Overwhelmed with CAD/CAM. Suggestions for a beginner?

[CalebGM]

I've finally saved up for a Tormach lathe (turret style, with tooling), and am ready to make the order. I've wired my shop and am ready to go.

The problem is I know little to nothing about CAD/CAM. I bought a cheap ebay cnc router awhile ago, and have been messing with it with easel, and simple cad/cam browser software. That's the end of my knowledge.

I taught myself to turn grade 5 6al-4v on a mini grizzly lathe, so I've got a good grip on speeds and feeds necessary, etc.

I'm just overwhelmed with both the prices, and the options available for CAD/CAM programs.

Is there a good, decently cheap (around, or less than $1,000 USD) that anyone can recommend? Like I said, I'm a total beginner, but if there's a program that's slightly intuitive and I could teach myself, that would be best.

I make wedding rings from titanium, tungsten, stainless, and damascus at the moment. Most of them have inlays which are cut with a sg profile bit. Nothing too fancy. I'd like to add comfort fit interiors. Hopefully that helps give a little idea of the direction I'd like to go with the software.

I really appreciate any help anyone can provide. Thank you.

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[tmarks11]

Take a look at Fusion 360. It is free indefinitely for hobbyists (and startups making less than $100k per year). It includes HSMWorks CAM software, which is an amazing CAM software.

Tutorial 6 - Introduction to Turning | Fusion 360 | Autodesk Knowledge Network

There are quite a few users on this forum who use Fusion 360.

Tormach has partnered with Autodesk, and are promoting Fusion 360 with their new PCNC440 mill.

[CalebGM]

Thanks Tim!

Looks like a great program. I'm downloading it now, and will start messing with it tonight. I've seen it before, but I had no idea it was free.

I'm really green behind the ears, so would I need Mach 3 or another program to actually run the lathe from the CAM SVG?

[cbyrd]

I second the Fusion 360. The integrated cam for the milling side is great. I do find that I run Sprutcam 9 for lots of my lathe CAM. The Fusion 360 cam for the tormach is just not there yet. I am sure it will get there soon but for turning, right now I use Sprutcam.

I have been doing CNC for about 4 months and fusion 360 is great. I started with turbo cad and played with ironcad, but I find fusion 360 much easier to use. Lots of great videos on it also.

[tmarks11]

The Fusion 360 cam for the tormach is just not there yet. I am sure it will get there soon but for turning, right now I use Sprutcam.

The turning features of the Fusion 360 CAM are brand new (as in the last couple months), but Autodesk has been rapidly pushing out updates, so I am betting it will be "there" soon. And now that Autodesk and Tormach are partnered, we should see more seamless integration.

[CalebGM]

I downloaded it last night, and went through the first tutorial on design (entirely new to 3d rendering). It seems really intuitive and I'm really enjoying it.

I'm planning on ordering my machine this week, and will hopefully have it into production within a week of arrival. Would you guys still recommend sprut-cam to go along with it?

Also, I'm a little confused about the work flow.

So, I'd design it in CAD (fusion 360), import it into CAM (sprutcam for the tool path), and then put it on a thumb drive, and put it into my xp computer hooked to the lathe. Should I use Mach 3, or is is there a specific g-code software for the Tormach?

This is my first attempt at programming a lathe, so I could definitely be wrong.

[cbyrd]

If you can afford it , I would get Sprutcam,

You are correct on your process. I design my part in Fusion, import in sprutcam and do all the tool paths, I then post to my Lathe, which is on my network, or you can use the usb.

The only thing I don't like is if you make a change in Fusion you have to do your tool paths again in sprutcam. That is supposed to fixed in Sprutcam 10. I think Sprutcam 10 is supposed to be release soon.

If you are ordering a new machine you will get PathPilot, not Mach. Sprutcam will generate the GCode for the lathe. All you have to do on the lathe is load the file and start running it.
I general "Cut Air" on a new part just to make sure everything looks and works correctly.

[cbyrd]

I would also look on youtube for NYC CNC, John has some great videos using the Tormach Lathe and does lots of Fusion also. I have learned a lot from his videos. Sprutcamamerica.com has good videos on using Sprutcam.

[tmarks11]

So, I'd design it in CAD (fusion 360), import it into CAM (sprutcam for the tool path)...

Fusion 360 has CAM (HSMWorks) built-in, so there is no need to import the CAD files into an external CAM program. Given, the HSMWorks CAM turning features are new, and the post-processor (which turns the CAM into g-code specific for the Tormach) is still sort-of a beta, but people are getting it to work.

BAMCNC (Tactical Keychains) here uses Fusion360 as his CAD/CAM solution.

Here are some threads with the Fusion360 Tormach post processor for turning:
https://camforum.autodesk.com/index.php?topic=7452.0
https://camforum.autodesk.com/index.php?topic=7481.15

[MichaelHenry]

I'm told that the lathes are backordered for a few weeks so you have some time to kill while waiting for yours to arrive. You might use some of that time to dig deeper into the Fusion 360 tutorials and to download a trial copy of SprutCAM and try that out to see which, if either, appeals to you. Tormach is selling SprutCAM 9 at the moment but should be selling the newer release (SprutCAM 10) some time this fall, SC 10 sounds like a nice improvement over SC 9, at least for the mill, but it looks like there is no SC 10 trial yet. You can get the SC 9 trial here:

SprutCAM — Sign in or register

[CalebGM]

If you can afford it , I would get Sprutcam,
If you are ordering a new machine you will get PathPilot, not Mach. Sprutcam will generate the GCode for the lathe. All you have to do on the lathe is load the file and start running it.
I general "Cut Air" on a new part just to make sure everything looks and works correctly.

