how hard are CNC Machines to use ?
- Thread starter Boomerang
- Start date
ollie989898
Member
You could teach yourself on an amateur basis, people do it. Look at youtube.
goldeneagle
Member
Someone will correct me if I'm wrong as its been twenty years since i was near machine tools. The heritage (older) CNC machines required to be manually coded which made it a skilled job and depending on the piece to be manufactured expensive in small production runs. This was why people were employed and remunerated based on their experience of particular machines and controls such as Mazak etc.
I would assume now given the rise of companies like Fractory etc that software exists on the more modern machines to transcribe .DXF files straight to the machine. This will take away a lot of the specialism but would imagine the newer machines will be prohibitively expensive for small production runs.
Older machines will be cheaper to buy but come with the caveat that they need a certain aptitude to program and may have maintenance issues that could cost purchase price of machine to rectify.
Where i served my time the machine shop purchased a second hand CNC machine (turning centre) and don't recall any special training given to guy who manned it but there was a lot of trial and error in the beginning but it did work. It worked well for repeat productions that would have been time consuming on a manual lathe.
I would assume now given the rise of companies like Fractory etc that software exists on the more modern machines to transcribe .DXF files straight to the machine. This will take away a lot of the specialism but would imagine the newer machines will be prohibitively expensive for small production runs.
Older machines will be cheaper to buy but come with the caveat that they need a certain aptitude to program and may have maintenance issues that could cost purchase price of machine to rectify.
Where i served my time the machine shop purchased a second hand CNC machine (turning centre) and don't recall any special training given to guy who manned it but there was a lot of trial and error in the beginning but it did work. It worked well for repeat productions that would have been time consuming on a manual lathe.
Most older machine have been upgraded to run the new software, the days of punch tape feeders are now gone
My Anderson cnc is 1989 but running on 2018 software
goldeneagle
Member
Ha ha forgot about them, firm i served time at bought a lot of stuff from cleveland twist drill site closing auction and there was skips full of punched paper that must have been from these incarnations.Most older machine have been upgraded to run the new software, the days of punch tape feeders are now gone
My Anderson cnc is 1989 but running on 2018 software
My memory of old stuff was control mounted on side of machine with vertical keyboard and monitor with green display......
Was it expensive to upgrade machine?
Courier
Member
- Location
- M62 - M1 - M18 triangle
For smaller items (15cm) would 3D printing be an option ?
Was already converted whenI bought it 20yrs ago,
Beauty with old machine built to last, working away ever since with few issues
- Location
- South wales
- Location
- West Yorkshire
If you end up buying a milling one I’d try to get a Heidenhain controlled machine. Very simple to program compared to the likes of others in my own opinion.
Don’t get many lathes with a Heidenhain control though
Don’t get many lathes with a Heidenhain control though
100% agree, im using Heidenhain control past 9 years in the company i work for, very handy to use, moved to nhx500 horizontal running celos control and fanuc, has me pretty confused at first,
Swarfmonkey
Member
- Location
- Hampshire
For me Mazatrol is #1 and Heidenhein #2. I could write a essay on why I don't like fanuc.
We used to run a right mish mash of kit. Now it's a couple of Hermle 5 Axis VMCs with Heidenhein and everything else is Mazak. There was a fair bit of moaning when we started replacing the kit running Fanuc, but I doubt there'd be any enthusiasm to go back to it.
As to the OP, it all depends on what you want to do. There's a big difference in how much you have to learn to run a simple CNC lathe (something along the lines of an old Harrison Alpha 330) and a 5 axis VMC.
We used to run a right mish mash of kit. Now it's a couple of Hermle 5 Axis VMCs with Heidenhein and everything else is Mazak. There was a fair bit of moaning when we started replacing the kit running Fanuc, but I doubt there'd be any enthusiasm to go back to it.
As to the OP, it all depends on what you want to do. There's a big difference in how much you have to learn to run a simple CNC lathe (something along the lines of an old Harrison Alpha 330) and a 5 axis VMC.
Zebbedee
Member
- Location
- Scotland in the best bit
What about using a cnc milling machine manually is that possible? Just for one off farm use nothing too accurate tbh. One sitting in my shed for storage/sale tempted to plug it in and see,,,, not really interested in the cnc bit
TheTallGuy
Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire
Depends on the machine, some have proper manual controls, some have virtually no/extremely awkward controls and some have a halfway house setup that uses jog wheels to simulate the handles on a conventional mill. The problem I always found with not having proper manual controls is that you can't "feel" what's happening.
Zebbedee
Member
- Location
- Scotland in the best bit
No manual controls on this at all
- Location
- West Yorkshire
As @TheTallGuy says most cnc will let you use buttons and hand wheel to do billy basic stuff but you have no feel at all as to what the tools are doing especially when you get into small drill/cutter territory bellow 6mm. Above that you can tell a lot of what is going on by sound of the tools and the swarf coming off the tools