To change parameters you need to go to the setting screen in MDI. Now put a 1 in the parameter write box.
Rads and Chamfers Fanuc Parameters. Today we are going to change the parameters that make ,R and ,C work this means you can program point to point and just stuff in some rads and chamfers as an afterthought.
Fanuc have two ways of putting on chamfers and rads and that’s where the confusion lies.
Just do as you’re told (oh and read this article)
So in Parameter 3453 you can set bit #0 (CRD) to a 1 this allows what Fanuc call “Direct Drawing Inputs” to work.
Also in Parameter 8134 set bit #2 (CCR) to a o
Now don’t let the description put you off this turns on the crappy one that uses R and R- and K and K-. This only works on 90 degree corners and unless you won Mastermind I wouldn’t even try to understand how it works.
Trust me it’s shit
Anyway Rads and Chamfers Fanuc Parameters 8134 3453 all sorted!
Isn’t it just great to sort out those annoying problems?
CNC Battery Backup, I had a call from a customer the other day about a mysterious battery warning on the screen of his Haas CNC Lathe, it turns out he had been ignoring a battery alarm for a while. Battery warnings are a bit like strange rashes you ignore them at your peril.
I was too late the machine had lost its memory. A bit like the next day after you got drunk and everyone was telling you about how you got naked in the middle of the dance floor and to you it’s like it never happened.
No matter how many prompts you give the machine now, all is lost. When your battery backup goes unfortunately you don’t just loose your CNC Programmes, oh no you should be so lucky. Obviously it depends on the machine and the control and how the moon is aligned with the planets. You can loose all your parameters, all your offsets, all your settings everything. All in all it’s not good.
CNC Machine Parameters
The parameters are the most important one, if you ignore this whole article (like you did all my others) please don’t ignore this. It could almost scrap your machine, I jest not. All your machine backlash parameters would be lost and even if you had an identical machine these parameters would not be the same they are unique to each machine. You should have a disk or a paper tape or DVD, maybe somewhere in the machine cabinet. Make sure you have a copy of this and it is up to date.
On most machines the CNC Battery Backup gets charged when the machine is on and when it’s off that battery keeps hold of all what’s needed for when you switch it back on again. This works fine until the battery gets knackered after a few years. You should get a warning and if you do then you ignore at your peril. The best thing to do now is don’t switch off the machine (the hydraulics is fine to turn off).
Just press the E Stop (the big one shown above) but don’t switch off the main power. Now get HELP. Oh and by the way if your machine has power saving or auto shut-down you may need to turn this off as some do power down the whole system, this will be in your settings.
CNC Battery Backup
It’s particularly worth looking at before a shutdown type holiday. You might not realise it but this might be the only time in a year when the machine is off for more than a few hours, and that’s when the trouble starts.
Even when everything is restored you need to be really careful it’s a bit like restoring factory settings on your mobile phone “yea that’s OK” you say. Then for days you keep finding all those little customization you made and forgot about.
This is my phone (I like to have all the latest gadgets just like you young folk)
Oh By the way don’t forget the new classroom training courses.
If you are not familiar with the basics of Turning or Milling then you may need to take one of the course below before you do the New CNC Training Classes above.
CNC Battery Backup
Lets talk about what we can do with regards to CNC Battery Backup.
Get your machines on a regular maintenance contract.
Make sure you have an up to date backup of your machine parameters.
All backups should have an extra copy off the premises or in a fireproof safe
Always read alarms and don’t procrastinate, it can make you blind.
Never ignore warnings on the screen and keep your eyes out for quick flash warning as the machine comes on.
Don’t just keep programs in the machine you may have got away with it for years but one day……..
CNC Program Backup
The method I have found to work the best with regards to CNC program backup is to only keep in the machine the program you are currently using. That way you always have the most up to date program and it prompts operators to update the backup system after alterations. Also it will stop you relying on the machine memory.
There are many very good backup systems you can buy and I would recommend you get one. They usually have a way to quarantine a program so that the programmer can decide to update the master after alterations.
Make sure you have drawing issue numbers etc. on your programs and this covers you for ISO 90001 thingamy or whatever. Most machines have a way of saving all the programs at once and this is often a good temporary measure if your in a rush. On a Haas CNC Machine it puts them all into a single program.
Most machines have a way of saving your offsets either separately or with the programs and this is well worth checking out.
