RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Higher performance systems

Hi Doug

Yes it's a good thread.

The EMC contouring is not an academic exercise (I hope).
The goal is to get functional contouring SOON!
I'll hopefully be dicussing it more a bit later
when it is on the machine and working.

Certainly buying a machine will get you going much much faster.

In my case and others we build cnc hardware and software
for some of these reasons:

1) We Like it!

2) We are dedicated to an open source development concept

3) We have the skills to develop these systems knowing full
well that we would be better off flipping burgers and buying
commercial products with our extra money :^)

and lastly in my case

4) I ended up with what I consider a high performance machine in
the shop and I don't owe a cent to anyone! (I try to forget
the year and a half it took to make that machine magically
appear there.) It was built on a fraction of the budget I had
for something similar I would design at my employer in the past,
and much harder work.

I will freely admit that none of those reasons are particularly
logical!

Les

Leslie M.Watts
L M Watts Furniture
Tiger Georgia USA
http://home.alltel.net/leswatts/wf.html
Engineering page:
http://home.alltel.net/leswatts/shop.html
CNC surplus for sale:
http://home.alltel.net/leswatts/forsale.html
CNC carved signs:
http://home.alltel.net/leswatts/signwp.html




-----Original Message-----
From: doug98105 [mailto:doug.rasmussen@...]
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 12:06 PM
To: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Higher performance systems


Les,

I'm enjoying this thread.

Just a little side note here.....

A friend has a large machine designed for mold making. It uses one
of the newer Fanuc controls designed for high speed contouring. He
doesn't program in feedrates, but in accuracy. By accuracy I mean
he tells the control how close the actual toolpath must be to the
programmed path and lets the machine self determine it's feedrate
based on the part contours. I believe it's just a matter of
selecting one of the pre-determined accuracy settings in the control.

Regarding the issue of high performance.....

In my experience for general metal machining it's more important to
have a high rapid rate then it is to have high speed contouring
capibility. The cutting rate is usually limited by tool/material
issues while the rapiding between cutting locations doesn't have
those constraints and is usually a straight path.

A question....

Is this work on high speed contouring just an academic exercise?
Plenty of commercial machines are on the market that will do this
already. Buy the commercial machine and start making parts tomorrow
and you'll spill more money on the way to the bank than the DIY
builder will ever make with his machine. The last statement is a
slight exaggeration, but in my business experience that's what I've
concluded.

thanks,

Doug