CAD CAM EDM DRO - Yahoo Group Archive

VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe

Posted by Tom Benedict
on 2002-02-28 07:17:14 UTC
I've got a Taig CNC mill with the Microproto controller. I got EMC
working fine with three axes (I'm having little to no luck getting the
fourth axis working, but that's neither here nor there.)

Last night, just for grins, I turned the mill head 90 degrees, mounted a
lathe toolpost on my mill bed, and brought the spindle down until it was
level with the lathe tool. In effect I made my mill into a poor-man's CNC
lathe.

I've got the VectorCam demo set up on a machine at home, and have been
trying it for mill work. But I've been wanting to test it for lathe
functionality, too.

I ran into a problem. I'm hoping someone can help:

I used a CAD package to draw up the profile of a ball handle (two arcs,
one tapered straight section, and the second arc was cut short so it
would leave the ball handle firmly attached to the stock.) The DXF
imported into Vector perfectly. I used the lathe pocket function to set
up a toolpath, saved it as NC code, simulated it, everything checked out
fine.

There were two problems when I tried to run it using EMC. One was my
fault, one I'm not sure of. The one that's my fault was because I didn't
know CNC lathes use X and Z axes. After some time reading Machinery's
Handbook, I figured that out, swapped my motor plugs, and was back on
track.

That's when I ran into the second problem: The roughing passes went
perfectly. The finishing pass died as soon as it hit the first arc. The
error message was something like, "K word on an arc in the XY plane."

Far as I can tell, the G-code generated by Vector is spot-on. It had an X
word, a Z word, an I word, and a K word. The arc is in the X-Z plane, not
the X-Y plane.

Any idea how I can fix this? Is this an EMC thing? My EMC installation
is off the latest BDI.

I'm probably not going to use my mill like a lathe very much (I'd rather
build out a dedicated CNC lathe), but I'd like to go ahead and buy Vector
next month, and I've got some short-run stuff I'll need to do with it in
this configuration. So any and all ideas are much appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom

Discussion Thread

rainnea 2002-01-18 15:09:32 UTC 5-axis Taig Mill Scott A. Stephens 2002-01-19 21:10:14 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] 5-axis Taig Mill rainnea 2002-01-20 05:44:55 UTC Re: 5-axis Taig Mill Scott A. Stephens 2002-01-20 15:04:02 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: 5-axis Taig Mill Tony Jeffree 2002-01-21 07:28:55 UTC Re: 5-axis Taig Mill Michael Milligan 2002-01-21 08:29:56 UTC RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: 5-axis Taig Mill Andrew Werby 2002-01-21 11:27:40 UTC Re: 5-axis Taig Mill rainnea 2002-01-21 14:11:25 UTC Re: 5-axis Taig Mill Alan Marconett KM6VV 2002-01-21 15:47:33 UTC Re: 5-axis Taig Mill rainnea 2002-01-21 18:12:33 UTC Re: 5-axis Taig Mill Alan Marconett KM6VV 2002-01-21 18:43:25 UTC Re: 5-axis Taig Mill rainnea 2002-01-22 00:50:10 UTC Re: 5-axis Taig Mill ballendo 2002-01-22 07:32:24 UTC Re: 5-axis Taig Mill Alan Marconett KM6VV 2002-01-22 10:31:52 UTC Re: 5-axis Taig Mill Tom Benedict 2002-02-28 07:17:14 UTC VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Tom Benedict 2002-02-28 08:15:26 UTC Re: VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Matt Shaver 2002-02-28 09:14:56 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Scot Rogers 2002-02-28 09:25:33 UTC RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Jon Elson 2002-02-28 11:02:18 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Chris Clough 2002-02-28 11:06:17 UTC CAM Software Tim Goldstein 2002-02-28 11:35:34 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Tom Benedict 2002-02-28 11:58:15 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Tom Benedict 2002-02-28 12:03:35 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] CAM Software Chris Clough 2002-02-28 12:16:25 UTC RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] CAM Software follicely_challenged 2002-02-28 12:51:56 UTC Re: CAM Software Chris Clough 2002-02-28 12:53:52 UTC RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: CAM Software Alan Marconett KM6VV 2002-02-28 13:27:10 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Alan Marconett KM6VV 2002-02-28 13:42:46 UTC Re: VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe vrsculptor 2002-02-28 13:43:36 UTC Re: CAM Software Peter 2002-02-28 13:59:52 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: CAM Software Bob Campbell 2002-02-28 14:05:49 UTC RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] CAM Software Tom Benedict 2002-02-28 14:09:08 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Alan Marconett KM6VV 2002-02-28 14:19:58 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] CAM Software Hugh Currin 2002-02-28 14:29:40 UTC Re: VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Alan Marconett KM6VV 2002-02-28 14:39:16 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe stevenson_engineers 2002-02-28 14:52:51 UTC Re: CAM Software Alan Marconett KM6VV 2002-02-28 15:11:23 UTC Re: VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Tom Benedict 2002-02-28 18:06:04 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Alan Marconett KM6VV 2002-02-28 18:21:07 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe vrsculptor 2002-02-28 19:17:25 UTC Re: CAM Software docholliday01201 2002-02-28 19:33:11 UTC Re: CAM Software imserv1 2002-02-28 21:00:51 UTC Re: VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Tim Goldstein 2002-02-28 21:04:10 UTC RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Jon Elson 2002-02-28 23:08:41 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Tony Jeffree 2002-02-28 23:23:59 UTC Re: VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe ptengin@a... 2002-03-01 01:10:58 UTC [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] CAM Software Tom Benedict 2002-03-01 07:19:09 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe Tom Benedict 2002-03-03 19:33:19 UTC Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: VectorCam Demo and EMC - Lathe