Read The Manual, CNC Battery Backup
This is not just an old man repeating himself yet again. It will tell you how to backup your parameters and offsets etc.
CNC Probes, Auto tool Measure, Lathe Measuring Arms
You will have to re calibrate these as the settings will be lost. Unless you saved your parameters that is. It is a good idea to write these figures down and if you didn’t do it before do it this time.
These settings effectively store where the probe is in relation to the coordinate system. If you don’t know how to calibrate your probe etc. it’s time to learn it is not only expensive to get this done it will stop you getting round to doing it. Once you have done it you will be surprised how easy it is.
If you are not familiar with the basics of Turning or Milling then you may need to take one of the course below before you do the New CNC Training Classes above.
It’s been a while since I trained anyone on a Mazak Quick Turn Machine. Another training job completely out of the blue.
Custom Rifles, didn’t know what to expect really. Anyway a drive to Tunbridge Wells, where for the price of a garden shed you could probably buy my village in the Midlands.
I ended up in glorious countryside on a farm in what felt like the middle of nowhere. The guy who runs this company (Paddy) has his workshop in the outbuildings of the farm.
It is like walking into Dr Who’s Tardis. This workshop wants for nothing, surface grinding, shot blasting. This guys even got a Faro Arm!
Two Haas machines and the Mazak Quick Turn 10. Not the tidiest of workshop but I am told it’s a work in progress.
It is really heartwarming to see such investment in tooling and modern equipment in what effectively is a one man band.
Paddy is a brilliant engineer and mostly self taught. Loads of the CNC stuff learnt from my website (happy days) . This guy googles everything but not in a “What I had for breakfast, oh fuck the cat just threw up” type of way.
This is very constructive use of google definitely the way forward.
He already had a pretty good understanding of what the machine could do. Being self taught, several gaps in his knowledge, so, in steps me, to fill em all up.
Paddy rebuilds, repairs and creates custom rifles.
Mazatrol
I had forgotten just how brilliant these machine are. I don’t believe there is a quicker way to get a part from drawing to bubble wrap than the Mazak Quick Turn.
Check out this video on Tool Path Store another brilliant feature on the Mazak Quick Turn.
I’m not flogging these things by the way but if your reading this article I’m always open to offers. That is providing I keep my clothes on, well maybe not, how much we talking?
From its original concept Mazatrol has never really got much better and that’s not a criticism. For turning it’s just bloody good, very bloody good.
Like for example on a Mazak you index the turret and you wanna use a tool. Now that’s not a big ask is it?
Well on most other controls you can’t because the bloody offset is not active. You can call it in MDI if you want. That is if you know how. Trouble is, the minute you press RESET it’s gone .
On a Mazak once you index the turret that tool is active along with all its associated geometry.
That means you can start manual turning with hand wheel or jog and the diameter is what it says on the screen.
So simple, so obvious but what a difference it makes. The list goes on and on as to how well thought out these Mazak Quick Turn machines are.
All the information is saved with the program. So that means your work offset, jaw details and chuck details are all there when you call the program again.
Graphics
Now the graphics are not like“Assassin’s Creed Origins” but they are adequate and definitely help a lot. If you can be arsed to set the graphics up with chuck jaws n stuff then you can be certain all will be okay when you run it for real.
You can even jump from the program directory straight to a graphic simulation of the part so there is no “oh shit I wish I’d made a note of what this does” moment. You quickly get to see what the program does.
Footnote: You should still add a program description (and there’s a facility for this too.)
Liar Liar Your Bums On Fire
One of the main criticisms I hear of Mazatrol is that you have to “Lie to it”. I think when you want to do something a bit unusual it’s sometimes hard to get Mazatrol to do it.
This Mazak Quick Turn 10 is a two axis CNC Lathe. Let’s be honest most of the bits you make are gonna be quite simple. If not then this is where the Manual Programming Unit steps in.
Manual programming units are the Mazak “Get Out Of Jail Free” card
You can go back to some very crude G code programming within Mazatrol. These Manual Programming Units can sometimes get you out of a jam. It is quite limited, in what G codes you can use, but it will help a lot.
Incremental is a bit strange because it does not use U and W like you would normally on a Fanuc type system. It puts like a sign after your X or Z to tell you it’s incremental.
Need To Know
It’s well documented how easy it is to program in Mazatrol so I won’t dwell on it.
If you have never used Mazatrol you need to check it out. I think it is the epitome of “need to know”. What I mean by that is that it’s the minimum amount of information to get it to make some bits.
