I've been working on getting my shop setup and included in that is a CNC Mill build/conversion. (I imagine I'll get a 3D printer sooner or later but the CNC Mill was a lot higher priority, I'd rather have metal crap than plastic crap I guess...) I got the mill modified and working and sorted out the software tool chain so I figured I'd run a simple test. It's not much and the mill still needs a bit of adjusting, getting limits setup, and a few other random things but I'm pretty excited. Hopefully this will help me test out guns, gun mounts, pumps, impellers, motor mounts, etc. I know there are a few other guys out there with CNC Mills (and manual Mills) and was wondering if anyone had any good beginner references or ideas. Thanks
I've had my CNC mill for about 10 years and have really enjoyed it. I'm not sure what to recommend as a starting reference. You do need a decent G code reference and should practice using G01, G02, G03 and G81 to make sure you can read and modify code. I use an unusual tool chain - Rhino as my CAD and DeskCNC as my CAM and controller software. Whatever you use, put together some simple projects and get to know your software well. And you can print with your CNC mill once you add an extruder.
I'm curious how often you read and modify G-Code and why? It seems with a correctly setup CAD/CAM package there shouldn't be much need for that, but I imagine I'm missing something?? Right now I'm using Mach3 for the controller software, once I get more comfortable with it and have everything setup I'll probably upgrade it past the free version. (500 lines of g-code is plenty for the moment)
Mostly the changes I make to G code from the CAM program is to modify feed rates or z depths. Occasionally holes will come out a little small and rather than changing the drawing and going back through the whole process I'll just modify the existing G code. I also have a 4th axis and my CAM software doesn't handle that, so I program the 4th axis manually.
That makes sense, thanks. I don't have the 4th axis at the moment but hopefully I'll be able to convince myself that I need it for something at somepoint in the future and get it then. Always more upgrades and tools to be had....
