Re: The Dark Satanic Mill
Thanks for that John. LOL. Up to about an hour ago I thought that there were only minor dialect differences in G-code and those would only be found in the heady areas of Haas / Fanuc type territory. I also thought that the ISO standard would be the main one in use! :-) WRONG! ...and as I have no ambitions to purchase an 8 axis PA 8000 e2, I'll certainly wander over to Amazon grab the handbook, sounds like a useful read.
At the moment I'm not certain if I'll use Mach 3 or something else so I've only had a quick look through the Mach manual. If I do end up using Mach3 then I'll obviously use their G-code spec.
Re: The Dark Satanic Mill
Quote:
Originally Posted by
John S
Good book and really a bible is CNC Programming Handbook by Smid.
Bit pricey in 3rd edition but 2nd editions can be picked up cheaply and not a lot of difference in them.
Better idea save your money and put it towards the machine getting done quicker because although like John says it's a good read and very informative it does relate more to industry standards and Mach doesn't exactly follow them to the letter(At the moment.!). . . . Can't beat hands on experience IMO so get bloody cutting ASAP and learn along the way.
Re: The Dark Satanic Mill
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mocha
At the moment I'm not certain if I'll use Mach 3 or something else so I've only had a quick look through the Mach manual. If I do end up using Mach3 then I'll obviously use their G-code spec.
To be honest Mocha if your using a decent Cam package you'll probably rarely touch the G-code and even then if you do it will most likely be simple stuff like changing a feed rate (F Code) in G1 move or some thing like Z height etc nothing special or unique and mostly standard G-code on Most controls.!!
It's idea good idea to learn G-code so you can monitor and understand or keep track of whats happening while cutting but it's getting less and less needed has Cam gets better and Post processors become more refined.
Re: The Dark Satanic Mill
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JAZZCNC
Better idea save your money and put it towards the machine getting done quicker because although like John says it's a good read and very informative it does relate more to industry standards and Mach doesn't exactly follow them to the letter(At the moment.!). . . . Can't beat hands on experience IMO so get bloody cutting ASAP and learn along the way.
Just what I was thinking.
A lot, if not most, of the 'hobby' CAM programs tend to do almost everything with G0,1,3 anyway presumably because there aren't many cases where it makes a difference. For instance V-carve doesn't even use G81 to drill, just uses G1 and G0.
Just yesterday I was chamfering some large rectangular aluminium parts, but due to the parts having taken so long to cut and the MDF bed the chamfers were uneven. Easily solved by measuring the actual width of the chamfer in the 4 corners and adding Z moves to those points to make the tool move on an inclined plane to compensate for the bed...didn't need any fancy codes, just a bit of common sense. Look them up if/when you need them.
Re: The Dark Satanic Mill
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JAZZCNC
To be honest Mocha if your using a decent Cam package you'll probably rarely touch the G-code and even then if you do it will most likely be simple stuff like changing a feed rate (F Code) in G1 move or some thing like Z height etc nothing special or unique and mostly standard G-code on Most controls.!!
It's idea good idea to learn G-code so you can monitor and understand or keep track of whats happening while cutting but it's getting less and less needed has Cam gets better and Post processors become more refined.
Thanks Jazz, I must admit that my thinking has been influenced by all the posts I've noticed where it's mentions something like, "...so I have to go and edit that (in/out/etc) in the G-code". I've almost accepted that some kind of tweaking will be required. (I even pulled down Notepad++ in readiness!) My experience with trying to get something useful out of TurboCAD / CAM did nothing to allay that belief! But from what you are saying, that's not as common a situation as I thought.
Re: The Dark Satanic Mill
The book would be handy as a reference but I doubt you would use it alot. I am learning G Code as I go along. At work we use custom ESSI and the only time I dig out the manual is when the machine does something wrong and I need to check the program or when the CAD/CAM guys want some advice on something.
Ian
Re: The Dark Satanic Mill
Well this isn't going to be much of a build thread as I've decided to buy one that someone else has built!!
June 10th delivery all being well :-)
Head is full of Cad stuff now !!