newbie and a new tm1p

[timmydabull]

Hello all,i have just purchased a new HAAS toolroom mill tm1p.

i have decided to purchase the machine as i have had bad experiences with outsourcing some items we manufacture.

the bad part is i dont even know how to operate a cnc center, and i am just learning how to use entry level cad software,,emachineshop.

can someone please give reccomendations as to classes i can take for learnin g or cad software that will get me up and running quickly until i can learn how to use something like mastercam or pro engineer?

i live in Matthews NC right outside of Charlotte.


thank you

[Vern Smith]

I'm barely 4 months ahead of you with the same machine. I would suggest the following;

Programming CNC Machines by Ken Evans
CNC Programming Handbook by Peter Smid

A Google search will bring up many sources. I think I used Amazon.

Call OneCNC (877-626-1262) and buy their CAM software. They have great phone tech support, a wonderful forum where you can post files you are having trouble with and experienced users will fix your problems, explain what and why they did what they did and then post the corrected file back on the forum. There are no annual fees involved, just the very reasonable up front cost. (reasonable compared to their competition)

You can also go to their web site ( OneCNC.com ) and down load a demo package at no cost.

My only connection to them is a hole in my check book.

Vern

[gar]

070725-2131 EST USA

timmydabull:

Get the HAAS manual and study it. Geof will somewhat disagree.

If your machine is not available yet ask for a manual now, and/or go to the dealer and study the manual with one of their machines.

Power on is easy.

Next you need to home the machine. That is easy too.

Learn about the various screens and what the buttons do.

Learn how to write G and M code progams.

You need to make some decisions such as English/Metric, HAAS, Fanuc, or Yasnac mode. I suggest HAAS. Sign senses. RS232 parameters. And others.

You have to set tool parameters. On current machines G54 is selected automatically on power-up. You do not need a tool loaded to play. Learn how to move around manually, set rapid at 25% to start, set increment to 10/1000" to play with manual moving of the table, get a sense of table direction motion relative to the hand wheel, no need to play in MDI you can do the same things in an O-number program, learn to send and receive programs via floppy and RS232, and lots more.

You really need a good understanding of G and M coding before working with CAD/CAM.

.

[gar]

070726-0557 EST USA

timmydabull:

Any program you write will have a structure like this:

%
O0054
(Desirable to have a comment here that identifies what this program is and/or does.)
(That is probably more characters than allowed in one comment on one line.)
(The left and right parens are the delimiters around the comment.)
(In the past you could not put a % in a comment because it would terminate program loading.)

Next you put all of the startup G-code required at the start of the program here.

Here you put the meat of the program.

M30 (You usually end the program with an M30)
(This stops the program and moves the program pointer to the first line of the the program.)
(The program does not restart until the next push of the start button.)
%

The %s are not stored internally in HAAS but are required in your file. You can put any junk in your file before the first % and HAAS ignores it.

The first % tells HAAS to start loading the program. The O-number is the internal name used by HAAS to find your program. You have no other way within HAAS to identify a program.

The second % found in the file being load terminates loading. In older machines a % anywhere in a file, including within a comment, would terminate loading. In newer machines HAAS has corrected this comment bug.

In my opinion for % to be used as a start or end delimiter it should be the first character following a CR or LF, but I have not tested a new HAAS for this.

If you want to load multiple O-number programs with just one operation of the RS232 RECV button, then put all the O-number programs in one file with one start % and one end %. This means no %s between the programs in this file.

.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by gar 070725-2131 EST USA timmydabull: Get the HAAS manual and study it. Geof will somewhat disagree. ......

Oh I don't know. I am not that sceptical of the Haas Manual . I did teach myself programming using primarily Haas manuals.

Don't be surprised if it seems difficult to understand, some stuff is not presented as clearly as I think it could be.

There is also a link somewhere in a thread on the Zone here to some pages about G code from Purdue University, I will try to find them.

[M30]

timmydabull, i sent you a PM.

I don't know about others, but purchasing a few blocks of machinable wax was the best thing I could have done to teach myself CNC machining. While you can still break small tools, it takes a bit of pressure off the learning experience and then you can reclaim the wax to try again. Take a look at mcmaster.com, they sell a variety of high quality freeman waxes.

I learned G-Code programming from the HAAS manual. Dry reading but informative - the caveat is I am already an experience computer programmer. I learned the basic commands and went straight to CAM. I saw no point in messing around with coordinates too much as long as I knew what the commands were.

Thing is, there is so much still to learn. But that's half the fun.

[timmydabull]

thank you guys very much for your replies.
they have been very helpful and i will start with the advice all of you have given me.

the machine is to be delivered in the next 10 days so i am sure you guys will be hearing more from me soon.

thanks
tim

[Geof]

Here is that link I mentioned.

http://technology.calumet.purdue.edu/met/mfet/275/

There are a number of pdf pages you can download.

[kevh]

Hi Timmy

I bought a tm1 nearly 2 years ago , IMO spend a month(or less) or so getting used to the commands on the machine and a bit of quick code , then get Onecnc even just the 2.5 D package and get your TM smacking parts out ,how it s meant too!!!! (and connnect with RS232 cable )

Even if im drilling a couple holes ill send a onecnc prog to the machine, it just so easy with speeds and feeds all calculated.

All i do manully on the machine is blocking up really.

Cheers Kev

[timmydabull]

Geof
thanks for the link.

Kev
will do
cheers

[Kool Parts]

This might be a thread high jack if so I can move it but I think timmydabull might find it useful..

This is something that I have been thinking about for some time and I just responded to a post where the guy had some trouble with a positive number in the tool registry.
Geof you said in your response that you didn't use a cad-cam system.
I have found that a amazing amount of people program standing in front of the control.
I for the life of me cant understand why this would even be an option to anyone...please enlighten me

[Geof]

Originally Posted by Kool Parts This might be a thread high jack if so I can move it but I think timmydabull might find it useful.. This is something that I have been thinking about for some time and I just responded to a post where the guy had some trouble with a positive number in the tool registry. Geof you said in your response that you didn't use a cad-cam system. I have found that a amazing amount of people program standing in front of the control. I for the life of me cant understand why this would even be an option to anyone...please enlighten me

I am not going through the whole reason because it is all explained in a lot of posts in a lot of threads on the topic of hand coding versus Cam.

There are reasons:

One is that when I taught myself G-coding to move my business from totally manual production to CNC it was more efficient to do hand coding rather than spend months learning CAD/CAM. All the parts were designed and being made manually so hand coding was a snap.

Another reason came apparent when I had a guy who did do CAM; the programs run slower, sometimes a lot slower. We do small scale production anywhere from 10 to 2000 parts per batch and the batches repeat every three months or so. Even a few percent difference in cycle time can add up to a significant difference in total batch time.

Yet another reason is that when I design a new part I do not do it using CAD I do it on the machine and develop the production tooling at the same time. This way I make the initial protoypes on a simplified version of the fixturing that will be used for the production volumes and if I have to tweak features to enhance the efficiency of fixturing I can.

If you are only doing one-offs and if you take in outside work that has been designed by some nit who does not have a clue how things are made you are probably better off. indeed you probably have no choice, to use CAM. My situation is not common.