Hi,
I've been playing with the idea of making a CNC lathe from scratch ala "Stevie on CNCzone. I've even gathered parts for it.
The other day I ran across this (go to the "Using the Taig CNC mill as a VMC" and view the video)
http://members.shaw.ca/mryankey/taigmill.html

That is exactly what I want to do with the lathe. If I could get my mill to do that I would not need a CNC lathe.

Problem is I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around exactly how to get that done.
I'm weak on tool offsets and how they all work but think I can figure out the rest of it.

Can anyone give me a jump start on that?
I've been looking thru the videos and haven't found one that makes it "click".

Thanks
James

On a mill the tool offsets are a way of telling the control the difference in length from one tool to the next.

When you set tool 1 as the datum tool, all others are set in offset as the difference in length from tool 1.

E.g.

1 Insert tool 1 into the spindle.

2 Move down until the top of the work is touched.  Zero out Z axis.

3 Do work for that tool.

4 Load next tool, move down until it touches the top face of the work.

5 The value in the Z axis DRO is the offset for this tool .  Enter this value in the offset you want to use for this tool.

6 In the NC code for this tool  you should have 'G43' and a H followed by the offset number to use, this will use the offset on this tool.

Repeat for next tool.

Is this what you wanted?, if not just say.

Graham.