Easy CNC A beginners guide to CNC

[Bill Gruby]

OK, this book was givin to me by a friend who could not make heads or tails of it. It is put out Square 1 Author David Benson. Can anyone tell me if this is a good book to start with or is there something simpler out there. I am totally in the dark on this subject.

"Bill Gruby"

 

[Tin Falcon]

Cant say I know anything of the book . I have seen it advertised . IIRc that guy gave a seminar at cabin fever a while back and had the book for sale.
Learning cnc can be a daunting task as can building retrofitting a machine.
Stepby step.
Tin

 

[RonGinger]

I am not much of a fan of this book. Its all about learning Gcode. In my view thats a waste of time. For all but the most trivial parts writing Gcode is simply to tedious to consider. The last part I made was a label for a model, and that had of 125,000 bytes in the file. No way is anyone gong to write that.

Sorry for those old-timers that had to do it all by hand, but we dont do that anymore.

Even the simplest parts run to dozens or hundreds of lines, and why would anyone in their right mind try to do that 'by hand' when their are programs that will do it all in seconds.

Forget learning Gcode, the few bits you need to read will become clear as you work.

After that, I cannot suggest a book that will tell you how to get started in CNC.

First you need to have a basic grasp of CAD- nothing complex, just the basics of drawing shapes- we dont need dimensions, section views, etc, just basic geometry.

The you need to learn a CAM program. For several years I have used Sheetcam, but Ive just started to use CAMBAM and I think its a better fit for model engineering. It includes sufficient CAD to do most model parts.

Finally you need to learn to operate whichever control program you choose. I prefer Mach3. others have their favorites.

 

[xpylonracer]

Hi Bill,
I am not familiar with the book mentioned, but unlike Ron I believe it may be sensible to learn some G & M coding. It is true that most people now use a CAD program for drawing the parts and then a CAM program to convert the CAD to a usable G & M code for the machine to use.
Some parts may only need a few lines of code and in this case it could be written in an editor quicker than drawing the part in a CAD program, obviously for more complicated and multi-axis machining modern technology is the answer.
Rgds, emgee

 

[imagineering]

Hi Bill,

Many years ago I built a 3-Axis CNC Router from scratch, using 3 different Stepper Motors from old Commercial Photocopiers.
I knew next to nothing about CNC, and could not have done it without the guys at http://cnczone.com/
Save your money on the Book, mix up a brew of your favourite, kick back & spend some time on this website.
Reading through some of the 'beginner threads' will fire you up the 'Learning Curve' real fast.

I have now converted a Sieg SX3 Mill to 3-Axis CNC and am currently working on the 4th Rotary Axis.
Learning G-Codes, while not essential, can help 'tweaking' toolpaths to suit.
My CNC Router runs Turbo-CNC on DOS, (no windows), self-built Electronics, and I'm generating Toolpaths with Vectrix V-Carve.
The Mill runs Mach3 on Windows XP through commercial Electronics.

Murray.

 

[shred]

Hmm.. the Easy CNC book I have (Blue cover, Square 1 publisher, Version 1.0, David Benson author) does not focus very much on learning G-code; it's got a chapter on the basics and has listings sprinked throughout, but by halfway through all the code is machine-generated.

The whole book is pretty much basics (it's supposed to be "Easy", after all). It goes over, in walkthrough-style, making simple parts using DeskCNC, AutoSketch and CorelDraw. If you don't have that software set (DeskCNC in particular), you may not get a lot out of it. In my opinion it would be good if you are starting from ground zero and have a DeskCNC-based machine, but otherwise you may want to look elsewhere.

 

[Bill Gruby]

OK, now I'm scared. Is this the price for AutoCad or have I found something else?

http://shopper.cnet.com/cad-cam/aut...kage/4014-3627_9-33861244.html?tag=shop;range

"Bill Gruby"

 

[RonGinger]

Yep, autocad is the 'high priced spread'

The only people that use it have access at work, or have some kind of student edition.

There are many more, and I think better options from Free to about $100. I use an old version TurboCad. Their later versions got expensive.

For 3D design I use Alibre. I bought the Pro package, but they now have a good deal for $100

 

[DaveH]

Hello Bill,

I thought you had a CAD package.

There some good free 2D CAD available, you don't need to buy one.

Dave

 

[kvom]

Personally I think a basic knowledge of g-code is needed for getting proficient with CNC when it comes to running a job.

For milling, there are only a few codes that are most commonly used in the majority of home projects:

G0, G1, G2, G3, G80, G81, G83
M0, M1, M3, M5, M30
S, F

If you understand these you'll be well ahead of the game. And you'll be able to use the MDI facility in mach3 when necessary.

That said, g-code is not the "hard" part of CNC. My experience has been that fixturing and feeds&speeds become much more important. Of course, the CAD and CAM aspects are the parts that are new to manual machining and require education.

 

[Bill Gruby]

Hello Bill,

I thought you had a CAD package.

There some good free 2D CAD available, you don't need to buy one.

Dave

I did but the Free ran out two days ago. LOL

"Bill Gruby"

 

[kvom]

Draftsight is free and very capable.

 

[DaveH]

Bill,
So is DoubleCAD XT
Dave

 

[imagineering]

Version 12 of TurboCAD can be found free at;
http://www.softwareparadise.co.uk/pages/PCWTurboCAD

IMSI, the people who write TurboCAD, release their 'older' versions to the public Domain every now & again.

I've been using TurboCAD for about 5 years, and have not yet exhausted its limits.

TurboCNC , (not related), is free and will run on an old DOS machine to drive your CNC Machinery and can be found at;
http://www.dakeng.com/turbo.html

Murray

 

[Bill Gruby]

Thank you all. I have all the links bookmarked and will look at all of them later. You all have been extremely helpful.

"Bill Gruby"