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Use hand wheel control to make a cut?

M. Moore

Titanium
Joined
Jun 8, 2007
Location
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
Just throwing this out there for some feedback.
It occurred to me after using the hand wheel for setup and 0-0 location of the vice that it would actually be possible to make a cut using the handwheel.
Has anyone done this and is there any reason that it is a bad idea?
I have to make some index plates and without a powered indexer it would be very fast to just use the handwheel to make the cut, zip zip, then index. It will take longer to index than to make the cuts.
 
Just throwing this out there for some feedback.
It occurred to me after using the hand wheel for setup and 0-0 location of the vice that it would actually be possible to make a cut using the handwheel.
Has anyone done this and is there any reason that it is a bad idea?
I have to make some index plates and without a powered indexer it would be very fast to just use the handwheel to make the cut, zip zip, then index. It will take longer to index than to make the cuts.
Don't get pissed off but I can't tell if this is a serious question or you're just fucking with us? I think the hand wheel is how it's done on a Bridgeport for like a hundred years. The jog would be a more consistent feed rate than the hand wheel but that probably don't matter.

Brent
 
Not messing around, the remote handwheel that controls the xyz axis. Not the handwheel on the table screw.
I have a manual Cinnci mill but think the CNC will be faster and I have more spindle speed. The Cinnci is limited at 1500rpm.
 
Not messing around, the remote handwheel that controls the xyz axis. Not the handwheel on the table screw.
I have a manual Cinnci mill but think the CNC will be faster and I have more spindle speed. The Cinnci is limited at 1500rpm.

I don't see any reason not to give it a go. Good luck!

Brent
 
Just throwing this out there for some feedback.
It occurred to me after using the hand wheel for setup and 0-0 location of the vice that it would actually be possible to make a cut using the handwheel.
Has anyone done this and is there any reason that it is a bad idea?
I have to make some index plates and without a powered indexer it would be very fast to just use the handwheel to make the cut, zip zip, then index. It will take longer to index than to make the cuts.

I do this all the time for cleaning up soft jaw faces, simple edges, basic slots, etc. It’s totally fine.
 
Great,
Just checking with all the experts as I am quite new to CNC and have only had this mill for a year but definitely don't use it everyday, or even every week.
So I am still learning but getting reasonably good at making it do what I want without too much trouble.

Not a big deal and thanks for the feedback.
 
I do this all the time with the handwheel. And I use jog mode too. I set mine to .0001" and it is more forgiving to changes in handwheel speed and jerky motion. Works a treat.
 
You can, but for basic stuff, I tend to just use MDI, so I get a feedrate that's even... Just me, though.
 
Don't get pissed off but I can't tell if this is a serious question or you're just fucking with us? I think the hand wheel is how it's done on a Bridgeport for like a hundred years. The jog would be a more consistent feed rate than the hand wheel but that probably don't matter.

Brent

lmfao! Believe it or not, I once did some programming at a union shop in Illinois. We were making a fixture. I told the guy to face of the top of the plate. He said, "where is the program for that?" I said, what do you mean? He asked how he was going to face it off in the Mazak mill without a program. I went to his machine, turned on the spindle and used the wheel to face the material. After 15 years of running that mill (it was the only machine he ran) he never knew you could do that. Yeah, that was just the start of his brilliance.
 
Great,
Just checking with all the experts as I am quite new to CNC and have only had this mill for a year but definitely don't use it everyday, or even every week.
So I am still learning but getting reasonably good at making it do what I want without too much trouble.

Not a big deal and thanks for the feedback.

It can be useful to keep in the back of your mind that you WILL FORGET to switch to the correct axis once in while, and you will realize this AFTER you give the MPG a spin. But that's what they make new vice jaws, new toolholders, even new vises for! :D
 
HuFlung,
That is a good thing to keep in mind.
For this application I will only be moving the Y axis so I should be fine until I let my guard down on the next project....
I also have a built in safety system, the previous owner went cheap and bought an mpg from ebay instead of oem. So I have to switch the axis on the control panel.
 
It can be useful to keep in the back of your mind that you WILL FORGET to switch to the correct axis once in while, and you will realize this AFTER you give the MPG a spin. But that's what they make new vice jaws, new toolholders, even new vises for! :D

And spindles.
 
Once in a blue moon I will do this.
A handwheel on a panel or MPG is so way different than the handles on the end of a B-port table.
Feedback one, size of the handle radius number two as this makes rotation speed hard to control smoothly.

A repeat task like this I could see making practice runs and getting used to controlling the feed so I can for see it working here.
However it would be a tiny program and just hit the green button after each index.

My luck machining on a cnc machines with handwheels not so great, I tried using force feedback joysticks too so as to have that manual machine feel.
Always thought a force feedback handwheel would be great but that turns out to be rather difficult, expensive and subject to lag.
Bob
 
It can be useful to keep in the back of your mind that you WILL FORGET to switch to the correct axis once in while, and you will realize this AFTER you give the MPG a spin. But that's what they make new vice jaws, new toolholders, even new vises for! :D

Or the feed per impulse switch. :angry:
 
Many years ago my firm bought two machining centers, a 40 x 20 Makino and a fairly large SNK bridge mill. The Makino had X1 X10 and X100 on the handwheel. The SNK only X1 and X10. I asked the techs installing the SNK if they could add the X100 to the handwheel and they complied after we found them a three position switch.

So far, so good.

However the SNK had a fairly slow rapid and a few times when using the handwheel on the X100 setting, you would stop turning the handle while the machine dutifully kept rolling along to satisfy the pulses that were sent to the servos. There were more than a few exciting moments where a crash seemed imminent.

And of course, forgetting to change the axis setting as mentioned earlier in this thread.
 








 
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