Re: Hi I'm new

Chris,

In my very first post to the group, I said I was new to this hobby,
not machining or CNC's, or Cad/Cams or anything related. I would like
ro relay my experiences to you, and you can do what you want with it.

For the last 11 or 12 years, 8-10 hours a day, I have been on Fadal
VMC's, as well as Cincinnati Milacrons. I am a "dirty hands" guy. I
do my own prgramming and setting up, as well as operating the
machines. The three Fadals all use their own proprietary operating
system, which I would guess is similar to a Basic Stamp, ie: it's all
burned onto the chips. Two of the three Milacrons are Windows NT
based, with 2 PC's buried in the cabinet. One PC runs the operator
station, the other is dedicated solely to running the drives. I'll
admit, they can be fun. I've seen a disgruntled employee put pictures
of naked ladies up as his screen saver, just to aggravate the boss.

Not to be long winded, I'll get to the point. Any control in the
world can screw up at any time for a variety of reasons. But the
Windows based controls seem to like to do it when you least expect
it. Usually the other controls will exhibit some sort of "sympton"
first.

I've seen this so many times over the years using them. My favorite
is when (on the average of once a year, maybe less), they
inexplicably "take off", either the table rapids (700 ipm) all the
way to one side until it bangs a physical limit, and the machine must
be powered down, the screw turned by hand to get it off, or better
yet, on occasion, the head likes to ram all the way down, full speed
until it slams a vice (luckily it hasn't hit the table yet). We don't
even bother to call in a tech anymore. We just "reboot" the machine
and it goes for months withour doing this again.

Well, that's my experience with Windows based controls. Just when you
think they are "rock solid" stable, you walk away and WHAM!

We are about due for a crash, they've been running too quietly lately.

Anyways, I hope your head isn't level with the table on your desktop
when you're surfing the web, it sounds like you trust it just a
little too much.

My .02

David

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, Chris L <datac@l...> wrote:
> Now that I have proven on my machine that FC pulls this
> machining/multitasking off flawlessly, I just might buy an Altec
Lansing
> set of speakers with Subwoofer to compliment my Machine and elevate
the
> ambiance in the work area. :-)
>
> Be good,
>
> Chris L
>