"Harold and Susan Vordos" wrote:

That's likely not an option. He's trying to sell because he upgraded to
one with a tool changer, and had no more room for the machine. I have a
rough idea of the price now----so I don't know how much I have in the way of
dicker room. The guy that owns the machine is OK---I'd want to treat him
fairly. After all, how many guys do you know that would deliver a machine to
your shop, no expense on your part, then spend time trying to help you learn
to operate the machine?

If he is a friend, treat him well. I have a feeling he considers you a friend.

My interest is in building a model steam loco. Rods would be a lot easier
with a CNC, although not necessary.

Progress pics would be nice to see.


Thanks for the very welcome comments, Wes. I appreciate anything I can
learn regards CNC. I feel like I'm completely naked and in a crowd where
they're concerned, very unlike my cock-sure attitude around manual machines.

I fix the things. Outside of a waterjet system years ago I haven't done much cnc
programming.

Assuming this is a milling machine, learning cutter comp would be high on my list. Cutter
comp on a waterjet with a 0.005" nozzle wasn't much of an issue profiling a automotive
headliner.

On a mill, making sure the path you are cutting is on the correct side of your cutter is
pretty important to know.

The rest is stuff you know like speeds and feeds. The nice thing is that you can move x,y
and z at the same time, something you couldn't do on a manual machine. Then there is
circular interpolation. The cnc version of the rotary table. G02, G03. The form I was
most used to was start point in previous block (line). End point, center point in the
second block which had a G02/3 code. G02/3 X val Y val, I val, K val. IJK used to
reference center points of XYZ.

Some machines my need G17, G18, G19 as plane select. Why I don't know, I would think that
could be infered by the two out of 3 xyz values with corresponding ijk values.

I have a feeling you will be awesome soon on this machine. You know math, you know
machining, you just need to learn a few new words (g and m codes).


Wes