Hey guys,

Very new to CNC and machining in fact. On a simple XZ plane lathe, could you please tell me what the outcome of this part would be. The grey background represents the part and the red(embarrassingly drawn in paint) represents the cut.


What Im lost on is what does the four arcs(yes those are arcs) at radius of .250 on all four courners do? What would this look like on a part?

My second question is, from what I understand on a XZ lathe what you do to one side of the part on a lathe you automatically do to all sides(because the part is constantly rotating.) Because of this, does one arc at one corner have to be programmed in and that is it and it would be the equivalent of the first picture I posted?


Thank you for your time!

May I suggest you have a look at the LazyTurn Manual which can be found in Members Doc's.
In one of the reference section's there is a listing of many files posted which can be opened and run.
The above should give you manny clues as to how things can be done on the lathe.
Please walk before you run.....,
RICH

May I suggest you have a look at the LazyTurn Manual which can be found in Members Doc's.
In one of the reference section's there is a listing of many files posted which can be opened and run.
The above should give you manny clues as to how things can be done on the lathe.
Please walk before you run.....,
RICH

True enough Rich but can you please tell me if I am right when I say that doing a arc in one corner of the part in the toolpath of mach like so
would be the same as what I want to do here since the spindle is rotating and it is occuring at all points / sides

The pathing ( each of the cuts that the lathe will do ) is based on the profile of the part to be machined. The profile you draw is only the lower or upper half of the profile ( in many programs ). Thus both sides, when looking in plan or elevation view of the profile will have a radius. This is true, since as you said, the spindle is turning.

You must define to the program how you want to machine the profile. The machinng is usualy done by making more than
one machining sequence. ie; a rough cut to remove as much material  as posssible in the shortest time, then a rough / finish pass to clean up the rough, then a finish pass ...which in some cases will only remove a small amount of material and may make a single cut following the contour of the profile. So you will  need to change tools in order to accomplish the machining.

There are Wizards in Turn to accomplish simple machining tasks like your pictures and would recommend you fool around with them.

Hope this helps,

RICH