Category: Basic Configuration
I often run programs, but sometimes, like today, I am hacking at a rough bar that I cast in an open face sand mold. The exact size is not as important as it is that the surfaces clean up. Then once all sides are cleaned up, then, and only then, I concern myself with size. One side might be much more pitted or something then the other side, so I can not say that I want to take 2mm off of all sides. Maybe one side is pretty good, so 0.5mm cleans it up, but the other side has a pit and takes all that can be spared to clean it up. I judge this on the fly. And while I could write a tiny program to take one pass, then stop, it is also very easy, or used to be, to use MDI, typically G1 in X, G0 in Y followed by X, by Y, back at start, asses, maybe drop Z by some amount, repeat. This cuts the part in only one direction, as that cuts a better finish, moves out around the bar and returns to the start. Z moves are what ever amount looks correct for that pass, no set amount. So a sort of hybrid of CNC and manual machining. With a queue I can stack the four moves, often add an M5 on the end, go do something else and when I hear the spindle stop I know I need to go look at it and decide what next. Once the bars are all trimmed to overall size, then I have a program to make something out of them.
