Hi Dale
This might be along reply!
I thought this would all be quite logical and well documented. WELL-----
I did homing, tool setup, and offset watching Ron Ginger's youtube. After shutting everything down and starting back up, it seems my starting point; the end of the round stock I have not moved; is different.
You need to "home" your machine before you do all the offset setting and again when turn it on again - so the machine knows where it is each time. If it is moving after that have a look at the accuracy of your homing switch.
Well, I moved on and tried a machmotion canned turning cycle after watching Mach's overview video. But this did not address the various parameters in the turn cycle. Some are readily apparent. But when one states Xi, Zi; this is referenced to what? I wish I could just set 0 as the centerline of the lathe (with tool 1, 2, etc.) and use absolute numbers from there. How? What is clearances, Xc and Zc? What is pocket? Tool number? Offset is tool offset?
The canned cycles, you need to look carefully at the diagrams on each one to determine what the X1, Z1 etc. refer to. The numbers they refer to are diameters or lengths at the start and or finish of the cycle you have chosen.
Have you set you lathe for diameter or radius mode? If you are an old time manual lathe user then you might like radius mode - I am an old time manual lathe user though and diameter mode make life easy for me - no mental calculations needed.
Setting the offsets as you did in stage 1 of your setup from Ron's videos will take care of how far the tool is from the centre line and when you home your machine it knows where the centre line is.
Clearances are how far the tool will move away from the job when moving and not cutting.
Tool number lets the canned cycle know what tool you are using and calculate tool position from the offset you set for the tool. To keep things easy in your head keep the offset number the same as your tool number. When you you do a tool change eg: M6t0202 the first 02 is tool 02 and the second 02 is the offset, so offset is the offset you set for the tool you want to use.
In finishing pass, what is finish depth?
Finishing pass is how much the final pass will take off - depends on your tool - are you using carbide insert tooling? - if so they have a minimum depth they like to be used at. Look at the packet of tips for an info sticker - they wont cut small amounts - most of mine need a minimum cut of about 40 thou, some even more than that. Set your finishing pass to more than the minimum your tool can cut. They will rub and give a poor finish if you try to take a small cut. Use high speed steel tools if you need to cut small cuts.
I wish there was a manual that defined each button. For instance, on the main screen, what is "Machine Pos Toggle" and "Go To Work Zero" does not do what I thought it would. It moves the carriage. But to where? Somewhere to nowhere.
Machine position toggle button - when you home your machine it sets a coordinate system that the machine understands based on your home switches - how far the machine is from the home switches. Then when you put your work in the chuck and set z work zero at the end of your job with what tool you use as your master tool the machine sees the position of that as how far it is from the z home machine position or "z work position". When you toggle that button it's one or the other position. So two positions - where the machine zero is or how far you are from it and the zero work position which is machine position and tool offset. The master tool sets the z offset for the other tools you will use. X position is much the same but I bet your head is already spinning.
Go to work zero moves the machine to the zero position you set when you put the job in the lathe and told mach where the end of the bar is.
Anyone in the Atlanta GA area that want a free beer or three - or Lemonade - or a small donation to help me with my learning curve?
A lot of this is hard to describe in words but a few hours hands on with someone would make you an expert - I live in a little town in the middle of nowhere Australia so it can't be me - sorry.
My head hurts,
Dale
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