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General Mach Discussion / Re: Arcs and cutter comp
« on: March 31, 2013, 01:07:38 AM »OK, My 1st program.
In regards to making arcs, is I and J incremental or absolute in Mach3? What if I am in G90 mode?
I plan on cutting a path by programming the points of the outline and using both G41 and G42. You see, I have a .375" cutter and I am going to for the first pass, G41 and use a P variable of .375 ( .750" diameter cutter), get to the end of the pass and then switch to G42 w/ a P of .3125, go back up that path but in reverse. I want to go back and forth getting closer each time to the final dimension until I use a final P of .1854 as this whole operation has been a roughing cut in 4140 PH. I will not be making any tool changes so I won't be using D variables. From what I understand, I don't need any lead in moves when hitting the end of the path and changing between G41 and G42. My question is this, will I need to include lead in moves because I am changing my P values?
Hi Mountainman,
Too funny, I just noticed your post right after I posted a very similar question and have been beating my head trying to understand G02 and G42 for a few hours. I think we may have similar questions, but also you seem to have a question that I have just learned the answer to I think.
Go to the "Config" pull down menu and select "General Config...". There in the middle you'll see "IJ mode" and you can select relative or absolute.
For some reason this is "absolute" by default I think. And it would seem that doing G02's with relative IJ's is way easier to code by hand.
Anyway, I got that working fine, but see my other questions here:
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,24178.0.html