CNC

The largest section of the manual, and it runs in the order the work does. You set the machine up for the job, you write or load the program, and you run it. A page sits where it falls in that sequence rather than with the pages written at the same time.

Setting Up a Job

• Manual, Handwheel & Homing: jogging, referencing the machine, and setting part zero where the tool is.
• MDI: typing a block and running it, without a program.
• Tool & Work Offsets: where the part is and how long the tool is.
• Setting Part Zero: touching off with an edge finder, a slip or the tool itself.
• Workpiece Setting Error: cutting a part correctly when it is clamped out of square.
• Probing: letting the machine find the part and measure the tool instead of touching off by eye.

Programming

• The Program Editor: editing a program on the panel.
• Canned Cycles: drilling, tapping and boring cycles, and the rules that bite.
• Cycle Programming: programming a part by filling in a form, with no CAM and no G-code.
• Cutter Compensation: cutting to size with G41 and G42.
• Custom Macros: variables, arithmetic and flow control inside a program.
• User M Codes: binding an M code of your own to a subprogram.
• Path Control: how the control corners between blocks.
• Thread Cutting and Rigid Tapping: axis feed locked to the spindle.
• 5-Axis Programs and Tilted Working Plane: what changes when the rotary axes drive.

Running a Program

• The Run Screen: reading the AUTO screen.
• Selecting & Loading a Program: choosing what the machine will run.
• Start, Feed Hold & Reset: the three keys that drive every program.
• Overrides & Run Options: the dials, and the switches you prove a program out with.
• Single Block and Block Search: running a block at a time, and starting part way in.
• Retrace: winding the program back along the path it cut.
• Tool Life Management and Production Counts: what the machine records as it runs.

Where to go next

• The Panel: the screens all of this happens on.
• Reference: the code lists and variable maps.