That's awesome. I didn't know it was included with the lathe.

I'll look into Sprutcam some more. Paying 2k more, while feasible isn't optimum right now.

Hopefully hsmworks gets the CAM down in the time I'm waiting for my machine.

I'm going through some more tutorials tonight on fusion 360. It's incredibly easy to use once I got started. Thanks for the recommendations.

[cbyrd]

Sprutcam for Tormach Post is $1250


35110 - SprutCAM 9 - Tormach Post only


I am sure they will get the post for fusion soon. But it depends on how long it takes. When I ordered mine it was not an option yet.

[CalebGM]

I wasn't aware there was a lower price for tormach owners. That's awesome!

I'm going to order it along with the lathe, and mess around with some trial in the meantime.

Thanks for the help. If everything goes to plan, I'll post some rings in about... hmmm in about a month.

[LeeWay]

I honestly would not get Sprutcam unless you have an immediate need to make some complex parts. Path Pilot comes with pretty good conversational and will do some nice stuff including rigid tapping right by itself without any CAM or Cad software. I am a Fusion 360 user too and the guys there are working on it. I think the Post Processor already works for the turret lathe. Just not completely ready for gang tooling with tools cutting in both positive and negative values. The turret only cuts positive values.
You might need that $1250.00 when you start equipping the lathe with things you did not think about.

Oh and congrats on the decision. I think it is a good choice for a nice lathe. My little home made cnc lathe made decent parts I thought. That is until I saw the accuracy and quality of parts turn on the SBL15. I hope you can get up and running as soon as you anticipate.
Mine took considerable longer because I automated the collet closer and added a bar puller. That and changing tools around a few dozen times until I got it where I wanted it. Few other minor mods were needed with the gang tooling, but you won't have that issue with the full enclosure.
Good luck with it.

[MichaelHenry]

I honestly would not get Sprutcam unless you have an immediate need to make some complex parts. Path Pilot comes with pretty good conversational and will do some nice stuff including rigid tapping right by itself without any CAM or Cad software. I am a Fusion 360 user too and the guys there are working on it. I think the Post Processor already works for the turret lathe. Just not completely ready for gang tooling with tools cutting in both positive and negative values. The turret only cuts positive values.
You might need that $1250.00 when you start equipping the lathe with things you did not think about.

Oh and congrats on the decision. I think it is a good choice for a nice lathe. My little home made cnc lathe made decent parts I thought. That is until I saw the accuracy and quality of parts turn on the SBL15. I hope you can get up and running as soon as you anticipate.
Mine took considerable longer because I automated the collet closer and added a bar puller. That and changing tools around a few dozen times until I got it where I wanted it. Few other minor mods were needed with the gang tooling, but you won't have that issue with the full enclosure.
Good luck with it.

Mine will probably take a bit longer since it will have to be disassembled in the garage into small enough pieces to move down it's eventual home in the basement.

[CalebGM]

Thanks Lee!

Yeah after a few more days of messing with fusion 360, I've figured out how to generate toolpaths for most of my designs.

It seems like it should work pretty well! It's my first time messing with real cam, so I won't really know until I try it.

Maybe I should get the controller PP controller instead? I was planning on using am old xp with a parallel port, but I'm not sure.

Was looking up opinions on this site, and they appear to be mixed on the controller.

Going to push ordering back a week just to make sure we arent counting copper when this this arrives

[tmarks11]

Maybe I should get the controller PP controller instead? I was planning on using am old xp with a parallel port, but I'm not sure

If we are still talking about the Tormach lathe, than you don't have a choice. The machine ships with the PP controller; it is included as part of the purchase price.

You will notice when you go to the SPL15 order page that the PP controller is on the list of non-optional components you buy.

Tormach has (wisely) decided that making it a non-optional component eliminates the inevitable extra load on their customer service that they get as customers try to integrate whatever old computer they have with the Tormach machine.

The "mixed opinions" you are reading probably relate to the mills, which were all mach3 until earlier this year when the PP mill version was introduced. The lathe has always been PP, and nobody (afaik) has even tried to put mach-turn on one of these mills.

[phoneman]

Caleb

First and foremost, dump Easel on your X-Carve. It is garbage. If you want to use your X-Carve to learn CNC while you wait for your lathe then use Fusion360 and the built in CAM to generate Gcode for the X-Carve. If you are using the stock electronics on you X-Carve I would also dump them also and go to linuxCNC and real stepper drivers. Path pilot is just a front end for LinuxCNC so you will be ahead of the game when you lathe arrives.

Dave

[CalebGM]

Well there's an $800 mistake saved. Thanks guys.

I feel a lot more confident with the fusion 360 now. Been working on it every night since I posted.

I'll definitely try it out on the x-carve. Man I'm excited. Can't wait till this machine gets here!

Oh also Dave, I'll definitely upgrade it at some point. I'm going to give it a run on stone next week (made a waterbed for it). If it doesn't perform at all, then a mill will have to be in my future as well.

[phoneman]

Caleb

Here is a link to a guy that does a lot of stone engraving. From the X-Carve forum. https://discuss.inventables.com/t/gr...ngraving/12222

Dave