Just got a Hawk 5

[Dave in MT]

Hello everyone; my first post on CNC zone.
We just bought a manufacturing company, and one of the machines involved is a Hurco Hawk 5, circa 1997. The previous owner was old school; he'd tried some basic CNC stuff on it but in the end has about worn out the X, Y, and Z buttons, and the jog dial is about to fall off.

I'd like to automate some of the stuff we do; it's very basic but except for some 2-D vector cutting we do on a laser from an early version of AutoCAD I'm at the early stages of this. Through friends I've been introducted to the full spectrum including Solidworks, Rhino, Alibre, etc., plus a number of of CAM packages to make that output work. It's a hill I'm willing to climb, but for the mean time I have a few basic tasks to do. The Hurco docs are all about G code; I was hoping to start with something one level up and then bring the G code to the Hurco, presumably through it's 3.5 disk drive.

Any helpful hints, guidance, etc. much appreciated. Thanks!

[Rick Kight]

Dave

What control do you have on the machine , Ultimax ???

[Buddy1]

Dave

Your control will be a MAX 3 control. I suggest you learn the Conversational programming first because all 2D work will be easier and faster using Conversational. If you plan on doing any 3D work you should definitely use the NC part of the Hurco. You can find the G-code info at www.amtsinc.com/support/Gcodes.pdf

The Hawk 5 is a very hearty Knee Mill and you will love the Control.

ltr

[Dave in MT]

Thanks! Our local high school CNC teacher came out yesterday with some simple G code he'd done out of MasterCAM and it didn't work; we even tried loading and running some programs that were stored on the HD and they didn't fly either. Probably calibration and start point issues, we figured. So, I started in the manual last night and I'm going to walk through this from the ground up. Thanks for the tip on conversational!

--Dave

[jetski]

I sell a manual for the small sum of $70.00 which will cover intro and advance training. send me an email or go further down the posts here I sell the manual and the keyboards.
gsilberberg@progressive-plastics.net

[Buddy1]

If you cut and paste the G-code from the document in the previous post, it will definitely work if the machine is working correctly.

ltr