After checking some code... You are correct on the M6 on a lathe. I program mills quite a bit more than lathes and it is required on the mills. I will pull it out of the code. Give me a couple min and i will up a new version.

Here is the new file with those updates... It also fixes a couple issues I found in the last version. Let me know what you think.

Just tried to cut air. The tool would dive right into the stock, following the arc. Needs a few roughing passes based on the X start and final X. May be the rough passes should be G1 and only a few last passes would be G3.

The Z start and end are still swapped.

Also, the X start and X end don't seem to be defined correctly. X start should be the initial stock diameter. X end should be how deep you want the arc in the workpiece, i.e. not always would you want half a circle (this is what the current code keep doing).

Dan

I wish I could find more documentation on how mach uses specific gcodes.

You will find a lot of info relative to arcs on the lathe in the ARC  Motion write up in Members Docs.
RICH

Just tried to cut air. The tool would dive right into the stock, following the arc. Needs a few roughing passes based on the X start and final X. May be the rough passes should be G1 and only a few last passes would be G3.

The Z start and end are still swapped.

Also, the X start and X end don't seem to be defined correctly. X start should be the initial stock diameter. X end should be how deep you want the arc in the workpiece, i.e. not always would you want half a circle (this is what the current code keep doing).

Dan

Something isn't right. The way the code works is this. It takes the X Start + the Radius of the arc + the clearance. This becomes the X start point for the Arc. It determines how many cuts to make based off your roughing depth and finish depth. It will cut to the X end and then rapid to the X start + clearance then to the Z start + clearance.

Are you cutting in diameter or radius mode?

Hi Wes,

I am in diameter. Are you saying that it will always do moves of half a circle? If so then the tool path was misleading - I saw it doing half circles and thought I will get the half circle in the part, but it appears to me now that part of the move will cut air. Will try to cut some material and see how it works.

Dan

Hi Wes,

I am in diameter. Are you saying that it will always do moves of half a circle? If so then the tool path was misleading - I saw it doing half circles and thought I will get the half circle in the part, but it appears to me now that part of the move will cut air. Will try to cut some material and see how it works.

Dan

Yes it cuts allot of air. In order to do it any other way would require allot more programming. Most of the wizards are very inefficient. The radius one I used cut mostly air as well until the final passes. The nice part is these are more less for quick one off parts not production runs so time doesn't matter much as long as the end result is the same. I made some chips with it today on a few test parts and it worked flawlessly.

Hi Wes,

Had a chance to cut some material today. The wizard doesn't work when in Diameter mode. The cutter plunged deep into the stock. Changed to Radius mode and changed the X values in the wizard accordingly and it worked fine.

The Z start and end are still swapped.

Dan

Please explain what you mean by "The Z start and end are still swapped." Are you talking about where the dros are located on the layout? They work fine for me in the calculations.  I will take a look at diameter mode.

Dan I just tried this is Diameter mode and the code outputted appears fine. I would love to fix the issue if I could find one. Please post the code you outputted from the wizard while in diameter mode that is diving into the stock.