Basic CNC help

[Jonesy]

Need some help related to CNC's.

Have a Bridgeport at work with a digital controller with X and Y servos. Manual Z. I can do some basic programming via the screen but it is very time consuming and tedious. I contacted the company that made the controller (its old, mid 90's) and the program for it only runs on windows 3.1 and is still $5k.

Not doing anything fancy at all. Just repeated hole patterns, angled slots, a few radius cuts, and some basic pocket designs.

So any suggestions on a basic G-code, tool path program that I can use?

[Yotajunk]

I may be off base with this but... Have you tried doing a search on www.practicalmachinist.com? There is a lot of good info on there. Might have what find what your lookin for

[Jonesy]

I've looked on a few different forums, but most of the stuff is way over my head. I haven't looked through that forum yet, so I'll give it a go. Thanks.

[JeffK5]

You can retrofit almost any knee mill to ProtoTRAK EMX 2axis conversational control for a reasonable price. It's super easy to program and offers a ton of features..and damn near every machine shop,tool shop or gauge shop in the world has a couple.

Southwestern Industries, Inc is the place to look at.

[JeffK5]

Originally Posted by Jonesy

I've looked on a few different forums, but most of the stuff is way over my head. I haven't looked through that forum yet, so I'll give it a go. Thanks.

That's the Pirate of machining forums ..10% super knowledgeable guys < 90% web machinist dumbasses.

[biggin69]

Pater may chime in on this....

[Jonesy]

Originally Posted by JeffK5

You can retrofit almost any knee mill to ProtoTRAK EMX 2axis conversational control for a reasonable price. It's super easy to program and offers a ton of features..and damn near every machine shop,tool shop or gauge shop in the world has a couple.

Southwestern Industries, Inc is the place to look at.

It has a SWI Trak A.G.E 2 already on it. Basically just an older version of the EMX you suggested. I was hoping I could make this work for me, for the limited amount of CAM stuff we do.

[JeffK5]

Originally Posted by Jonesy

It has a SWI Trak A.G.E 2 already on it. Basically just an older version of the EMX you suggested. I was hoping I could make this work for me, for the limited amount of CAM stuff we do.

We've got atleast 20 of the A.G.E 2 machines out in production area where I work..great little control for simple stuff. With basic math skills you can do arcs , hole patterns , contours ,

What exactly can't you do with your current machine? You will not find a simpler machine to manipulate than a model 2..

[Jonesy]

Originally Posted by JeffK5

We've got atleast 20 of the A.G.E 2 machines out in production area where I work..great little control for simple stuff. With basic math skills you can do arcs , hole patterns , contours ,

What exactly can't you do with your current machine? You will not find a simpler machine to manipulate than a model 2..

I currently program on the pendant for basic stuff. I'm currently trying to do a couple back to back radiuses and can't get the programming right. I draw all my stuff up in autocad beforehand anyhow, so a program that I can import a DXF file into and it will create the tool paths and g-code for me would be great.

[JeffK5]

I'm no programming genius .. I draw all my projects up on Autocad and enter them in like you.

Don't you just need a post processor to convert you CAD DXF file to a readable format that ProtoTRAK excepts?


I do all my 3D work in Mastercam..and suck at it... but we have to post it and convert it to G-code so the TRAKs understand it.

[Jonesy]

Originally Posted by JeffK5

I'm no programming genius .. I draw all my projects up on Autocad and enter them in like you.

Don't you just need a post processor to convert you CAD DXF file to a readable format that ProtoTRAK excepts?


I do all my 3D work in Mastercam..and suck at it... but we have to post it and convert it to G-code so the TRAKs understand it.

The Traks read the G-code that would be created by the post processing program that I'm looking for. As long as they can save in a .CAM file type the Trak should be able to recognize it...or so the manual says.

[KargoMaster]

Another possibly useful thought... does your controller prefer (or tolerate) arcs (G02 G03) that are XYR or Absolute/Incremental IJ... we had some issues in the past with preferred methods of passing information not matching up to destination, if that makes sense... didn't know if your difficulty with the arcs in your current process might be related to that...??


We have BobCAD (older but relatively simple) and FeatureCAM (newer and pricey-er with more capability with 3D stuff)...

The BobCAD side of the shop creates tool paths for the tools and generates g-code from those paths (carefully keeping in mind the tool(s) at hand). While there are some idiosyncrasies that one must be aware of with BobCAD, overall a powerfull tool in the right hands. The FeatureCAM side defines attributes of features in lieu of being more restricted to a specific tool, which has benefits in most cases but it's more complicated in others... if I have a 36 hour run time, I prefer a FeatureCAM start to a BobCAD start...

We don't really have anything between the manual knee mill and the HAAS machines... so my experience is limited... Jeff knows all...

[truk]

is it the boss 3 controls
?