What's new
What's new

How did you learn CNC programming?

Read a couple books by Peter Smid first. Then was forced to learn to program by taking the Fanuc Certification courses. Yes, the controller manufacturer makes you spend more than half the course learning how to program. Must admit it was great to learn.
 
I learned by spending countless hours practicing after work everyday. Reading books, watching how to videos and reprogramming current jobs that were running at my job just to compare. I would go in on the weekends just to try out my programs. I was super hungry and very passionate to learn. I still am. :-)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I was working as a machinist at a large aerospace manufacturer in Southern California in the early 70's. Every year or so the company would take a few machinists off the shop floor and train em to program. But they only took guys who were enrolled in the (IBM APT) programming courses at the local community college. So after 4 semester classes at night school I was accepted in the company programming department. After 3 years I quit to go contracting. Been at it ever since. When Catia took over aerospace I paid for and took Catia classes as needed.
 
I watched the first "Iron Man" movie. All he did was tell his computer to make him a jet-propelled super-suit, and hey, maybe make it red this time. Then he went off to a party.

Seemed easy enough to me, so I spent the next two hours yelling at my lathe, trying to coax it to make me a lightsaber or something.

Nothing happened. I think I hurt its feelings.

:D

Doc.
 
Learnt systematically at vocational school from the basics, I can write ISO code programs on paper, to CAD-CAM-CNC in theory and practice. Esprit software for turning, Mastercam X8 for milling and mixed feelings. Later on I encountered operations with nine axes through three channels. At one place they had a twelve-axes center but I didn’t get the job. I was happy that not. I have two hands and a brain, CNC doesn’t make me a better machinist. On the contrary, respect for my work has gone lost.
 
Got a machine (a teach style lathe with a Fagor control) put into the workshop and was told I better learn how to run it. Spent about 3 hours with the guy who commissioned it and still didn't know much but the manual machining background helped quite a bit with the controls conversational programs. Went on Saturdays for about 2 months to a guy that was trying to start up a small basic programming course to try to learn a bit. Back then it didnt help much since the fagor was loads different to the fanuc style classes I attended. Finished the classes and put my notes in a drawer and pretty much just ground it out with the error manual, if anyone has started from scratch with a fagor error manual you will know how frustrating it can be, and programming manual in hand before,during and after work.

Once I could program and set that one up with pretty much my eyes closed they bought a old machining centre with a fanuc OM control and they pretty much threw the responsibility on me again... I pulled my notes out from the fanuc turning classes I took those few years before and stood behind the machining centre with the Fanuc yellow book :skep: and a clip board. It was a proper grind but I hand wrote out each and every program and went to shops around us to beg guys to look at them for me and give suggestions. I remember a simple contour with a few drilled holes here and there would take me an entire day after the whole process of setting tools, figuring out how to clamp a part seeing as now I could to loads of operations in one go opposed to just one or two like in the manual mills, writing my code out in my note book, double checking my code,punching it into the machine,double checking on the machine, and then eventually running it with one hand on the feed hold and my butt clenched so hard that I would struggle to take a crap at the end of the day.

After learning that, with the help of the internet which in my opinion is a resource that does not get used enough for programming help, I like to brag that the same guys that helped me check code back in the day come to me for programming help now. I try to never standstill and always try to tweak my programming skills every chance I get by trial and error. Since then a few more machining centres,full cnc lathes and wire cutters have been my toys and the learning curve seems to become less time consuming each time.

I only bought a CAD/CAM about 2 year after the first machining centre which has helped a lot but I still don't understand how people expect their CAD/CAM to be able to do it all without any sort of tweaks. I hand code lathes and only really use CAM for the machining centres when 3D comes into play or if machines are running and I can waste time by drawing out something and programming offline or use it to generate profiles that I normally just dump into subs to use on my normal fingercam programs (when I am lazy this also comes into play but I almost always land up tweaking the CAM programs anyway). Then my interest in macro B sparked up and that started a whole new way of tweaking programs and making myself think that I am a genius :D

The programming or CNC thing all started probably about 12 years or so ago...
 
Bought an old lathe with a Bandit controller. Jogged it around a bit manually, then learned to make it go 'acrossed' and then 'back', then 'left', and back. Ok then. Oh, better do a quarter arc: shit!! this is the last time I'm figuring that out :D, I went and bought a computer and got Bobcad 'Gold' (DOS version) and proceeded from there.
 
I was a manual mill ,lathe and grinding toolmaker in San Diego in the late 90s.I was offered a job at a rapid prototype tooling company that built quick turn aluminum molds for short runs for customers. 6 haas machines . 4 mills for mold bases and 2 for trodes. I was told bluntly that i will learn to program 3axis programming or they would let me go. Cimatron software was not the easiest cam system to learn.Mind you i had zero background in programming. Been programming ever since.
 
I looked at this for a really, really long time.
grid-10_10.gif


Then learned how to make the coolant come on and the spindle go in the right direction, and how to use work and tool offsets.

But before I did all that, I made a Million parts using cranks and scales, indicators and files. One day they bought me a DRO, whew.

R
 
I have no formal training whatsoever. Lots of asking stupid questions of very patient folks willing to take to time to explain things to me.

One time I actually asked a guy "how does the G71 turning canned cycle know if it a OD or ID"?

Basically just working and learning as I went. Cad/Cam changed how much programming a guy needs to know now days, here it did anyway.

Brent

Edit: I've said this before and I'll say it again. What I wouldn't have given to have a place like PM to ask those questions back then.
 
I got a job as shop floor supervisor at a cnc job shop that just moved into the area, in 1997, and in the job description was programing. I learned while doing it on Fanuc 5000 and 3m and 3t controls. Many of the 5000 controls were tape only. 2 years of NoteCam gave me a real good understanding of G code to build on. Previous machining job was tool and diemaker at a sailboard parts manufacturing shop desining and building plastic injection molds with all manual machines.
 
Have been a CAM operator for 15 years now- only in the last year or so did I learn how to cut circles with G code. Which helps a ton when you need to edit some CAM generated code without having to run back to the computer. Also have grown a fond appreciation for "clean Code" in the process.
 
I got a copy of the RS-274 G-Code Standard and then wrote the background code within a motion controller to interpret and emulate G and M codes . . . surprisingly the system worked really well but what I learned most was that for complex shapes, some form of CAM system is the way to go.
 








 
Back
Top