Book recommendation: CNC Programming Handbook

Hi people.

I'd like to recommend a book that I found really good: "CNC Programming
Handbook" by Peter Smid.

Amazon sells it here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0831131586/qid=1061837316/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-0005479-3852049?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I think we purchased it from Enco at a lower price.

Synopsis

This is a really good cnc *programming* book. It doesn't discuss much
about general machining directly. It assumes you know how to machine
something manually. It does discuss things like coolant and feedrates
and tool setup as they pertain to the machining operation you are
programming.

Basically, this book explains *in_layman's_terms* how to program just
about any CNC operation you can think of, turning or milling. Thread
cutting: yes. Helical milling: yes. Tool offsets and radius
compensation: yes. Pocket milling: yes. Local coordinate systems: yes.
Etc, etc, etc. Anything I could think of CNC wise was in the book.

The author appears to be highly knowledgeable and has an excellent
writing style. He explains everything with examples. He discusses
ramifications. He discusses alternatives. He discusses many CNC
subjects that I haven't seen discussed in any other books.

I think this is an outstanding book on the subject.

I've read "An introduction to CNC Machining and Programming" and found
this to be a much more in-depth and interesting book.

A couple things could be improved:

a) A CDROM is included with the book. The author doesn't mention it
anywhere. I haven't attempted to use it yet. It might just be a
compilation of all the code examples in the book.

b) The author bases all discussions on the Fanuc CNC instruction set.
Other CNC systems use slightly different instruction sets. It would be
nice if there was some sort of cross reference between various
instruction sets. For example, G33 and G77 don't appear anywhere in the
book (at least not in the index), but their Fanuc counterparts do.

c) The hardware the author references is just a bit dated, but it is
probably what most CNC machines run these days. He isn't explaining
paper tape systems or anything like that, but he isn't discussing high
end PC based controllers either. It is only a minor inconvenience as
most readers should be able to figure out the correlation between the
hardware he discusses and theirs.

I liked the fact that this book didn't waste pages with "end of chapter
questions". Maybe that is just my preference.

Disclaimer: your mileage may vary. I have no affiliations with Enco,
Amazon or the author. I just liked the book !

> Kim Lux <lux@...>