I just found Lazyturn !
I guess it's not exactly hidden, but still !
I'm pretty sure it's going to work for me and I have already built gcode from a dfx I'm hoping will work. Copying it over to the shop PC now so I can run it on a real machine. Looks good in simulator and in Mach2 lathe, but I'm not moving any machine parts yet.

Is this an active effort ?
I ask because while I've been learning to use it, I've found a few bugs. Nothing that keeps it from outputting good code, just stuff that's not refreshing when it should, or not clear as to how it works.
I'm NOT complaining, and I'm OK with it as is, but if the authors are looking for feedback, I can contribute.

 

Happy you found LT. There are some things to be worked out and hopefully when activity starts again ( in the fall i will presume )
maybe the finish pass will be completed.

The effort gets quite intense once it starts up. Currently there is none that i am aware of.

Feedback......yep would appreciate all that you can contribute. I would suggest that you follow along with the manual which is posted in Members Doc's since it is current with all the comments which have been made to date.

For any bugs you find explain what they are and also attach the DXF you are using and associated info so folks can have a look.

Constructive critique of the manual would be appreciated since a new pair of eye's finds stuff not seen by others especially the writers.


RICH

Hi:


   Happy you found the program, theres been thousands of hits on the thread, htough I think only a few hundred have downloaded the program itself. There will be more work done in the fall as Deep winter is usually my development time on the hobby/research side.
   Rich and the others here have offered great support to those that use the program and though its not yet done, it does offer more than most lathe programs in terms of its output. As a free program, ( which will remain free ) its worked on when I find I have some time to donate to its cause. Usually thats in november to February timeframe.

  Ill be releaseing a new cad type program this year commercially ( hopefully in a couple months time ) that should be finished its time critical stuff by November when I can then switch back to LTurn to finalize its finish passes. It only needs one more push I think to take it to the point it was meant to go to, which isnt far from current capability.

Have fun, report any annoyances and when development starts again I usually run them away first..

Thanks
Art

new cad type program this year commercially

ART,
Can you eleaborate some on it? Would it be meant to be used specificaly for LC and LT?

RICH

Hi Rich: 

>>Can you eleaborate some on it?

  It has nothing to do with Lathes or Mills directly..  While building a clock recently I was amazed how hard it was to design a gear and check meshing requirements and such. I purchased a program to allow me to do so, but it was a bit buggy. They wanted an upgrade fee to get the bug fixes.. ( which always pisses me off.. :-) ). Later I was looking at making some elliptical gear mechanisms.. I was really surprised to see the price and problems involved with elliptical gears and such..
  I decided to write my own gearing program, from individual gears to full mechanisms built from many gears. Square gears, triangular gears, involute, cycloidal, pin gears, escapements..  Its been dominating my time lately, but is fun to play with and should allow woodworkers, hobbiests etc to make good gears easily and inexpensively. Simulate their designs and make video's of proposed mechanisms running. The "Gearotic Motion" project has been underway for a few months just to see if I could do something pleasing and easy to use. Its looking very cool right now and I suspect it may be usefull for anyone wanting to do geared mechanisms at the hobby level without very expensive software..  I'll have it put out GCode, Print-to-scale and 3d models for 3d printers as well.
 
   I suspect youll see some sort of announcement of "Gearotic Motion" as a released standalone cad program sometime this year. It's unlikely to get a large following due to there really being no market I suspect, but I see a need for such a program and decided to fill it. ( or attempt to anyway. :-) ). At its worst it looks like it will be a great rube-goldberg machine creator.. . Usually you get gears only from expensive cad... this one will make easy gears without all the complexity required by big business.

Art

ART,
True retirement is doing whatever you enjoy doing for whatever reason you want to do it.
Glad your succeeding....

I still have a ways to go.   

RICH

You keep amazing my, Art   And how do you have the time for all this anyway...

Daniel

Art
How much material will be left on a design after it is turned in LT if i put in 1 i still get more then 2.5 MM over sized on the part.

Dennis

Dennis:

  In theory if "1" is the offset , then your finish pass should only leave 1.0 , so 2mm should be the oversize. What does the GCode indicate the position is when cutting the final pass of the finished measurement point?

Art

Art
Thanks for the reply i will have to look at the code again to answer that question, i have changed the design making it smaller in Diameter but found it consistent with the material that is left after turning I will look at the code and let you know on it i know i can work around this by offsetting the lathe home position on the X Axis's but if i forget to set it back it's a pain to rest the zero point.

Dennis