Am I a mill or a lathe.

[Art Ransom]

Building a lathe/mill to do 24" by 10' wood columns. I think it would be classified as a mill since I will be controling position and speed of the stock with stepper motor.

Here is the program I want to write in G code and later convert to a wizzard.

For this example the stock is 8 sided and 96" long and I want to mill down the corners to a 16 sided piece so I can then turn it round. The sub routine Mill will trim .3" deep, 3" wide and 96" long. Stock will be setup with one corner top dead center.

G20
**counter=0
**call sub routine Mill
( sub Mill follows. It was created by surfacing wizzard in Mach 3)
** Mill
**counter=counter+1
**If counter=9
** Then
x0 y0 z1
M30
**Else
F1
G00 Z0.6
G00 Z0.6
G00 X0.75 Y0.75
G00 Z0.5
G01 Z-0.05 F15
F1
G01 Y0.75
G01 X95.25
G01 Y1.5
G01 X0.75
G01 Y2.25
G01 X95.25
G00 Z0.6
G00 Z0.6
G00 X0.75 Y0.75
G00 Z0.5
G01 Z-0.1 F15
F1
G01 Y0.75
G01 X95.25
G01 Y1.5
G01 X0.75
G01 Y2.25
G01 X95.25
G00 Z0.6
G00 Z0.6
G00 X0.75 Y0.75
G00 Z0.5
G01 Z-0.15 F15
F1
G01 Y0.75
G01 X95.25
G01 Y1.5
G01 X0.75
G01 Y2.25
G01 X95.25
G00 Z0.6
G00 Z0.6
G00 X0.75 Y0.75
G00 Z0.5
G01 Z-0.2 F15
F1
G01 Y0.75
G01 X95.25
G01 Y1.5
G01 X0.75
G01 Y2.25
G01 X95.25
G00 Z0.6
G00 X0.75 Y0.75
G00 Z0.5
G01 Z-0.5 F15
F1
G01 Y0.75
G01 X95.25
G01 Y1.5
G01 X0.75
G01 Y2.25
G01 X95.25
G00 Z0.6
** Rotate 45 Degres CW
**Call Mill


So now what G codes do I use to fix it?

** = lines that need to be fixed.


.

[jpgdesigns]

Art,

I am assuming that your controller does not handle sub routines... so here is the "long way" to get what you are looking for IMHO.

First remove these lines of code:
**counter=0
**call sub routine Mill
( sub Mill follows. It was created by surfacing wizzard in Mach 3)
** Mill
**counter=counter+1
**If counter=9
** Then
**Else
** Rotate 45 Degres CW
**Call Mill
Then move these lines of code to the end of program:
x0 y0 z1
M30

Now you are left with one cycle then the program will end.
Then you would copy the program less the M30 code to the beginning 7 times. This will give you 8 cycles. Don't hit start yet... Next, between each cycle you need to insert code to drive your rotary axis 45 deg while your tool is out of the work. I would add a "pause" at the end of each 45 deg rotation just to make sure everything is good to go.

James