alan battersby wrote: >Hello everyone, >I hope someone on this forum can offer some advice. I asked this >question on CNCZone Gcode programming but have not yet had a reply. >Perhaps I didnt word it clearly enough so can anyone on this forum help? > > Unfortunately, CNCZone isn't the best place to get EMC2 help. I'm glad you found this list, which is the place :)
>I am in the process of building a cnc setup onto my wood lathe, to >hopefully cut patterns onto bowls see (http://imagebin.org/45774). I am using >emc >to control the steppers. At the same time as this I am developing >software to generate the gcode to cut the paths (see >http://imagebin.org/45775), there may be many paths >in a design. Paths probably will be wider than the milling tool used and >deeper than the maximum allowable cut per pass. Therefore I am placing >the code to cut a path inside a double loop. The outer loop will take >care of the width and the inner loop will take care of cutting to >depth. I suppose that I am cutting a long narrow pocket so cut full >width to common depth then deepen or the other way round? Is one way >better than the other so far as machining is concerned? >Expanding this question to many paths - Is it considered better practice >to cut all paths to the same common depth / width before looping to the >next depth / width value, or is it better to cut each path individually >to its finished width / depth before moving onto the next path. Or does >it not matter at all. > > My hunch is that cutting the entire pattern to depth, then looping to the next depth, is the better way to do it. The reason is that the first cut through the material (for a given pattern) is touching both sides of the tool. This causes heat buildup, and could burn your wood. Additionally, it leaves less space for evacuation of chips. Other than those concerns, I don't know if there's any reason to go one way vs. the other. >You will gather from my questions that I have no experience in milling >(yet), this is a non-commercial retirement hobby project. I was an >engineering apprentice 40+ years ago and did some then, but have spent >the last 25+ years in computing. > > I am also not a machinist, so you should definitely listen to others before going with my advice ;) - Steve ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay on top of everything new and different, both inside and around Java (TM) technology - register by April 22, and save $200 on the JavaOne (SM) conference, June 2-5, 2009, San Francisco. 300 plus technical and hands-on sessions. Register today. Use priority code J9JMT32. http://p.sf.net/sfu/p _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
