.

10bulls (search for his posts here) has a free CAD/CAM package called CAMBAM (or something like that). It's a good starting point, and the price is right. After you have some idea of what you want to do and how you want to proceed with this, then you can decide on whether you want to spend money of a commercial software package (Rhino, autocad, solidworks, bobcad, etc.) or stick with the free stuff. Keep in mind that the commercial stuff can get really expensive, and, in some cases, you actually do get what you pay for (sometimes).

"Mecsoft" and "Mach 3 support" have some free videos you can watch that will help explain the process (well, parts of the process anyway).
__________________
If you cut it to small you can always nail another piece on the end, but if you cut it to big... then what the hell you gonna do?

Steven
Reply With Quote

  #5   Ban this user!
Old 05-25-2008, 01:48 AM
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: usa
Posts: 47
kdhBOSS5VRAM is on a distinguished road
Programming software

Harb,
The system I've been using is EZ-Cam (www.ezcam.com). That's the stuff that was originally designed by Bridgeport way back. It's probably one of the oldest ones around. It's very easy to use. You can check it out on their website for demos. There are a lot of good systems around and a lot of them you can download demos on their websites. Check out the free ones too as suggested. Maybe they will work ok for what you need. If you need any help just let me know.

Kevin
Reply With Quote

Sponsored Links
  #6   Ban this user!
Old 05-25-2008, 02:13 AM
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 17
Harb is on a distinguished road

Thanks guys, you blokes are champions !! I will have a look at what you have told me so far and see what other new questions come from that.........cheers
Reply With Quote

  #7   Ban this user!
Old 05-25-2008, 05:55 PM
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Scotland
Posts: 804
gridley51 is on a distinguished road

You can download a programming manual here.
http://filebase.heidenhain.de/doku/o...58/N13F58.html
Reply With Quote

Reply




Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
New Machine Build- The Spruce Goose needs help.... obxcnc DIY-CNC Router Table Machines 11 02-15-2008 09:42 AM
Total noob umarekawaru General CAM Discussion 4 12-18-2007 05:54 AM
Total newb with 10k dandy7200 Commercial CNC Wood Routers 8 09-07-2007 10:32 AM
Total Newbie needs YOUR help! JorG3 Fanuc 4 07-31-2007 11:21 PM
Hello, I'm a total noob unseen wombat Commercial CNC Wood Routers 5 01-06-2007 03:42 PM




All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:00 PM.





Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2012, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO
Template-Modifications by TMS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361