CNC Utilities

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

JohnS,

Not sure I'm that bored. I will keep it in mind though.

Regards,

Richard.

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Richard.

I think G-code arcs are usually G2 & G3, but I was referring to how these commands are specified for any particular controller.

As you have CamBam, it's probably easier for you to open up a Post processor in the System Folder and check out the options under the Arc Centre Mode, rather than me try to explain.

Martin.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

Martin,

Ahh. I see what you are referring to. With incremental centres of arcs relative to the first point, second point etc. I have assumed C-P1 arc centre format. Is there any way of determining from the g code file which format is being used? As far as I can see, there isn't. Which is a silly situation to be in. The toolpath file should have all the information needed and not rely on controller interpretation method.

The program I've written matches default Mach3 usage, and all the other post processors mentioned in CamBam (Fanuc, Fanuc DK, LinuxCNC & Turbo CNC).

Regards,

Richard.

Edited By richardandtracy on 07/11/2013 15:32:23

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

Steve,

I have updated the Spherical Turning program to add a series of tickboxes to determine what displays – wish I had thought about it before, last time I used it I had to cross off each line to avoid getting confused by stuff I wasn't interested in. Ho hum. The tickboxes are persistent by virtue of an .ini file called 'Data.ini', which is shared by the other cnc utilities I have done. (The last version used a file called 'Lathe.dat' to hold the data and can be deleted.)

The program is available through the same link as before – probably best to use the direct link to the zip file, to avoid the cache problems you had before.

Regards,

Richard.

[StyxParticipant @styx]

Richard,

Thats perfect, thanks very much.

Steve….

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

I have just added a profiler utility to the list of available programs, that permits you to produce a 2D profile toolpath and wrap it around the A Axis to produce a solid of revolution.

Might be useful to someone. **LINK**

Regards

Richard

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

This may or may not be of interest to anyone. I have added a utility to the page linked to in my post above. This 'Depth Mill' utility (for want of a better name) takes a depth map bitmap image and creates G Code for machining the depth into a cylinder. It is intended for low relief images, say 1mm total depth, so there is only a single pass over the work.

Additionally, a STL, DXF and OBJ 3D model can also be created with the same info, so you could use it to do 3D printing of the part instead.

Regards,

Richard.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

I have just finished writing a program that will take a digital picture and create a 'simulated halftone' image using a 'V' cutter. Then to create a contrast and view the picture, the little holes are filled with wax or paint. If anyone is interested, I'll put it up on the web site after testing.

Regards,

Richard.

 

Edited By richardandtracy on 28/07/2015 15:27:52

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

That would be very interesting, Richard … Yes please !!

MichaelG.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

OK, I'll see if I can test it tonight & then upload it sometime in the next couple of days.

Regards,

Richard.

[John McNamaraParticipant @johnmcnamara74883]

Hi Richard and Tracy

Great work!

I would be pleased to try your halftone tool too.

Regards
John

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

I partially tested it last night but only proved a couple of things:

1. The top of the work wasn't flat
2. The bed of my machine isn't quite in level in the Y Axis
3. My cnc's PC crashes when I turn some workshop lights on.

As you can imagine, I gave up in disgust once that had happened. Not at all impressed with myself. I will try this evening with another trial. However, the program and numbers & co-ords appeared to be working as expected, it was just very slow.

The program operates by determining the depth to drill with the V bit to cut away the surface to a diameter inversely proportional to the brightness of the pixel it's intended to represent. If you have a large angle between the flutes of the cutter (say 118 for a drill) it becomes very sensitive to work surface height errors. I was trying with a 90 degree engraving cutter last night, and will try a 30 degree one tonight, and will clamp a block of wood down & skim that before sticking the work down fully with carpet tape.

Regards,

Richard.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

OK. The program is uploaded, and is available as the first download on this index page: **LINK** . I will admit I was unable to test it last night in the way I'd hoped. SWMBO was cooking some copper 'precious metal clay' and managed to put the cooking pot in the wrong way into the kiln, and as it got up to 900C, the door sprung open due to thermal expansion of the pot, filling much of the house with fumes. It was the worst thing ever to have happened in her whole life… Anyway, after an hour or so of cooling, ventilation etc, we were able to fire it again, and despite everything, her jewellery pieces seem to have sintered quite well.

I hope the program is of interest and occasionally useful.

Regards,

Richard.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Linux users may be pleased to hear that at least 3 of Richard's programs run 'out-of-the-box' under wine. I've not fully tested the programs but everything I have tried works OK. My platform is an Acer laptop running 64bit Ubuntu 15.04 and wine 1.6.2.

Linux and wine might be a good way of continuing to run Richard's 32 bit software in the event that a future Microsoft O/S no longer supports his discontinued development environment.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

Thanks for that 'SillyOldBuffer' – I have never tried Linux, but's that's nice to know.

I did test the latest halftone program over the weekend, and the results were not as I expected. I shall have to work backwards from what I've got to see where the problem is. My first check of the numbers indicates that it should be correct. I have a nasty feeling that in acrylic (which is what I've been using) it leaves the material so weak from so many holes close together that the material falls away when cleaning the swarf off. If that is so, I think the program may have to be ditched completely.

