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My m4 with fanuc 6t controller

reedeprintice

Stainless
Joined
Feb 22, 2008
Location
Paradise , California
Just bought this machine -Its 1980 everything works so far , had a few lines and wires to snapin up. I am at the program start point , I have my program loaded , tool off set done , axis are set and ready , The sequence to cycle start is not making allot of sense. Anyone have one of these or remember the cycle start sequence ? Thanks Jess
 
There are some basic things that needed to happen on our M4 with a 5T control.

It had to be manually shifted into a gear before starting a cycle.

Turrets need to be down and seated.

Both axis must be at home.

There may be switches on the operator panel in the wrong position and prevent auto cycle operation.

Feed hold must be off for any axis movement.
Feed and rapid overrides must not be at 0.

If you think you are good to go, try some M functions in MDI.
M3 S100 starts the spindle at 100 RPM, etc.

All I can think of for now, it has been nearly 35 years since I have had any contact with it.

Bill
 
Some Fanuc 6T machines also needed the turret 'homed' by manually indexing to tool 1 before it would cycle start a program.
 
There are some basic things that needed to happen on our M4 with a 5T control.

It had to be manually shifted into a gear before starting a cycle.

Turrets need to be down and seated.

Both axis must be at home.

There may be switches on the operator panel in the wrong position and prevent auto cycle operation.

Feed hold must be off for any axis movement.
Feed and rapid overrides must not be at 0.

If you think you are good to go, try some M functions in MDI.
M3 S100 starts the spindle at 100 RPM, etc.

All I can think of for now, it has been nearly 35 years since I have had any contact with it.

Bill

Not true on my Mazak M4 with 5T. The control could give a shit if the axis are home. It will start from anywhere, doesn't care. The gear range is selected in the program. Never had to select a gear manually.

One thing that has got me a few times is making sure the coolant switch is in auto. If it's in off or manual it won't do a thing when you hit cycle start.
 
Does it have an interlock key for loading a program? This must be in run mode if it does. Is the mode switch in program mode?

Does program cursor stop at a line in your code or does it just do nothing?

Something worth noting is to take extra super care to pay attention where the ID turret is when you are running OD tools. On mine, I have stations 25 and 26 blocked off and tool 25 is always called up at the end of an ID toolpath in my programs.

These machines are also pixie thirsty. They have a DC spindle that uses a lot of juice. They need big wires to run at 100% load.
 
Right now I am dealing with another small issue trying to get m37 /m38/m39 to work in mdi to verify its functioning right , I can get x and z to move in mdi but not the spindle yet. Thanks for the help so far , on my control tape mode is auto mode they tell me. I will try it next. Jess
 
Right now I am dealing with another small issue trying to get m37 /m38/m39 to work in mdi to verify its functioning right , I can get x and z to move in mdi but not the spindle yet. Thanks for the help so far , on my control tape mode is auto mode they tell me. I will try it next. Jess

Tape mode is tape mode. Tape mode does not run from program memory.

If you MDI "M37 input start" it should do it's thing.

does the spindle run in handle mode? can you mdi S500 EOB M3 or some such?
 
I believe to run the spindle the first time after powering it up you have to call a

M41; (low gear range)
G79 S100 M3/M4; (spindles rotate, rpm, spindle direction)

typically this will be in the first couple blocks of your program for each tool/operation.

Any chance you could post the code for the group to see? I'm not a Mazak guy but I've fooled with the Fanuc 6T many moons ago.

Brent
 
That should run. You don't need line numbers. The last like should be M30 instead of M03.

You can add a line like:
G0 G28 U0. W0.
To send the machine home before you start.
 
I will try that s500 eob m3 or m03

Throw a G97 in there with that if the S500 M3 don't get it spinning.

IIRC the 6T will only take one line of MDI code at a time.

M41 input
EOB input
Start button

Hit the green start button by the number key pad first? If nothing try cycle start. Can't remember which try both.

then

G97 input
S500 input
M3 input
EOB input
Start button

See if that has it spinning if it isn't already?

Brent
 








 
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