CNC Machining Blog

I am very excited about this feature, just like many of our Hurco WinMax users are. Although many people have this feature on thier controls, they aren't aware of it, or don't know how to use it. I thought it was worth a quick blog post and video. 

There have been a number of enhancements on the Hurco WinMax control in the past few months and years that we never really get to share with our customers. The Hurco control is so easy to use and easy to self-teach that often times there are overlooked features that could be extremely useful and very powerful if operators knew about them. I thought this would be a great topic for a blog article to help our users find and understand these features if they weren’t previously aware of them.

CNC Cookbook Survey Respondents Rank Hurco Control #1

Well I’m just too excited about this not to share this news with my readers. With the help of Hurco Companies, I just recently published my very first actual book! It is a comprehensive guide to 5-axis machining, and I wrote it to help the machinist as a shop floor guide of sorts.

Anyone who runs a 5-axis machine knows how important accurate centerline measurements can be for accurate machining. Often times, however, when troubleshooting process issues, or after a slight “bump” of the machine, there might be a need to verify or re-measure these centerline values. This usually requires a costly service call, and, even more painful, costly downtime of the machine while waiting. Although there is no substitute for the accuracy of the certified kit used by Hurco and distributor service personnel, this procedure will hopefully allow customers to keep their machines up and running (even if it is only while waiting for the service technician to arrive).

I often travel to different areas of the country to visit existing Hurco shops, as well as talk with shop owners who are thinking about purchasing their first Hurco, but have some questions. …I say FIRST Hurco, because nobody ever buys just ONE Hurco!

Earlier this week, a few of us here at Hurco were invited to a local function to meet the command staff of a newly commissioned Virginia Class Nuclear Submarine, for the U.S. Navy, named after our very own Hoosier state - the USS INDIANA…and, as it was written on the picture below, by the skipper of the Indiana, Commander Jesse Zimbauer, this submarine is “Hurco made”.

Hurco has many different partherships - some in education, tooling companies, CAM software compalnies, and both Indy Car and NHRA drag racing. Even though every single one of our relationships are important and special in their own way, one of the coolest relationships that we have is with John Force and the John Force Racing team.

One of the features about a Hurco that many customers love is the 8-nozzle coolant ring that comes standard on all VMX models of vertical machining centers, and the amount and flow of the flood coolant that can be experienced is sometimes unbelievable to many new users. Now Hurco VM owners can experience this same overwhelming feeling of flood coolant!

I recently received a comment on one of my previous blog posts – “5-Axis Programming: programming with tool vectors”-  asking about how to designate a 5-axis Transform Planes using IJK UVW vector tokens, instead of the traditional ABC rotary axis designations. Instead of just replying to that comment, I thought I would write this post as a response. Since this will be a continuation of the previous article on tool vectors, I suggest that you read and understand using IJK tool vectors as a pre-cursor to this article.

The idea behind creating a transform plane using vectors is exactly the same as programming tool movement with IJK tool vectors; however, the difference lies in the fact that you will have two separate vectors…using IJK for one and UVW for the second one. The reason you need for two separate “legs” for this function, is because you cannot designate a plane with only one axis. I will use the floor inside a room as my analogy…you could not create a floor in a room without having at least two walls. With only one, the floor would simply spin around the single axis, and could actually point in any direction. To accommodate the two legs of the transform plane, and because we want to determine the direction of the Z-axis ultimately, we will use the X-axis and Y-axis as our legs, or walls of the desired transform plane.