I do know I switch on the lathe. I chuck in the piece I'm turning and move to
the point where I manually turn in the cross slide since I don't have an X
motor set up on the South Bend yet.
For me that would be turn on the machine the go get the piece I want to
turn. By the time I get back I can hit 'home all'. Chuck in the piece
and manually move to the face using the electronic handwheels. Assuming
you walked into the shop with the workpiece in your hand you're slightly
ahead here.
So say I face off the piece. I then set zero. MACH and LinuxCNC have a button
for that.
Evenly matched here, assuming your ELS is in the correct menu to zero.
To keep our descriptions similar I'll assume I manually faced off using
the hand wheels (which is what I would normally do).
You don't mention selecting your spindle speed. Depending on your
machine you're either operating levers or moving a belt. For me F5 to
enter MDI mode, S1500<enter>. Takes about the same time it would take to
look up what gear change lever positions you need for your desired
speed. Now press the spindle on button. Spindle on is a physical button
on the carriage so it's just like having a spindle on lever on a manual.
Move to the right a bit with a jog button and tap the BEGIN button. ENTER and
then TURN again. Tap the END button and key in a negative distance towards the
chuck which is the distance from the freshly cut face. ENTER, TURN buttons.
Dial the X handle to roughly where I want my first pass and START.
Now the display tells me to insert the tool into the work since it knows I
don't have an X motor. ENTER to confirm and away it goes. When it stops, it
tells me to retract the tool. I do that and press START.
Move to the start position with the hand wheels. I'm already in MDI mode
from setting the spindle speed so type: G1Z-50F100<enter>. While it's
cutting type: G0Z1<enter> I didn't bother retracting 'cos this is only a
roughing cut. I could also have spun the Z handwheel to return to the
start of the cut instead of the G0 move.
At this point I'd stop the spindle and measure.
Ditto.
Figure out total depth of cut to get to my target diameter.
Zero the X scale on the handle. Dial in depth of cut and press START.
Switch to manual mode and enter the measured diameter. This involves
using the mouse so it's a bit slower than manually zeroing the handle.
However the machine now does the math for me. I never was that great at
mental arithmetic. <F5>G0X15<enter>. Hit the spindle on button, up arrow
3 times to recall my previous Z cut and hit enter. Rinse and repeat.
Assuming both systems are used by operators who have roughly equivalent
experience the overall job time with CNC should be slightly less but for
a very simple job like this the time not enough to make any practical
difference. My point is that with CNC you can do the simple stuff easily
while also being able do stuff that would be extremely difficult or even
pretty much impossible by hand.
Now if this fancy Break Out Board c/w display and buttons cost around $200 and
had an Ethernet connection that accepted messages as if it were a clone of a
$200+ MESA Break Out Board what is the difference?
None at all, apart from the fact that the Mesa hardware exists and this
fancy breakout board doesn't. If it had all of the versatility of the
Mesa system and cost less I'd probably use it myself, as long as I can
remap those buttons do do whatever I want and I can lose the poky little
lcd display in favor of a decent sized monitor.
And if this fancy Break Out Board had a few extra buttons like my
Shumatech DRO has for finding center of a hole or edge or doing bolt circles.
Or may a few other operations that MACH3/4 call wizards, all from that front
panel
And you're going to access these functions though a little LCD? You are
headed into menu hell. At this level of sophistication you are so close
to having a full CNC that you might as well go full CNC with all of it's
associated advantages.
If you are repairing something that you clamp in the vise and doesn't start off
as a block of aluminium, the manual or power assisted manual method might be
more useful.
On my mill roughly 50% of what I do falls into this scenario. That is
why I use CNC machines with electronic handwheels and an easy to use MDI
box. I now have the best of both worlds.
Les
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