You know stuff like do you want tool nose radius compensation? Of course you bloody do. So it doesn’t ask you, you just get it.
Anyone who has only used Mazatrol probably wouldn’t know what you were on about. And why should they care?
It’s like knowing all the bits inside your telly who gives a shit when you just want to watch “Emmerdale Farm”. I don’t watch that crap by the way, honest.
Read On It’s Not All This Boring
This control can smoothly go into ISO programming. Not sure if this is an option but they all seem to have it.
So………. from a Mazatrol program you just jump into an ISO G code type program and everything works the same.
So what’s all the fuss about. If there’s something you can’t do in Mazatrol just write a bit of straight ISO G code type program and call it from your Mazatrol main program. So there you go job done stop whining.
Even the graphics work in ISO so there is no excuse.
Priority
When you finish your program you get this list of processes and you can really easily swap things around. You know like if you wanted to thread before you did the grooving, you can easily just swap the order.
Then you have this button that says Rough Priority. When you press it all the roughing is done first. How cool is that??
Program Restart
It always amazes me that CNC Machines are never that good on this. Well Mazaks are not bad actually.
You can really easily start from any program unit in Mazatrol. It’s also got this Single Process thingy that’s been around for years. Dead useful though. It means you can just run one unit, so you don’t have to worry about it carrying on to the next unit it just does that unit and ends.
Useful for stuff like just going over a thread again.
You can’t actually break into a unit to restart but on CNC Lathes you nearly always just want to start at the beginning of a tool.
If you have an ISO program it’s still better than a lot I could name. A bit convoluted in a way only the Japanese seem to be able to do. Nevertheless seven out of ten.
Procrastination
I was accused of this years ago and once I’d looked it up I thought yea that’s me. “What’s the point of this you ask? He’s off again”
When you are running an ISO program and you are milling say a shape or something. You look at the program and you see something coming up that you never got round to changing. It could be a feedrate or something.
It’s something that can keep pissing you off cos you forget to do it.
Help is At Hand. On a Mazak you can actually go into edit and alter it then come back n continue your program.
I just love showing people that one, makes me feel like I earned my money.
Oh yea by the way this is only when you are in an ISO program not Mazatrol
Things I Don’t Like
Take That Records
Beef Burgers
Brass Bands
No I meant about this machine Mazak Quick Turn.
Not much actually, oh the editing is a bit slow.
Editing
Editing in ISO is a doddle.
Editing in Mazatrol is very cumbersome and when it comes to stuff like copying a unit you have to say what program it’s from and all sorts of bollocks. It wants your bank account number and sort code.
There are more questions than a fuckin mortgage application.
Moving units is the same not a pleasant customer experience. Once you get used to it and how the Mazak brain is wired it’s ok though.
Let’s Be Honest
There ain’t much to not like about the Mazak Quick Turn.
Even if I were only going to use the machine is ISO (Fanuc type programming) and not use Mazatrol I would still seriously consider buying one of these machines.
Why…..
In ISO it’s easier to restart a program than most G code controls.
The editing is easy.
Better graphics than most. (It’s still like early space invaders)
CNC Programming Running Order, the order of your CNC code within one block does not matter (see below)
Or does it?
O0001(G81 DEMO) G21 G90 G40 (G90 G40 G21) Works the same T01 M06 (20.0 MM DIA X 90 POINT SPOT DRILL) (M06 T01)Works the same G90 G0 G54 X12.64 Y88.0 S2546 M3 (S2546 M3 G90 G0 G54 X12.64 Y88.0)Works the same
However it is best to keep the order the same. Create your own convention and stick to it.
G90 G0 G54 X12.64 Y88.0 S2546 M3
So if you always put the speed and M3 (spindle start clockwise) at the end of the first position line try to always stick to that.
It Could Save You
If one day you miss out the speed for example. You will look at the code and it will look strange. You will immediately realise what is wrong.
It’s like the time my cooker got pinched, I looked in the kitchen and their was an old pince of cheese and a dirty floor where it used to be. Whilst I was thinking of a recipe to use the old cheese in I thought “something is wrong”.
Anyway
You will get used to the order of your programs and they will be easier to read, so the CNC Programming Running Order is important.
This helps not only you but your customer, the machine operator or setter.
Imagine you have not seen this program for a while. How long will it take you to realise how it works and what it does?
