Lathe cycles

[ToolMan184]

How do most program lathes? Canned cycles or long code. I see advantages to both. What's some of your pros and cons.

 

Thanks,

[crazy^millman]

Both ways comes down to the skill set of the people on the floor. If I want my operator to have the ability to adjust depth of cut and feed rate easily then I will use a canned cycle. If I do not want them to have that control I lone code it.

 

HTH

[Guest]

WIth multiple machines and multiple canned cycle formats, I have chosen many times to go longhand

[gcode]

Every shop I've ever programmed for have had multiple machines with multiple controls

Getting canned cycles to run can be a long, arduous and dangerous process.

A file that runs perfectly on one Fanuc control may crash on the next.

Add to that the fact that Mastercam Lathe canned cycled output has historically been problematic

and long hand is the only safe way to go.

To be fair, CNC Software has put a lot of effort into lathe canned cycles in recent releases,

I haven't been in a position to test them, so I can't say if their efforts have been successful or not.

[DODGERFAN]

I use canned cycles here pretty often. All of my lathes are Okuma so there is no worry about going from one machine to another.

When I use them it's for roughing a lot of material. Like Ron said, it gives the guy on the floor more control of the machine, this can be good or bad depending on the guy in front of the control.

Another time canned cycles are good for me is when I'm cutting jaws. You can easily change the program to cut bigger or smaller diameters and depths by changing just a few values. Canned cycles have a place, just not on every job we run.

[chrisdavala]

Depending on what you are doing, canned cycles written with variables make life easy, especially for cutting jaws and simple shapes. OSP control on Okuma's make it nice because if it runs on one machine, it will run on the next one.

[Chris Rizzo]

I prefer longhand. Full control over every move in the toolpath. Lead/ins/outs, weird small edge breaks, point moves, insert inspection, dwells to break chips, etc. etc. I program a lot of weird parts that I need that subtle control over the tool motion that I just can't get with a canned cycle.

 

m2c

[Newbeeee™]

^^^+1 to Chris. Before we got Siemens shopturn lathes, we programmed the fanuc exactly this way for the same reasons + we were noooobs. Verification works 100% with longhand as well (talking NCPlot here).

[Chris Rizzo]

Or the total opposite of one-offs- high volume parts where a .125 move can save 20 hrs on a 15,000 part run.

 

It's fun saving seconds to save days.

[#Rekd™]

+1 Newbeeee to the Siemens Shop Turn!

[Newbeeee™]

^^^ BUT the shoptuen is soooo much nicer still when it's bolted to a nice bit of iron - not a piece of crap

[#Rekd™]

^^^^+1000 to that.

 

I am still waiting for DMG to pick up the POS and bring a new machine. They finally agreed to replace it while I was at CTMS in early October, after several emails asking them for a delivery date they told us late March. By the time the new machine arrives it will be 2 years since the original POS arrived, we have been paying for a machine that is not usable!

 

Word of advice...do not deal with DMG...worst customer service I have ever experienced in my life.

[Newbeeee™]

^^^ make sure you get a 2 year full warranty on the new machine...

[#Rekd™]

I believe it is only a 1 year warranty, nothing in writing from DMG....typical of the way they treat customers!

[AEP]

I only use the canned rough cycles, It gives the operators some flexibility in adjusting the depth of cut. Much of the material we cut is very unfriendly and hardness can and does vary form lot to lot. They can easily edit stored programs to suit the material they are working with.