Re: Mach III and DeskCNC

>--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "Will" <nmbmxer@y...> wrote:
>
> I dont have a CNC machine of my own, yet, but I took a class in
> college last year on G-code programming and we used Hass machining
> centers. We wrote G70/71 rough/finish cycles for all our lathe
> profiling and I want my home machine to run similarly to the other
> machines I've run. I have copies of the Hass manuals, they include
> alot of great examples for programming and I wanted to be able to >use
> these to get back into programming if you will.
> For summer work I run an NC lathe and a thread mill for Kennametal
> (the guys who make toolholders and inserts.) The programs for the
> lathe were written in unigraphics, and well, their awful. I think
> that rough/finnish cycles make for "cleaner" code.
> What is G20/21? Is it the same function as G70/71?
> I downloaded the evaluation copy of deskcnc, and frankly I liked the
> way MachIII looked alot better, I liked the machine control better.
> But Deskcnc does a little bit of cam. I couldnt get good code out of
> MachIII. We also do not have a computer that will run MachIII,
> deskcnc and its controller board are cheaper than a new computer. I
> guess I just havent decided what I want yet.
>
> William

In that case Will just hang fire a bit.
Computer prices are rapidly falling and a machine to run Mach2 on at
the moment is fast appraching the throw out point. Also in th near
future it will be supporting the Gecko 200X driver which means it will
run on any clunker but be more powerfull than it is at present.

The confusion between G20/21 and G70/71 ia that MILL programs used to
use 70/71 for inmperial/ metric units then they moved to 20/21.
Not all lathe commands are shared by mill and visa versa.

At the moment Mach3 doesn't support G70/71 but a request to Art may
well get him to put it on his list.
Many lathe CAM packages can generate this code even though the machine
may not understand G70/71.

Mach3's lathe functions are well documented. I can't comment on
DeskCNC lathes functions as other than a quick rely by Fred to say
DeskCNC now does lathe there has been no further word on this matter
and a search of the word lathe in the manual doesn't get one hit.

John S.