Re: [ERPS] Progress Report Addendum

[Alex Fraser]

   The first CNC I ran was Taiwan Iron and a Florida 2 axis 
controller.  The university bought a third axis  for the machine  after 
a year and a pile of scrapped parts.  It had a klugy tool restart 
function which didn't make it clear to the operator (me) when the cycle 
was finished and it was going to rapid to zero.  It just wasn't possible 
to stand there and count the tool moves on a long cut.  Anyhow the 
machine had the #30 holders and an air tool at the top to lock the tools 
in with the push of an air valve. We also had a fixture on the tool 
holder cart that you could put the tool holders in and acuritly  put new 
bit in so you wouldn't have to put the holder in the machine for a tool 
bit change. The fixture had a micrometer head so you could set the tool 
real close. There was a little skill involved, but it was fairly easy to 
hold your tolerances on depth.
   A friend who was trying to build machines a couple of years ago lost 
his shop. He recently called me saying he was back in biz again making 
parts for custom motorcycles. The programs on cable TV have spurned a 
rebirth of interest in small CNC machines and making custom parts. 
Technology for art's sake!  Sure would like one of those English wheels 
to play with.

John Carmack wrote:

At 12:02 AM 2/25/2004 -0800, you wrote:

On Tue, 2004-02-24 at 20:05, Alex Fraser wrote:
> I was beginning to think nothing was happening, thanks for the report.
> The halt for tool change is a safety feature. You should really count
> your fingers a couple of times before you change the code.
        The problem isn't stopping for tool change -- it will do that no
problem. It's getting started again after I'm done that is the problem.
        -p


I organize my CNC work with a separate directory for each project, and 
I put each tool's work in a separate file.  I try to avoid really long 
CNC programs, because if something messes up (programming mistake or 
jammed tool), I have to comment out a lot of things to avoid 
excessively long air cutting times when restarting.

I do find myself wishing I had an automatic tool changer, but I can't 
justify moving to that class of mill in my garage.

John Carmack

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