Hand writen G-code VS Cam

[Geof]

Originally Posted by CNCRob Sometimes at work I do simple things by hand like move boring holes or move edge boring holes, but I have never done an entire part by hand, not even a simple square. I have thought about tring it sometime though.

You must be careful expressing thoughts like this here; you will give all the cam, cam, cam nothing but cam people conniptions and palpitations.

[bsharp]

I have recently been playing with Mach2 at home on a project I am working on. I like the MDI Macro part of it. It is sort of like a teach pendant for a robot. You can move the Machine around in MDI and then replay it. It works well for doing simple parts and building subs. I wish that more of the big name industrial controllers had this simple little feature.
At work we have an automated laser FMS. Every day when the work orders are released I download an excel sheet with all the part numbers and quantities I then convert it to a text file and run a script. The script starts the cam and nests all the parts on the correct material and generates a work cell schedule. The schedule is then input into the FMS controller and ran in the order that I prioritize it to. Every day it generates around 80 to 150 programs and around 320,000 to 600,000 lines of code. The FMS cell runs 24/7 non stop and unattended for 128 hrs during the week. It is down 8 hrs each month for maintenance and 10 hrs every 4 to 6 months for resonator and mirror maintenance. It also runs at 40% to 60% faster cut feed than bigger sister company running at stock settings. This would not be possible without a very good Cam system and programmer. We used to have a guy that worked for us that would spend hours nitpicking a program and saving 1 or 2 seconds off a cycle time. All to have engineering completely change the part a day later.

[BlueChip]

I've been reading this extremely long thread for quite a while ... seems like there are a lot of us who do both the CAD/CAM thing and the manual thing ... and after 25 years or so in machining I think, and it seems like most here would agree, that this is the best way to go. CAD/CAM for the complex and something simpler for the "everyday" stuff.

Using this approach ... about 3-4 years ago my company developed our Kipware software to assist in the simple stuff. If you' re of the thinking above ... I would invite you to explore our KipwareM and KipwareT software at www.KentechInc.com. Our belief is that CAD/CAM is great for the 3D and complex stuff, but those companies have left the "everyday" programmer wanting something easier, that requires less training so more people can create programs, and is faster for programming the everyday jobs of drilling, simple milling, simple turning, etc.

This post may be a little bit of a shameless plug ... but after 700+ installations worldwide, I really believe that we have developed a product that can assist some of the posters here ... both get more out of their CNC, their shop floor personnel, production and make more $$$$ faster.

Thanks for the opportunity to post and for the interest ( and thoughts? ).

[jl15]

I am just getting started at this, Building a CNC router for a college project. I guess I am a lazy student because I just bought TurboCad/Cam to generate the G-code.

[testfly]

I write code for simple parts. I am trying to learn to use my turbocadcam pro v 10.1.

I have been using it for my milling code. Now I am trying to learn to use it for turning.

The problem I have now is getting the part to cut to the size I want it.
I thought if I set my machine (a scratch built cnc conversion using a X Y table and a simple lathe) so 0 was in the center of the chuck the part would be the right size when done. As it turns out, 0 is on the other side of my part.

I know the problem must be I am not drawing the part right. I have attached a image of the part completed and as it was being cut.

Anyone care to offer me a little help drawing something simple. Once I can do something simple. I will take it from there.