Regards,

Richard

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by richardandtracy on 30/07/2015 08:48:56:

OK. The program is uploaded, and is available as the first download on this index page: **LINK** . I will admit I was unable to test it last night in the way I'd hoped. SWMBO was cooking some copper 'precious metal clay' and managed to put the cooking pot in the wrong way into the kiln, and as it got up to 900C, the door sprung open due to thermal expansion of the pot, filling much of the house with fumes. It was the worst thing ever to have happened in her whole life… Anyway, after an hour or so of cooling, ventilation etc, we were able to fire it again, and despite everything, her jewellery pieces seem to have sintered quite well.

I hope the program is of interest and occasionally useful.

Regards,

Richard.

Just be thankful it wasn't YOUR experiment that went wrong

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

I have added, at the instigation of 'mike T', a couple of programs to the utilities I have on line.

The first is a little utility to quickly & easily generate the G Code for a CNC lathe to cut a cylinder. Sounds simple, but it appears LinuxCNC is missing a canned cycle that will allow it to be done without thinking about. And cutting a cylinder is something you don't want to have to think about… So the Utility is available here: **LINK** It's a Windows 32 bit program that probably runs under WINE too.

The second is another utility that allows you to machine a standard taper into the end of a bar, as shown here:

The tapers programmed in, so far, are MT0-7, JT0-6, JT 2 Short & JT33. Additional tapers can be manually added by editing a csv format taper definition file. The program is available at **LINK**

I am working on a similar program to cut an ER collet shape onto a bar so 'stuff' (eg home made tooling) can be made to fit into an ER11-50 collet system, and intend to get that ready fairly soon.

Hope these programs are of use to someone,

Regards,

Richard.

[mike TParticipant @miket56243]

I am a LinuxCNC user and was amazed to find it does not offer a G71 turning canned cycle. The lack of a turning cycle is a real 'PITA' . It is a very repetitive cycle and code can be produced by tedious multiple 'cut and paste' operations in a text editor. But there had to be an easier way.

Richard has created a very simple it use, CNC utility which creates the underlying G-code of a G71 turning cycle. It is a fully conversational program, you fill in the specification boxes and the necessary G-code is immediately generated. Copy the code to your LinuxCNC machine and you are ready to go.

Thanks go to Richard for this and the many other CNC utilities he has written and distributes freely.

Mike T

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Looks neat Richard, even potentially for a Mach3 user! Especially the taper one as the M3 wizard doesn't have standard tapers defined. Thanks!

But what do you mean by a "waypoint" in this context please?

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

It's meant in the sea navigation sense, moving to the intended position by way of a known safe position so as to avoid crashing into something you don't want to hit. It makes sure that the lathe, if near one end, won't hit a steadyor a large diameter flange that you've already turned on the way to the start point, that's all. Probably not needed very often, but it was easy enough to programme in, which is why I did it that way.

Regards,

Richard

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Aha! Very good, thanks!

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

I have now done a similar program to the general taper program above so that you can add an ER collet shape to whatever you are turning for fitting in a mill/lathe etc and be certain about it's concentricity. The collet shape could then be cut off when you are done with it.

The collet sizes are ER 11 to ER 50, and by means of text editing a .csv file, you can add your own. It comes with a 4 page PDF help file to show what the resultant shape will be like, the machining sequence and a toolpath plot for an ER25 collet for verification.

The principle limitation is that the toolpath does not include cutting the ER collet ejector ring groove, but it does add a comment specifying details of the groove. Comments can be turned off as the toolpath can easily get up to 300+ blocks depending on bar diameter and depth of cut. A relatively laborious, 5 stage cutting method has been used to maintain maximum bar stiffness for as long as possible.

The program is a 32 bit Windows program, definitely runs on Win 7, and probably any 32/64 bit windows compatible OS. It probably runs under WINE on Linux as the other programs do.

The link to the download is: **LINK**

Hope it's useful to someone. I will eventually add a page to my website for it, but haven't done so yet.

Regards,

Richard.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hi Richard,

If you want to write a short introduction to your utilities, it would be nice to include it in MEW.

Neil

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by richardandtracy on 18/05/2017 15:17:36:

…

The program is a 32 bit Windows program, definitely runs on Win 7, and probably any 32/64 bit windows compatible OS. It probably runs under WINE on Linux as the other programs do.

The link to the download is: **LINK**

…

Regards,

Richard.

Hi Richard,

Just tried your program under Wine/Ubuntu 17.04 and you'll be pleased to hear it runs OK.

One thing I noticed is that the generated code starts: (WARNING. BAR DIAMETER TOO SMALL FOR COLLET SIZE SELECTED) . I can't see anywhere on the interface that allows the bar diameter to be set. As I know nothing about G-code and haven't properly read your instructions, my apologies if this is a feature rather than a whoopsie.

Dave

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

The bar diameter is set by the start point, and it assumes the start point is at the right hand corner of the bar, as shown on page 1 of the pdf help file. The units have to be consistent throughout, and all entered radii/diameters all have to be radii or diameters.

The ER collets all have a minimum bar diameter the 'collet number + 1or2mm', eg ER32 min dia is 33mm

Hope that helps,

Regards,

Richard

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