Mill Turning with Fusion 360

[gunmaker]

Has anyone done any CNC turning with their Milltronics mill? Any post processor editing need to be done using Fusion 360?
James

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[sportybob]

Hi Gunmaker, How are you proposing to turn on a mill?

sportybob

[gunmaker]

Putting the stock in the spindle and the lathe bit in the vise I made a test run of a bolt handle today. Had to edit the Milltronics Fusion 360 post a little to spit out the code and edit the code that was generated as well.

Here's a video of a guy using F360 and his Tormach Mill with several tools. Even single point internal threading.

[sportybob]

Hi gunmaker. Ok just so we are on the same page. You may find this helpful.

XY plane (modal) (G17)
Selects the XY plane for all polar and arc moves. This command remains in effect until switched by another plane command. The G17 command can appear anywhere on the line. The control always powers up in G17 Mode. The control defaults to G17 Mode at the start of each program.

XZ plane (modal) (G18)
Selects the XZ or ZX plane for all polar and arc moves. This command remains in effect until switched by another plane command. The G18 command can appear anywhere on the line.

YZ plane (modal) (G19)
Selects the YZ plane for all polar and arc moves. This command remains in effect until switched by another plane command. The G19 command can appear anywhere on the line.

sportybob

[gunmaker]

Here's a short video of my first mill/turn part. Worked out surprisingly well. Annealed 4140 running 1500 RPM @15ipm. These used to take me over an hour to cut on the mill using a collet spin index fixture and cutting SEVERAL flats then blending them on the lathe. Code was generated with Fusion 360. I had to modify the post to allow it to spit out turning code for Milltronics post.

[CL_MotoTech]

Very cool. Do you probe the tool to establish it's coordinate?

[gunmaker]

I just used an edge finder.

[sportybob]

Gunmaker, NICE, NICE, NICE.
It reminds me of one of my 1st lathe installs with Milltronics, the guy was cutting some parts with a manual lathe and he had a standing order for 30 a week. and it was talking him ALL week to do it. I did some training and worked with him the afternoon and we put out a part in 7 minutes. WOW was he surprised So, he setup up Monday AM. made the coffee, checked the email, and ??? By Lunch time his week of work was done. The customer was happy with the old "rate" for most of the week, now he has time to make some more income. I say it reminds me be cause of the shape of the part.

If you modified your Fusion 360 post I would be interested in seeing it. As the 360 is such a great value for most of the people on the site, It can be worked with, but you have to work with the whole on line, chat room, wait & wait for a answer and try and retry.

Who says you can't make an old Partner machine learn new tricks. Now, about that double ended, whirlygig that needs 6 lathes tools ;-) The newer software can "drill / peck in X or Y axis. HUM, maybe the "whirligig" thing is not out of reach.


Congrats on a job well done! :-)

sportybob

[gunmaker]

Thanks Bob, I'd love to have a milltronics lathe.

I'm still curious though, can the Milltronics Cent7 control for a mill be "updated" or have the appropriate parameters changed so I can thread like in the Tormach video above as well as utilizing constant surface speed.

As for modifying the post, it's pretty simple. I just copied what this guy did for his Tormach right around the 8 minute mark.

[sportybob]

Hi Gunmaker, I am not sure what machine you have. If you have a Yaskawa spindle motor it is a 99% that you have ridged tapping. so Yes it is possible. Even if you do not have "ridged tap" Milltronics still has the "soft tap" cycle. to use.
"Soft tap" is an algorithm that Milltronics came up with 35+ years ago , ( back when spindle ridged tap options were $20K+)
Part of the algorithm is based on the incoming voltage to the machine. It is based on 220 V, so, if you have 230V it runs fast, if you have 208 it runs slow. What to do?? Well you can set the machine to run at "your" tap rate, (say 200rpm) (S200MS) and check the actual spindle speed with a digital tach and adjust the spindle drive " max spindle frequency" parameter to read "dead on". The usual down side is that while you are 100% on at 200 RPM, at 6000rpm you might only be 5950 RPM. the 50rpm difference will usually make NO difference in cutting a part, but try being off 10 rpm when tapping, you will not be happy.

sportybob

[Brandon_OMA692]

Can you share the edits you made to the post or a working post for doing this? I would love to make some small parts this. Hoping to get a cnc mill in the future, but not yet. Really wish I could have picked up the ML 15 that was for sale locally.

[gunmaker]

I did. Watch the videos.

[Brandon_OMA692]

Well **** I only saw the first with no sound. Sorry about that and thank you.

[gunmaker]

Last video around 8 minutes is how I edited the post. there's 3 videos and they all have sound.

[Brandon_OMA692]

I took a wild stab at feeds and speeds. Hopefully the video works. 9mm x 3/8 pins to locate self centering vises on a fixture plate.