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

Sean,

Your entire message supports what I was saying... In both past and
present machines. (Machinists LIKE having wheels to turn!) Reminds me
of Werner Von Braun vs. the "pilots" of the Mercury space program. As
portrayed in the "No bucks. No Buck Rogers" speech by John Glenn
in "The Right Stuff".

Ballendo

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "audiomaker2000" <audiomaker@s...> wrote:
> 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>