Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Best CNC Textbooks

In a message dated 3/12/2003 10:26:52 AM Central Standard Time,
jttravis45@... writes:

> What are some of the best texts on CNC ? - need info on both programming and
> building a CNC system.
>

Joe!

At the outset, I must admit I am NOT a professional machinist nor "CNC guru."
I only built FOUR little CNC lathes from scratch, first operated by an
ancient Commodore PET using BASIC!, and the last two VERY successfully using
OLD Tandy 1500HD laptops, running GWBASIC. Being ignernt at the outset, and
there BEING no info "off the shelf" for a beginner to read in 1978-on, I
taught myself.

However, I TRIED, and got the following books. I scanned them, but realized
that IF I wanted to learn anything about professional CNC, I'd have to go
into "disciplined mode" and "study," and, well, NEVERmind! But I still have
the books "for reference," doncha know! They are:

NC MACHINE PROGRAMMING AND SOFTWARE DESIGN by Chao-Hwa Chang and Michel (NO,
not Michael!) A. Melkanoff. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632
NICELY bound hardback book with drawings. Looks like an EXCELLENT beginning!


Second, perhaps useful: (I had marked "$35.00 cost" on the cover of THIS
one!) AN OPERATORS [sic!] INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER NUMERICAL CONTROL written
by Chris Mackay. Plastic multiloop spine--you know those left-edges of each
page punched with 19 small rectangular holes. 89 pages (pages printed on
both sides of paper)

This one looks to me like it was probably originally published as a textbook
for H.S. Vocational Arts classes on CNC machining: Introduction to NC/CNC
Operation William W. Luggen. Lotsa explanatory diagrams, drawings, and a
few BW photos.

Question to the entire CCED group: For us NON-machinists, should I write a
2- or 3-page article on how to use GWBASIC (or probably MOST BASIC's would
work?) to send STEP-pulses out the LPT-1 for X- and Y-, and to control the
tail-stock and spindle-motor??? Would a little document that size be too
much for the FILES department of this group? TELL ME! I can do straight
lines at any angle with simple FOR-NEXT loops, and CURVES of any mathematical
form (circles, ellipses, parallelogram, etc.) using a bit of RAM to hold a
"lookup table" which is generated when the program is first RUN. Perhaps a
proper discussion of how I do curves that way would be a bit much for said
article, as there are "important details" I have discovered over the years
which would add-up in pages!

Jan Rowland



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