Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Bridgeport CNC Mill???

"hanermo" - CNC 6-axis Designs wrote:

> My main interest is getting my complex lathe retrofits running (will be
> a commercial product).
>
> Ie two opposite spindles, and both are live tooling, and indexed.
> Ie both are servos.
>
>

OK, so you will not be using both spindles at once. That is important,
as there is
really no way to program independent tools with normal G-code.

Now, if you set up a mechanism to swap from using one spindle to the
other, appropriate
offsets could be switched in for the active spindle. You would likely
need a G1xx
routine to perform the switchover, so it could keep interferences from
causing a crash.
In the new EMC2, G1xx commands can call up arbitrary code, either G-code,
special Hal components or even a completely independent program to
perform the
necessary functions. Literally, you can give a G1xx command and have
the system
FTP files off a remote system and then run them. (Not that I've ever
done this.....)

Anyway, as long as there is only one XYZABC movement going on at one time,
EMC2 can do this. It takes some special add-ons, probably not too hard
to accomplish
in HAL. Perhaps a lot of the offset stuff can be done by having the
right offsets
in your tool table, and using G41 to put in the right offsets for the
two spindles.

Jon