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Mike Lynch Founder and President
A Circle Milling Custom Macro
Older model Fanuc controls and some current model Fanuc-compatible controls have a feature to help you machine round counterbores with an end mill (G12 and G13). For some reason, Fanuc stopped providing these helpful G codes.
Read MoreAvoiding A Disastrous Situation
When verifying a program, the most crucial time is when each tool approaches the workpiece for the first time. This is true for both machining centers and turning centers.
Read MoreAvoiding Disastrous Situations
The saying, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" truly applies to CNC machine tool usage. Maintenance tasks fall into two categories: Preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance.
Read MoreTiming Events In A Program
Most versions of parametric programming provide some kind of timer that gives you the ability to time events in a CNC program. With Fanuc’s version of parametric programming (custom macro B), two timers—a millisecond timer and an hour timer—are available for this purpose.
Read MoreWhere Is Your Current Constraint?
We've offered many specific suggestions for improving your CNC environment in this column. Indeed, our primary focus is to help you find ways to improve.
Read MoreAccounting For Time-A Simplified Method
Companies go to great lengths to account for time, and this means tracking events that occur in the manufacturing environment. This is the only way to determine how well your company is doing: comparing current events to what has happened in the past or comparing these events to a target or goal.
Read MoreFacilitate Dull Tool Replacement
The larger the lot size, the more likely it is that tools will dull during a production run. And of course, dull tools must be replaced if the production run is to be completed.
Read MoreThe Goal Of A Tool Life Management System
With a good application and when properly applied, a tool life management system can dramatically increase the output from a CNC machine tool. But I’ve seen quite a bit of misapplication and confusion when it comes to how and where to use these tools.
Read MoreCreating System Constants With Custom Macro
One advantage of any computer programming language is that you can use variables instead of hard-and-fixed numerical values. This can be especially helpful when the hard-and-fixed numerical value is repeated many times in the program.
Read MoreHow Much Documentation Should You Provide?
Companies vary on how much documentation they provide for people setting up and running CNC machines. There may be reasons you document jobs in a certain manner, but there are three major factors that contribute to how much you should document: the percentage of repeated jobs, the number of people involved with a given job and the complexity of the job versus the skill level of the people involved.
Read MoreSimulating Geometry Offsets For Turning Centers
Most current model Fanuc controls allow the use of geometry offsets to assign program zero. Each geometry offset contains the program zero assignment values for its corresponding cutting tool.
Read MoreQuick And Easy Tips To Enhance CNC Usage
Sometimes obvious improvement possibilities go unnoticed. It could be that you are too close to a problem (you can’t see the forest for the trees), or you may not be spending enough time out in the shop to spot them.
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