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Indexed drilling using 4th axis
« on: January 25, 2015, 11:15:00 PM »
I am curious if it is possible to use a wizard to drill holes by indexing with a 4th axis.  So let's say I want to drill a hole 5 mm deep every 60 degrees of rotation. 
Is this something that is possible to do with MillWizard?   

Offline BR549

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Re: Indexed drilling using 4th axis
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2015, 12:18:54 AM »
There are currently NO wizards to do 4th axis radial drilling in mill that I am aware of.

BUT there could be shortly (;-) Go here and look at the bottom of the page and see IF this is something like you want. Only it will be a 4th axis radial drilling function

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,21870.10.html

You know that 4th axis radial drilling is supper easy to program by hand. I would be Glad to show you how.

(;-) TP
« Last Edit: January 26, 2015, 12:21:34 AM by BR549 »
Re: Indexed drilling using 4th axis
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2015, 10:05:36 AM »
Thank you for that link.  As you said, I think in this case it would be easier to just program by hand.  This wizard seems pretty complicated, and possibly beyond my abilities.
Since I am just a newbie in Mach3, could you please show me bit of a sample code for such an operation.  I would very much appreciate it.  Thank you.   

Offline BR549

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Re: Indexed drilling using 4th axis
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2015, 11:34:29 AM »
G0 X0.000 Y0.000 A0.000 Z1.000  -- Move to the Work Origin of your part

G0 X1.000                        -- Move to the start point of the drilling

G1 G81 Z-0.000  R0.250  F30      -- Start the drill cycle to drill the first hole at A0.000

A 60                          -- Move to the next drill point at A60 and it repeats the drill cycle
A120                         -- Move to the next location, etc , etc
A180
A240
A300                        --  Last hole drilled at A300
 
G80                         -- Cancel  Drill Cycle
G64                         -- Makes SURE the cycle returns to CV mode (SOME DON"T


Another FASTER to complete style ( the A can move faster between cycles. IT will LOOP through the SUB 6 times  moving A 60 degrees each loop


G0 X0.000 Y0.000 A0.000 Z1.000
G0 X1.000

M98 P1 L6          --Sets up a SUB to call the routine  and will  loop 6 times
G80 G64            -- Return point for the SUB and it cancells the Drill cycle and resets to CV mode
M30

o001                                  -- SUB routine
G81 Z-0.5000 R0.250 F30     -- RUN Drill cycle for first hole at A0.000
G91                                   -- Change to INCREMENTAL MOVES
G0 A60                              -- Rotate the A at RAPID speed
G90                                  -- Change back to ABSOLUTE moves
M99                                  --END sub return to main program


Hope this Helps if not we can try it again.

(;-) TP


« Last Edit: January 26, 2015, 11:36:30 AM by BR549 »
Re: Indexed drilling using 4th axis
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2015, 11:52:20 AM »
Thank you for such a detailed answer.  I will try both methods out.   
Re: Indexed drilling using 4th axis
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2015, 01:01:24 PM »
OK, so I understood some of the canned cycles code : )
But could use some additional clarification about this line:

G1 G81 Z-0.000  R0.250  F30      -- Start the drill cycle to drill the first hole at A0.000
So for drilling hole 1 mm deep I would put Z-1, and to retract it back, R should be 1 as well, no? Does F30 refers to both drilling and retracting feed? Can I specify retract feed to be faster? 

As far as A positions code: if for example I need to drill 55 holes equally spaced around 360 degree rotation, is there a way to program to do that automatically in equal increments, instead of specifying and manually adding together the degree positions? 

Please advise.
Thank you.

Offline BR549

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Re: Indexed drilling using 4th axis
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2015, 02:35:32 PM »
You might want to download the Manual that decribes the Gcode functions to study.

 G81 Z-0.000  R0.250  F30      -- Start the drill cycle to drill the first hole at A0.000

G81 is the Drill cycle
Z-1.000  is the drill to depth value
R0.250 is the retract to position above the part. IT is done at rapid speed
F30  is the Feedrate of the drill cycle itself.

Yes you can create code to automate the process. This is a completely programmable drilling function for radial drilling in the 4th axis. Just change the basic values in the #vars to make it do what you want.

OR I can create a very simple WIZARD to do it all for you onscreen . It is a simple process if it makes it easier for you . You fill in the values, set up your machine start positions to start and press start and it will do the drilling for you.

G0 X0.000 Y0.000 Z5.00
G0 X1.000       (Move to start point of drilling)

(Program the Function)

#1 = 360        (degrees of the part)
#2= 55           (number of holes in part)
#3 = [#1/#2]   (degrees of each index)
#4 = [#1/#3]   ( Number of indexes)
#5 = -1.00        ( Drill to depth value)
#6 = 30            (drill cycle Feedrate)
#7 =81             ( Drill cycle selection)
#8 = 1.000        (Retract to part clearance)
#9 = .250          ( Peck value for drill cycle where needed G73 G83)

(Start the Function)

M98 P1 L#4        (call the Sub and loops )
G80 G64             (Cancel the drill cycle and reset CV mode)
M30                   (End of program file,rewind)

(Sub Program)
o1
G#7 Z#5 R#8  Q#9 F#6        (Drilling Function and advance to next position)
G91
G0 A#3                                ( advance Number of degrees)
G90
M99                             (return to Sub Call and repeat)
%
« Last Edit: January 26, 2015, 02:44:56 PM by BR549 »
Re: Indexed drilling using 4th axis
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2015, 02:05:56 PM »
Thank you, that is exactly what I needed!  This will make it so much easier to change the # of holes needed. 
But one last question: shouldn't the descriptions of #3 and # 4 be switched?
Seems like the expression #3= [#1/#2] refers to number of indexes, rather than degrees. 
Please advise.  Thanks.

Offline BR549

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Re: Indexed drilling using 4th axis
« Reply #8 on: January 27, 2015, 08:14:50 PM »
You have 360 degrees and 55 holes so each index is 6.5454 degrees   360/55 =

and you have 360 degrees and each index is 6.5454 degrees so each cycle has 55 indexes  and that needs to be rounded down   RND  360/6.5454= 55.0004  =  55

OR just make #4 = #2 as that is how many holes there are so that would be the the number of indexs and SAVES having to round down the number.

6 of 1 or 1/2 dozen of the other (;-)

(;-) TP
Re: Indexed drilling using 4th axis
« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2015, 08:25:48 PM »
That makes sense now!  Thank you for being patient with me : )