[Lathe] Fanuc OT to DC_CNC conversion

You watch all these videos and shows on TV and they make it look easy doing CNC, they don't show you the mistakes or glitches. Definitely a learning experience, and you have mastered a lot of skills in a short time (but it took longer than a week).... Still very impressed with the results/improvement, must be very gratifying to see it working and and seeing something tangible in your hands. An inspiration to others, thanks for posting.
 
You watch all these videos and shows on TV and they make it look easy doing CNC, they don't show you the mistakes or glitches. Definitely a learning experience, and you have mastered a lot of skills in a short time (but it took longer than a week).... Still very impressed with the results/improvement, must be very gratifying to see it working and and seeing something tangible in your hands. An inspiration to others, thanks for posting.

Thank you for the kind words. OK, maybe a bit longer than a week :grin: but yes, I'm pretty happy with the result so far.
 
maybe I'm too old fashioned, but I don't care much for CAM generated gcode on the lathe. I will draw the final shape in something like draft sight with a layer for each tool and then convert that to gcode snips with a backplotter if its complex.

lathe parts just aren't that complex and gcode editing at the machine is FAR simpler if you wrote it.


GREAT progress on a difficult refit. You should be as proud as a papa with a new baby girl.
 
Overall not too bad considering all new controls and software, and the fact that I have zero experience on CNC lathes and am learning Fusion 360 at the same time.

A huge undertaking for sure. You're doing great. I also have Fusion and need to learn it. Been handwriting my g code and learning that is bad enough.
Keep us posted if you find the reason for the dimension mistake from fusion.
From your post 65 I was gonna mention you were not pushing it hard enough, but as amature as I am I held my tongue. Good to know that is just what it needed to put out a good finish.

Ready to go into production. I have about 1000 lbs of 1.5 inch 6061 round bar sitting on the floor waiting to be converted into these parts.

Now a bar feeder would be nice. Are you going to run a sleeve in the spindle? Support that stock ridgedly? I've seen some horrifying lathe disasters on youtube with long stock whipping a cnc lathe around.
The fiberglass spindle end cover on my mori is all broken out from someone learning the hard way about long stock bending.
 
maybe I'm too old fashioned, but I don't care much for CAM generated gcode on the lathe. I will draw the final shape in something like draft sight with a layer for each tool and then convert that to gcode snips with a backplotter if its complex. lathe parts just aren't that complex and gcode editing at the machine is FAR simpler if you wrote it. GREAT progress on a difficult refit. You should be as proud as a papa with a new baby girl.

Thank you Karl. :) I am pretty happy. This may be one of the most complex retrofits I have done in that I had no idea what I was doing when I started. I have done retrofits on more complex machines for the wood products industry, but I knew exactly how they needed to run and it was just a matter of making it do it.


A huge undertaking for sure. You're doing great. I also have Fusion and need to learn it. Been handwriting my g code and learning that is bad enough.
Keep us posted if you find the reason for the dimension mistake from fusion.
From your post 65 I was gonna mention you were not pushing it hard enough, but as amature as I am I held my tongue. Good to know that is just what it needed to put out a good finish. Now a bar feeder would be nice. Are you going to run a sleeve in the spindle? Support that stock ridgedly? I've seen some horrifying lathe disasters on youtube with long stock whipping a cnc lathe around.
The fiberglass spindle end cover on my mori is all broken out from someone learning the hard way about long stock bending.

Thank you Russ. I finally had to set Fusion ''Material to Leave'' to -0.010 for that operation to get it to generate the correct G code. I think there is some kind of bug in the software or there is a setting somewhere that is not correct. I need to revisit the tool library and see if the problem is in there.

In post #65 that was literally the first chips I made with the new system. I was being way conservative with everything and one hand on the E stop, the other hand holding the camera. :cautious:

I am very cognizant of the dangers of an unsupported bar. I actually had that happen to me on a manual lathe many years ago when I was young and stupid, was working on a 1.25 inch boat prop shaft. Only took one time to learn that lesson. :eek:

We are going to use a part puller rather than a bar feeder. I am going to build a bar support system similar to a Haas bar feeder. Due to space constraints, I need to design a support system that is portable so it can be bolted into place but easily removed for storage when not in use.

I have some spindle sleeves, and need to build some others to handle the different sizes we need. My Hardinge also has evidence of a whipping bar sometime in it's life, tore up the spindle motor fan housing and beat the he!! out of the sheet metal cabinet. For the moment I'm going to limit the bar length to 45 inches.
 
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Keep us posted if you find the reason for the dimension mistake from fusion.

OK, I found the problem. Turns out the ''Compensation'' needed to be set to ''Tip'' rather than ''Insert Center'' I have no idea why this makes a difference, may be due to the ''Corner Radius'' being set to 0.005.

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We are going to use a part puller rather than a bar feeder

Good idea as long as there is an open tool post, or are you doing a combo cutoff bar puller , or better yet building your own for us to copy:eagerness:



edit for speling.ha ha ho
 
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OK, I found the problem. Turns out the ''Compensation'' needed to be set to ''Tip'' rather than ''Insert Center'' I have no idea why this makes a difference, may be due to the ''Corner Radius'' being set to 0.005.

Makes a difference cause it's a concave part??? I surely don't have any experience there to say,.. but very interesting to me to know cause I have some ideas for some parts that will have concave features...Though mine will not be size critical so I probably wouldn't have noticed anyway.
Sooner or later it would come up where I'd need specific dimension so at the very least I now know to watch out for it.
 
Good idea as long as there is an open tool post, or are you doing a combo cutoff bar puller , or better yet building your own for us to copy:eagerness:

I'm going to buy one of these, I could build one but I don't have time right now.



Makes a difference cause it's a concave part??? I surely don't have any experience there to say,.. but very interesting to me to know cause I have some ideas for some parts that will have concave features...Though mine will not be size critical so I probably wouldn't have noticed anyway.
Sooner or later it would come up where I'd need specific dimension so at the very least I now know to watch out for it.

The concave area is a completely separate operation with a different tool done after the grooving that turns down the 1.250 area. Fusion does strange stuff sometimes, but it is free. :)
 
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