Certain “hybrid” machines combine some form of additive manufacturing with CNC subtractive manufacturing. Columnist Mike Lynch, President of CNC Concepts Inc., explores three types of these machines here.
Drilling with a right-angle head in a machining center spindle can be tricky – doubly so if the hole must be peck-drilled. A custom macro and careful attention to positioning help ensure smooth production.
CNC operators can program user-defined G and M codes to call custom macros and improve upon or replace existing codes, which can in turn improve production.