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Good 2axis lathe CAM?

SND

Diamond
Joined
Jan 12, 2003
Location
Canada
I'm currently checking into the Onecnc Lathe since I already use that for my VMC. But is there other good (yet affordable) 2 axis lathe cad/cam you guys recommend I should also check into?
I may still end up just taking some time to properly learn to finger code, but Cam is so slick for the mill, seems it would be great for the lathe too mostly for some odd profiles/features too.
 
I program our 2 axis lathe using BobCad/Cam almost daily. It is pretty intuitive, tons of tutorials on Youtube, tech. support is great and it's relatively cheap.
 
Using BobCAD almost every single day to program turned parts. ( & WEDM parts, & multi-ax milled parts ) Really enjoy the simplicity and speed with which I can pop out a program and run it.

I do wish they had better support for peripherals control. It is not a deal breaker, but it is a slight disappointment. ( tail stock and parts catcher ) It is not a big deal to throw the codes in by hand, but the fact that I have to do it sticks in my craw.

That said, the work flow is good, easy to learn, and programming is very straight forward.

Definitely worth the money. Especially in comparison to other options.
 
I'm currently checking into the Onecnc Lathe since I already use that for my VMC. But is there other good (yet affordable) 2 axis lathe cad/cam you guys recommend I should also check into?
I may still end up just taking some time to properly learn to finger code, but Cam is so slick for the mill, seems it would be great for the lathe too mostly for some odd profiles/features too.

I would stick with OneCNC. I use it for my turning and milling. It does a great job and is simple to use. Plus you already know it. As for programming by hand, I think is insane. Lathe crashes are almost always ugly.
 
I would stick with OneCNC. I use it for my turning and milling. It does a great job and is simple to use. Plus you already know it. As for programming by hand, I think is insane. Lathe crashes are almost always ugly.

You may want to check camsoft, I used several years
back was very affordable and very easy to use and
powerful for 2 axis lathe, and their post very easy
to modify,used to spit a code so quick and no mistakes
that employer was so impressed with me, he said i was great,and got promotions very often.
 
I pretty much only ever program our lathe by hand. Most turning geometry (that I do) is pretty simple 2 axis, and repetitive. Just different sizes, lengths of shoulders, diameters etc. It's easy and faster to just edit a couple blocks of code in a known good program, than to do all the cad work. I've got a bunch of known good programs for drilling, bar pulling, parting, grooving, threading etc, and it's dead simple to copy, paste, and edit into a master program.

Only the flip side, I can't remember the last time I even edited a program at the mill control. Everything except tool numbers, and work offsets gets done in cam and re posted. Just a result of the type of work I do. Your requirements might be totally different.

CNC Programming Handbook: Peter Smid: 978831133474: Books - Amazon.ca

Buy this book if you don't have it already. Like said above lathe crashes aren't pretty, so being able to know exactly what a program is going to do by looking through it is very necessary. No matter how you choose to program it.
 








 
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