Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] re:hand jive

Alan Marconett KM6VV wrote:

> Wally,
>
> I have a Sears/Sherline mill, and bought a "motion control kit" from
> MaxNC. I was at first disappointed that it did not have double shaft
> motors. These proved to be unnecessary. I jog when I need to locate my
> part, and you can get quite used to using MDI to "move by the numbers".
> Need to take a cut? "G1 X 4.2" Instead of just "turning the wheels"
> 'till you get there, locate the part, then a quick measure (if you need
> it) will tell you the endpoint of your cut.

I will second this. I had a manual Bridgeport for 14 years, and worried that
a CNC conversion without handwheels would be clumsy. When I made
the conversion, I found out it was no great loss. Yes, for drilling just one
hole, it takes a little longer to boot the computer, etc. but I rarely find it
a problem.

> Wally K wrote:
> Many times i just want to
> > do simple things that would take a few minuits manually. It is hard
> > to belive cnc would be quicker. Also with CNC you loose the "feel of
> > the metal" That is nice when drilling or even milling sometimes.

Well, I used to do all sorts of contortions trying to juggle a chip brush,
cutting oil brush, mike, 2 (or 3) handwheels, look at the readout, and
keep from dwelling in one spot too long. Impossible. I could make
one-offs with the jog buttons, but that takes up a whole hand to hold
down the buttons! So, I generally enter MDI commands to make the
cuts. I have written little programs that write the G-code to do common
things like rectangular and round pockets (or panel cutouts, etc.) and
use these all the time. I just fill out the 6-8 blanks, and there's the G-code
file, ready to run.

See http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~jmelson/gcode.html where I have
examples of use, and you can download the C source code for this.
(I also have Turbo Pascal for these, but not on line.)

Jon