CAM Software for lathes

[M250cnc]

Aahh.... It seems there is another Easymill - the one I was referring to was www.easymill.com (French) or www.easymill.co.uk (English).
That one does do 4 and 5 axis in 2.5D.

http://www.easymill.com
http://www.easymill.co.uk

Yes those were the sites i was referring to, maybe you need some lessons on the differences between 2.5D and 3D/5 axis machining.

Phil

Phil

[John S]

Aahh.... It seems there is another Easymill - the one I was referring to was www.easymill.com (French) or www.easymill.co.uk (English).
That one does do 4 and 5 axis in 2.5D.

How can you do 4 and 5 axis in 2.5D ?

If you can't get the facts correct what credibility do you have ?

To do 4 / 5 axis the program has to have the ability to work with A and B axis, can Easymill do this

[Jonathan]

If a hobby mill costs £3-7K (KX1/3 at £3-4K, Syil at £3-4K+, Tormach at £5-7K, home made £2K+) then £375 price for a CAM package would not be an unreasonable cost.

I'm not sure about buying a CNC mill, but I think £2k+ is a bit much for a CNC mill.

I got my milling machine second hand for £320 (new £800 ish). Stepper motors and drivers cost £266. Transformer etc <£30. That's £616.
Granted I didn't buy ballscrews, but even with that it's probably less than £800.

For me spending £375 on a CAM package just isn't happening. So far I've got along fine with a)writing gcode manually, b)writing my own programs (pulleys, wind turbine blades), c) cambam free edition and using the denford QuickCAM pro at school every so often.

You can do a lot with the cambam free edition with a bit of effort. Using that and CNCtoolkit and you'll be able to do most things. Turbine blades too....

[El$syd]

I'm not sure about buying a CNC mill, but I think £2k+ is a bit much for a CNC mill.

I got my milling machine second hand for £320 (new £800 ish). Stepper motors and drivers cost £266. Transformer etc <£30. That's £616.
Granted I didn't buy ballscrews, but even with that it's probably less than £800.

For me spending £375 on a CAM package just isn't happening. So far I've got along fine with a)writing gcode manually, b)writing my own programs (pulleys, wind turbine blades), c) cambam free edition and using the denford QuickCAM pro at school every so often.

You can do a lot with the cambam free edition with a bit of effort. Using that and CNCtoolkit and you'll be able to do most things. Turbine blades too....

Yes it is possible to make a very low cost CNC machine, as you have.
Depending on what you are going to use it for, you can get away with not using ball screws - if you can accept and remember to program in the backlash.

This is the lowest cost machine I have seen - Unless someone knows of an even lower cost machine.
I would not want to make repeatable items on this - probably just my prejudice :-)

My second hand mill - a Denford TRIAC PC - cost me £1500 complete. It claims to be repeatable to 5 microns, not that I would know!

But the original question was not milling but turning - Easymill.co.uk does have a separate package for turning. I have not used it yet as my Lathe is manual only at this time! But I may get to use it on the mill as the axes translate over.

BTW - Easymill.co.uk did have a special offer over the Christmas period as an introduction to the UK market, the Hobbycam version was £50 instead of £375 for a limited time - maybe they will do that again?

[John S]

Yes -the internet connection is required for PP.




The commercial version of Easymill is £2500 and competes with the 'heavyweights' Delcam etc. but at a fraction of their prices.

You jest surely ?

VisualMILL 6.0 STD Windows-based 2½ and 3 axis solid/surface/STL manufacturing system. Includes VisualMill 6.0 CAM engine, DXF & IGES translator, other CAD imports (SolidWorks translator: Extra Cost Item) and configurable post-processor. $999

That's a 3 axis program for the equivalent of £625

John S.

[m_c]

I've got to say I'm not convinced by easymill.

I've briefly looked at some CAM packages for turning (I'm in a similar position to the original poster), and Dolphin partmaster is the one that I'm favouring if they run another one of their hobbist deals, but for most of what I need to do for now, I think I'll get by with the Mach3 built in wizards.

[Kai]

So was there ever an answer to the software for lathes?
I am having fun lol not with lazyturn and miniture tank barrels everything was going well then mach3 just froze and lost the last tool path then decided to part the job
with a vcmt insert not a happy bunny right now and running out of scrap ally to play with grumble grumble

[cooliced]

I am using DolphinCADCAM, (Partmaster)

It works very well with Mach3 and EMC2 (download the windows 7 patch and the PP files are in there)

I havent had any issues with this program and do recommend it, worth the buy imo

[M250cnc]

I tried a demo of Partmaster, but i absolutely hated it.

They do do deals for hobby users in which the price is quite reasonable.

So try the demo

Make sure STOP SPINDLE WAIT FOR CYCLE START is ticked in general config TOOL CHANGE

Phil

[John S]

I use Dolphin Partmaster for mill but hardly for lathe, for lathe most of what I do I can get by with using the wizards in Mach 3.
These will be updated shortly so you can add to them, i.e stack them up so you can do a face operation, then turn, then screwcut.

Ron Ginger who's in charge of Wizards reckons he'll have them done for the CNC show in the US in June or July.

Partmaster is a two part program, CAD and CAM. CAD absolutely sucks, it's terrible and not intuitive at all. CAM is very good and if you bring files in as DXF's it works well.