Drilling holes with TM2

[John999]

Hi
I have been using TM2 for routing for about six months. Now i want to use it for drilling holes. The holes are 1/8" and the tool is 1/8" but i can't get Torchmate CAD to create a toolpath.
Any ideas ? John

[Mike@Torchmate]

When you are trying to compensate for a hole the size of the tool, the software eliminates the part. An easy way to solve this would be to set your compensation slightly smaller then the tool, say .124 instead of .125, and this will allow it to create a very small radius and just do a 'drill' motion.

-Mike

[tascheri]

Hello,

We run a TM2 with plasma. It would be great if we could mark holes before cutting the parts. For that I developed an electromagnetic hole marker ( zero radius) that will actuate from a tool on/off signal. I am having trouble in making the correct toolpath. I have tried starting with points on Autocad but the tool just wants to circle around the point and does not give me the desired result. From what I read in this post, the correct approach would be to create a circular toolpath that has a radius slightly larger than the tool width, therefore creating a very small circular movement around the center of the hole??? This sounds rather crazy... because my tool is a pinpoint... is there any other method? I'm a bit lost here.

[Mike@Torchmate]

If you have Torchmate CAD V8 you can use the drill center option in order to produce a tool on and no x or y movement at a point. Other softwares have similar features, it depends what you are using to program it.

If you can add a rapid travel to a known point in the drivers software, and do a manual tool on with the correct m-code, and then rapid travel to the next position, this is essentially all you have to do.

-Mike