Manual Tool Change Routine for CNC Router Mill

ytiuqibu wrote:

At present every job that requires a change of tool needs to be split into separate files. This seems to defeat the purpose of having M6 included as part of the command set in LinuxCNC.

M6 is only really useful on systems that have a repeatable-length way to change tools. On systems with an automatic toolchanger it is essential.

I do have a tool table and repeatable tools (but I am the tool-changer) and still often split the G-code up by tool (as it is often easier to do the same op on multiple parts than to do many ops on one part)

If you have a tool-length sensor it is possible to configure LinuxCNC to automatically measure the tool length for you. That requires a re-map of the M6 command to run a tool-probing cycle. There is a sample config in sim-axis-remap if you want to see how that works.

ytiuqibu wrote:

Thank you both.
I will have a look at the sim-axis-remap code but from what you say it will probably be easier to teach students to separate their jobs.
Where do I find sim-axis-remap?

It is one of the sample simulator configs.



You should be able to run iy and watch it work. (without affecting your current configs)

called hal_manualtoolchange.py that seems to be based on another similar but older file in LinuxCNC

That is a standard part of LinuxCNC and will be needed too, so that the user can indicate that they have changed the tool.