LinuxCNC in a job shop environment?

Hello community,

First time post here--it's great to find this project. I am curious as to how LinuxCNC is being used in job shop environments, or if it is at all. If you are using LinuxCNC in a job shop environment, would you be kind enough to share some general details about your workflow? How many machines do you run? What kind of machines are they? How does LinuxCNC coexist with so many on-board CNC controllers (Fanuc, Haas, Mazak, etc.)? Do you plug a laptop into every machine? Do you flash Linux into the controller (scary). Any feedback (even remotely related) would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

www.youtube.com/channel/UCS0X88R7n7P2jIFwhIkw2Qw
Have a look through, plenty of self made and retrofits of industrial machines, and some are not there, still getting used to taking pictures and videos as i forget while i am working.

Thank you--interesting stuff. I'm really curious to know if anyone is using LinuxCNC to power something like a cell of horizontal milling machines with an automated pallet changer--in a systematic way, without plugging laptops into the consoles. Also, with LinuxCNC, how do you manage things like cutter compensation, tool length offsets, custom macros, probing routines, etc.? Or is LinuxCNC more suitable for routing machines and tinkering?

It is a fully fledged machine controller with everything needed for all sorts of machines, and even if you find something missing, it is quite easy to add features to it. It does have a lot of compensation stuff ( i do not use them much so can not elaborate on that ), it has offsets for anything i can think of, it does not need macros as almost anything can be implemented in hal ( much safer and more reliable ) but macros can be used and a lot of users here use them if i am not mistaken, probing routines can be programmed to your custom needs and there are some ready for use, it can support different types of toolchangers, it can also be used for some very strange machines like "rugbot" just do a search for it, etc etc, the list is very long.
Most of the machines you saw on my channel are in use all day, every day for several years, i had zero problems with them, it just never fails, ever.

I am sure many of these machines are in jobbing shops.
www.tormach.com/

Pathpilot is a version of Linuxcnc and some guys in this forum are using the software on their own machines. There is a long thread abut it here.
There are plenty of retrofits running machining centres with tool changers. I don't think it would do a mill turn machine very well (it would take some work!)

All of this is supported.

As far as working a bank of machines, You would have a separate Linuxcnc controller on each machine and connect each machine to your network and simply share files from a central server. I believe there is a way to control Linuxcnc remotely but I have no experience with it.

Our shop is primarily a wood working router shop. Most of the machines we have linuxcnc on are used for engraving and carving.

Our work flow is simular with our other machines (Fanuc and others). With the gcode files save to a central network file server. Having ethernet cable ran to all of the machines is a worthwhile investment. Letting files to be easily setup from the office cad/cam computers.