i feel the need the need for speeds and feeds !! 2

[eski1]

hi just wanted to know if there is a web site that has useful speeds and feeds tables for machining stainless steel , steel , aluminium and brass these are for use with both a vertical cnc mill and a cnc lathe max rpm 3000 on both . Bascially are machining department is going through alot of tooling and i think a few laminated charts reminding them of the speeds and feeds and if possible how deep a cut to take wouldn't go a miss . Both machines work in mm/ minute and rpm to it would be helpful if the charts were in this
thanks in advance for any response
cheers chris

 

[Nate101]

That's some different code. I found this site looking for some info on programming that machine. There may be some better experts there.

http://www.thermwood.com/twood_site/pages/thermwood_forum.htm

Has anyone messed with the parameters or changed any electronics in the machine?

 

[CWSProgrammer]

Yeah, the US Navy. We bought it used from them.

And I've tried getting info from Thermwood in the past, but they're every bit as uncooperative as Microsoft Customer no-service.

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[CWSProgrammer]

Oh, I followed the link and registered, I'll post some stuff there tomorrow, 'bout time to go home.

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[CWSProgrammer]

Okay, I did the whole I and J programming and broke the arcs up into sections... It's still going in straight lines, but when I loaded the other program I pasted earlier in this thread, it ran it just fine...

I'm beginning to get seriously ticked off over this, there's no reason whatsoever for it not to work...



The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[Nate101]

I back plotted the 10439C-1.TXT, in Predator, and it plotted arcs. Only 2D ars but arcs. The C7015-1P.TXT only plotted straight lines. Is there a possibility your radii are too small for the start and finish point?

 

[CWSProgrammer]

No, because I've done radii of as small as .0625 on this machine before...

This is really becoming a bit of a mind-buster for me

It's not holding up production on other orders, though, I'm currently machining them. But, this is really irking me and I wish I could figure out what was going on here...

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[CWSProgrammer]

Hmm, something just occurred to me...

Nate, do you think if I disabled/removed the G75 on the arc lines in the C7015-1P.txt it would make a difference?

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[Nate101]

I ment that the distance from your starting X & Y and the finish X & Y for each arc may exceed your radius value. Some machines have to have a relationship between the two even when using an R. Is there a possibility you have this in an Autocad file and can email me a .dxf file?

 

[CWSProgrammer]

Hmmm... it's possible for me to email it, I have it in a .dxf on my computer at work. I'll try to email it to you in the a.m. when I get there in the morning if you can give me an address. I'll likely have to send it via hotmail, though, since my employer doesn't have me set up on the corporate email system.



The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[Nate101]

Try TROUT_FISH_1@YAHOO.COM , I'll be waiting.

 

[CWSProgrammer]

Will do, expect it sometime between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. EST.

That's when I'll be emailing it (in other words, as soon as I get back to work).

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[Nate101]

Hey CWS,
I need more info. Could you give me some setup info?
Where's X & Y zero?
If the parts rotated and how much.
A description on the path you're taking?
The tool diameter.
Programming to the center of the tool or side.
Anything you can think of.
I've ran some paths on the slots and inside curvy area but I think something's missing, I should be able to just about recreate your path.

 

[CWSProgrammer]

X & Y Zero are part of the G53.x code--the x being the particular part offset for the given tool.

This machine has no tool library capability, so all tool offset G codes are essentially useless--I have to program along centerpoints and calculate the toolpath myself. Though there are two layers for the toolpaths in the .dxf I sent you.

The path(s) follow the inside of that serpentine slot, and the "landings" in the curves are actually inclined surfaces--hence the attempt at helical movement in the program I had already written. The front and end slot-sections have a t-slot in them, but that is a seperate program because of the lack of tool library, and hence, lack of mid-program tool change capability.

This machine is a one-tool, one-setup-per-program deal. Though I can specify up to 9 different offsets in the machine itself in the G53 settings--but I'm having to change this constantly because of variations in clamping procedures for the parts themselves.

Basically, everything in the program prior to the first M1 code consists of the positioning code (aside from the comment lines designating what the program is for and what tool I should be sure to have set up in the spindle) that takes the machine from it's Machine HOME position to the part offset, and it runs from there back towards HOME on the X-axis. Or a 180 degree rotation around the UCS point. In other words, Y is always negative in absolute positioning, as is X.

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[CWSProgrammer]

I should have rotated that part in the .dxf I sent you and had some ordinate dimensions on the starting point, that would've made things easier to figure out.

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[Nate101]

I'm having fun trying to get my code to look like your's. It just so happens I'm manipulating one of my CAM programs to reflect the shop floor edits. I could do this with a calculator but my model wouldn't be fixed. CAM software would do you good.
I saw you were inquiring about some CAM software. If your company would invest in something good, your turn around time would decrease and modifications to produce would be faster. If they're relying on you to pick it, they'll expect you to work miracles with it.

 

[Nate101]

Okay it's not fun anymore and I can't let the bas.... win!!!(old Star Trek movie). If you still want me to play with this, could you email me a new file with the part geometry and the one path where you start the incrimental cutting. Rotated and moved to where the incrimental tool path starts. I've tried several ways and I can get part of the program to match, but the rest is bunged up, anyway I try it, incremental or absolute.
Thanks,
Nate

 

[CWSProgrammer]

If your company would invest in something good, your turn around time would decrease and modifications to produce would be faster. If they're relying on you to pick it, they'll expect you to work miracles with it.

Heh, that's kind of the key. I've looked into things like ONECNC and such, from that link given in the thread here on the BOBCAD/CAM discussion somewhere else, and referred them to my immediate superior, but they won't spend the money to purchase that CAM system. Or, rather, the owner of the company refuses to authorize the spending of that much money on a bit of software that "isn't guaranteed to work" as he seems to think.

But let's not get into that one, shall we? That shareware program is essentially the most they're going to spend on a program that "only spits out code for that one CNC machine in the shop". Hell, I had to show them that a High Speed Steel end mill can not perform at the proper feed and speed rates for decent production rates compared to Carbide or even Cobalt end mills.

Anyway, first thing in the morning I'll try to get the .dxf setup for you and I'll email it. I'm at school at the moment



The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[CWSProgrammer]

To revert into AOL internet slang for a moment:

OMFGNFW!

My supervisor had the CNC folks over at Poli Hi Solidur (our raw stock supplier, for some odd reason) to see if they could generate a CNC program with the source drawing I'm using. The program they returned had Radii of "1.0625" and "1.9374" instead of "1.0" and "2.0, respectively.... Said something about their CAM program returned that value rather than what was in the .dxf because of an intermittent tool path or something like that. Either that, or they just changed it so it would work and told us that.

Either way, I'm putting those radius values into the program and I'm going to try running it as soon as we get a hardware problem on the machine fixed.

...the obsolete motor/drive (the drives that control the motors are so old they predate even the earliest PLC cards) system on it is going haywire (i.e., catastrophic loss of positioning), and there is simply no place to order "new" motors or parts to repair them, as the company that rebuilt the motors for us said they used the last of the parts they had for that particular obsolete motor to fix it the last time we sent it to them.

Like it or not, it looks like the owner of the company is going to have to upgrage/retrofit this machine.

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[CWSProgrammer]

Correction: Upgrade.

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

 

[CWSProgrammer]

Gah! It still isn't working!



Also, I suspect that I may be approaching the coding of this the wrong way. I may have to just have it carve out the 1" spline path first and then backtrack and carve the 2" radius spline... It appears that having it backtrack at each section of the spline is messing it up. Though I can't exactly test this theory right now with the machine itself being down...



The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken