CNC Machining Blog - Tips and Tricks for Machinists

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Posts about CNC Control & Software:

Is Conversational Programming Dead in Today's Machine Shop?

Mike Cope Wed, Feb 12, 2020
Is Conversational Programming Dead in Today's Machine Shop?

Is Conversational Programming Dead in Today's Machine Shop?

During my 35+ years in manufacturing, I have worked at several shops and visited hundreds more. In the vast majority of these job shops, there has been at least one CNC machine with some type of conversational programming – and in many of these shops, they used conversational programming for most of their work.

Conversational CNC: 3D Solid Model Import 3 Axis & 5 Axis

Mike Cope Wed, Oct 10, 2018
Conversational CNC: 3D Solid Model Import 3 Axis & 5 Axis

The most frequent request we have received from customers over the past decade or so, has been for the ability to import a solid model directly into the CNC control and conversationally program features from that solid. Well...the wait is over. Hurco released the 3D Import feature at IMTS 2018 and it was a huge success. 

Hurco WinMax Control Enhancements and Overlooked Features

Mike Cope Wed, Oct 25, 2017
Hurco WinMax Control Enhancements and Overlooked Features

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.

5-Axis CNC Mill Programming: Transform Planes Using IJK UVW Vectors

Mike Cope Mon, May 09, 2016
5-Axis CNC Mill Programming: Transform Planes Using IJK UVW Vectors

A while back, I received a comment on one of my previous blog posts asking how to designate a 5-axis transform planes using IJK UVW vector tokens instead of the traditional ABC rotary axis designations on their 5-axis CNC machine. 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 5-axis CNC basics series, I suggest that you read and understand using IJK tool vectors as a pre-cursor to this article. 

The idea behind creating a 5-axis transform plane using vectors is exactly the same as programming tool movement with IJK tool vectors on any machine with a fifth axis. However, the difference lies in the fact that you will have two separate vectors: one using IJK and the other using UVW. The reason you need 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 that single axis and could actually point in literally 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.

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