What's it for? was Re: OK, I've got a detent encoder... Hello?

Hehe... ok,

We could bat this one back and forth for quite some time but I'll
refrain. It's funny that you should mention Bridgeport though... It
makes me think of the Bridgeport R1 C3 CNC knee mill powered by
Heidenhein 401-501 controls. In this model, BP actually added an
encoded handwheel (non-detented) to the front of the table and
powerfeed "levers" on the table and the quill. The levers operate
whenever you aren 't in "auto" mode as manual milling and positioning
devices. To use the Handwheel, you press the axis button for the
travel you wish to move, set the "mode" (which is basically a
feedrate for the handwheel), and off you go manually. I think there
are a couple other larger mills in the Bridgeport Interact series
with these features, but it appears the handwheel was an option as
some I've seen only have the levers.
In any case, it seems that Bridgeport had addressed the manual/cnc
crossover machine decades ago but dropped it, which is too bad
because they are delightful to use having almost real manual control.
These machines are pretty rare because it seems they didn't sell to
many. Most people probably opted for the straight Series 1 for manual
milling and the BOSS (or later V2XT) for CNC since it was going to be
a production machine anyway (most who pay 20-60 grand for a machine
want it to make parts, not be taken offline for a machinist to drill
a hole with). So you see, Bridgeport did put a full sized handwheel
(non detented) right in front of the table when manual milling was
their intent and continue to put 2.5" detented jog wheels on their
production machines. There has been some some re-birth of these
crossover machines as of late. Take for example the Haas toolroom
mill..
http://www.haascnc.com/prod/default_details.asp?id=179
Haas machines have always had jog wheels, but now (debuted at Westec
2001) they are adding handwheels to allow for manual control. The
handwheels on this machine are actually attached to the lead screws.
Another example is the Trak DPM-5 crossover mill (also debuted Westec
2001)...
http://www.southwesternindustries.com
Who also have now added handwheel driven encoders for manual milling
features.
It will be interesting to see if these machines will do better than
the Bridgeport did. It would appear that toolroom operations like
creating fixures and such have now gotten to the complexity that they
cannot be accomplished by the skilled manual operator and perhaps
this is the reason that they are "back". The owners are probably
tired of the toolmaker taking a VMC offline to make a fixture.
In any case, all they have really done here is added a rotary encoder
to an existing CNC machine and made a sign that says "Latest-
Greatest!" (none of the signs so far mention the Bridgeport of years
gone by).
Now, when you think about it, it wouldn't be so hard for the Home CNC
builder to have the "Latest-Greatest" on their PC based controls by
adding some sort of rotary encoder attached to a handwheel. That is
not to say that you should not be able to incorporate a "jog" wheel
in the same system if you want one, or in the cases where the machine
came standard with it. The new "thang" is to have both and a PC
control which would allow both for a lot less than 20-40k would be
pretty cool.

All the best
Sean

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "ballendo" <ballendo@y...> wrote:
> Sean, Sorry again,
>
> Have you seen the (Bridgeport, I think) CNC lathes which have the
> ability to "slave" the XZ axes to each other, in a linear or arc
> relationship? This is done to allow the handwheel to be used for
> manual "assisted by cnc" machining... And the marketing/sales
> literature clearly states as much.
>
> So at least in this cnc arena, not only is that what it's "for";
use
> of the "jog" wheel for manual machining is considered a "feature"
by
> the mfr!
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Ballendo
>
> P.S. Not all cnc machines are mills (or lathes,even). We need to
> consider this fact when speaking of making/writing cnc
controllers...
>
>
> --- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "audiomaker2000" <audiomaker@s...>
wrote:
> > Ballendo,
> >
> > Well there is no other way to "manually" mill on a CNC with only
a
> > jog dial. Of course, even those who may practice this know that
> > it's not really what it's "for".
> <snip>
> > Regards,
> > Sean
> >
> > --- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "ballendo" <ballendo@y...> wrote:
> > > Sorry Sean, Gotta disagree,
> > >
> > > These "jog" wheels ARE used as "hand" wheels by machinists
> > everyday...
> > > Several posts have said so in this thread alone.
> > >
> <snip>