Hello there!
So after getting a lot of feedback and interest in my business, and CNC machining.. I decided I would start a blog series about it... I've been trying to get pictures and video the last 2 weeks, to provide some good/interesting content... But I'm having trouble deciding what people would be more interested in....
I wanted to do video but it's going to be a lot easier for me to just do text and pictures.. so I guess I'll just do pictures and text for now and see if it progresses, and if people want to see me do video instead!.. Here is a picture of me at my HAAS Mini Mill 2 :)
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Anyways,.. Now let's get to it !!
CNC means Computer Numerical Control.. There are two basic machining types, milling and lathing.. Mills and lathes have been around way before computers, and they used to be completely operator controlled. They were operated with knobs or dials to adjust the movement of the machine on one, or multiple axis. Milling is done on a milling machine like this...
That particular mill has a DRO, or Digital Readout..making it a NC (numerical control) milling machine. The readout helps the operator know exactly what location the X,Y, and Z axis are... The table travels on the X and Y axis, and the spindle, which holds the tooling, travels on the Z axis. The tooling is used to cut or drill into metal, or sometimes plastics and such..
With the advancement in computers, CNC machines were born.. Now, these Mills can run much more advanced G code, and much higher feedrate (rate and distance the machine travels on one or more axis)..
This required machines to start running coolant, and enclosing the machine to capture the coolant and metal chips that are made during the milling.
Here's a picture of my CNC mill
As you can see, it has a computer interface pannel.. The mill also has a 24 side mount tool changer.. The control pannel is the brain of the CNC mill. The newer control panels are extremely advanced, and some have hundreds if not thousands of available functions.
Here is a picture of the control pannel that is used on every HAAS machine...
I will explain later what these buttons do.. I will also be talking about the software used, called CAD/CAM, or Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing software.. This software is extremely important to the manufacturing process. I am also currently document my latest project, which has been to make a fixture, to hold and make fishing lure molds. I am very excited to share this latest project with everyone!
Thanks for reading!