Take a look at this free 2D drawing program... it's bigger than I need but with you having a CNC it's probably useful.


http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_u...city/solidedge/

Drawing solids for a lathe is a waste of time. ;)

I can code it faster than I can reproduce the picture in a model.

I'm sticking with AaronCad 4.0. The new version has 10 colors, and gives me less frustration that computer based systems.

Franz, at some point you have to convert the crayon's to controller language, so it has to become decimal format with locations and features in specific points or the machine doesn't know how to make your part.

With turning centers, you only have two sides of the part (the OD and ID) to worry about following, as the spindle does the other work for you. So to make a part in a turning center, you only need to know what path to send the cutter along (height from center line and whether that path is going towards or away from it in X, and the path along Z or the length of the part where the cutter is when it does something).

My machine doesn't have the tapes for direct word address format (g-code), so I'm presently forced to use their retarded conversational interface which asks me all the dimensions and what I want to do next. I'd be much happier programming straight code into it, because I think better when I'm simply walking through the cutting path rather than having to draw the damn thing in their software console.

I'm pretty close to ripping off the factory controls and doing a mach3 retrofit. I can add live tooling if I do that, and that means I can nearly fully automate a good deal of my parts.

JT my young friend, the first of these machines I encountered was a Kierney-Trecker Milwaukee in 1966. That miserable sumbeach handled 16 different tools and ran by perforated paper tape. It was so damn violent just rotating the toolhead to change tools it bounced the building it sat isolated from on a 15 x 15 x 6 foot hunk of concrete.

The only fun thing about that machine was when the tape broke or when a pissed off employee added a hole to the tape with a paper punch.

I've seen a hell of a lot of CNC machines since then, and all I can say for them on the positive side is they eliminate the need for arrogant pissants who claim to be machinists and can't make a damn thing without drawings. I do love seein them clowns headed out the door pushing their toolboxes full of shyt they don't know how to use.

In the 70s there were more small CNC machines running in small sheds in the back yards of Japan than you and I could count together. Farrel in Rochester thought they owned the injection molding business back then with huge ugly toggle closing presses, and Farrel people were absolute azzholes. Funny thing happened when the first Toshiba press came to Rochester. I think Farrel is pretty much out of business now.

Machining moves toward more and more automation, but a real machinist takes years to build. Damn few are being built any more, and the ones who exist are making good money. There are a load of programmers out there, and they ain't worth spit cause they have no damn idea what the machine can do because they ain't machinists. They ruin a lot of machines and tools.

Way I see it, I can make the parts I need on a lathe and a mill, and I can rebuild damn near anything I can get into the machine or make one like what the broken one used to be. I damn sure ain't a machinist, but I don't burn many cutters, and I still haven't run the carriage into the chuck on a lathe.

The explanation was for Tack and Jack not you...

Just did more reading into mach3 and the F$&%*&$^# designers haven't made the program closed loop yet. So if I were to convert to it, I'd lose a good deal of elegance in my 1982 fanuc control. Now that's sad...

Being a machinist and being a manufacturer are entirely different occupations. I'm not a machinist, I'm a fabricator who happens to be pretty decent at machining (according to my instructors). BUT, my primary occupation is as a business owner and that business is in specialty manufacturing. Bringing up my productivity while reducing my per part expense is what I'm using the NC Lathe hand (pencil sharpener) for. It's my own slave employee, not an excuse to not know how to turn cranks. I'm adding it so I can have it working on something at the same time I'm working on something else (even if that else happens to be a doughnut :D ). That machine is designed to routinely hit .0004 - I'm not that good, and even if I was it would still whoop my azz in parts per interval productivity - so long as the part volume is sufficient to justify the setup time.

There's things that the pencil sharpener is suited for, just like there's jobs where you're better off chucking up the 4 jaw and grinding a HSS blank. It's a matter of having both options available, and knowing when to choose which, and the skill to operate either.

I'm waiting for Craftsman to come out with a home cnc machine for aroud $550. I'm a Craftsman Tool Club member too. :P

WHAT in Blue Hell makes you think you can explain anything to Jack?

It took 3 years for Jack to understand there weren't left side and right side nails because you could just turn them 180°. How long did it take to get Jack to stop gnawin the coating off welding rods and turn them around?

You got two choices in life, make stuff or splain to Jack.

Tack, they've got a home cnc router that sells for 2K right now. Look it up on their website. It's tiny, but I'm sure the guys who make little desk plaques and such are loving them.

Jim,Thank You, I sure wish and i think i can talk for Tack also,we are intreaged,By the Cnc's,have been for years!!!!!!

I think the Old geezer is just hating everbody !!!!!!!!!!!! so we dont take it personal,,What Your doing,Is what Ive told the story many times,How My Buddy started,and in a short time, was CNC everything,But still had His Manual machines also, You know which one to use when, we dont!!!!!! But any thing that me and Tack can read ,is appreacheated!!!! Thanks!!!! :D :D

Same as having a Mig,Tig, Big arse stick welder plasma,and torches.ETC,,!!, Just different buisness,But bottom line is the same,Turn out as many different Parts that are filling your Pockets with $$$$$$$$$$ :D

Thanks JT, I'll take a look.


Like Jack I must admit I am as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to running machinery. I enjoy seeing others operating it though...

Right now a bench grinder, hacksaw and few files is my fanciest metal working machinery.

Here it is. Make a nice addition to a home owners work shop.


http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_0...=TOOL&ihtoken=1

Nope, I'll just stick with the AaronCad 4.2. Works damn near any time and place.

Don't need no dang computer, and it's very quick.

Then I just put the pic into JackO-Matic lettering 3.7 and it's ready to post to the internet.

How did you get the colour on to the end of the stick when you draw in sand Franz?

Egon made a funny. :D

The version 4 packages all have colorsticks Egon, 10 different colors.

Sometimes its tough just deciding what color to use.

As we can See!!!!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :P :o :P