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Mach3 Z-height macros - Where to start??

GDO

Aluminum
Joined
Jan 2, 2013
Location
United States
Hi, very new to the biz. I've been making small tools on a 7x10 lathe for about a year now. Just three simple operations: face, center drill, and part. I've gotten my hands on a tormach 770 and want to speed it up!

What I've done is put a collet fitting the stock in spindle and installed a pneumatic drawbar, so swapping out stock takes about 4 seconds. The tools are mounted on the table and ready to go. The one problem is the height.

The collet grabs the stock and pulls it up to a non-repeating position. A friend pointed me in the direction of z-height macros, but I've had no luck finding the info needed to write the code, where to put it, etc.

With that, I can load the stock, then touch the tip to a sensor pad and have the program run from there with all the correct offsets.


Any tips, info, code, or where to look next would be highly appreciated!
 
You'll get a better response to this question on one of the forums that have lots of Tormach users. There is a Tormach forum on Yahoo but the most active one is on a forum that the owner of this forum doesn't liked mentioned here as in the past they were apparently grabbing content from this forum without permission. But if you do a search on Tormach you should hit posts from these other forums.
 
What I've done is put a collet fitting the stock in spindle and installed a pneumatic drawbar, so swapping out stock takes about 4 seconds. The tools are mounted on the table and ready to go. The one problem is the height.

The collet grabs the stock and pulls it up to a non-repeating position.

Any tips, info, code, or where to look next would be highly appreciated!
Have you thought about boring out a collet with a small step to act as a stop...
 
when i use the cnc knee mill to turn with, its generally using an er 32 collet holder with nut. the matl goes in just barely hand snug and sticking out too far. push the button, machine travels to a flat surf on the vise near the 1st turn tool, then feeds quickly in z down pushing the matl up into the collet, and stops. i grab the spanner and tighten the nut. push the button again and the cutting cycle begins.
 
Thanks for the ideas guys! I'm off to go bore out a collet and give that a shot. Still will need that code eventually, but I understand this forum may not be the place to ask.

Thanks again!
 








 
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