in any case that’s not what this article is about. But before you get too excited these machines come with a government bank balance warning.Īnd…. Having a Y Axis is awesome the options are endless. Here is what milling a hexagon looks like when you have a Y axis machine. So when you are milling on the front face of your part the machine behaves just like a milling machine cutting in X and Y. Y AxisĬrudely (and I am known for being crude) a Y Axis means your turret can go up and down. 001 of a degree like C123.456īy the way these are all machines that don’t have a Y Axis. That gives you a spiral with a 10mm pitch. Meanwhile your Z is moving 30mm that is 10mm every turn. Your C axis would do three full turns (360 x 3 = 1080). It works as a simultaneous axis so that means you could program a Z move along with a C move. This works just like any other axis except it is programmed in decimal degrees. It is usually known as a C axis (Because it runs through the Z axis) You can even engage your handwheel and rotate it manually. On your position display you will see X Z and C. On this type of machine you will be able to lock into your spindle and it becomes a rotary axis. Well it already has one its called the spindle and it has a great big chuck stuck to the end of it. You could even mill a radial slot or drill some radial holes.

So now when you turn a part you could mill some flats on it or maybe drill and tap some holes in the front face of the job. You will need a holder for driven tools like this to do radial holes. And you will need special holders for your driven tools like this to do axial holes (holes in the front face). That means the tools in your turret can rotate so you can have drills end mills taps all sorts of shit spinning around in your turret. If you want your lathe to be able to do milling with driven tools as well, then it will cost considerably more.įirst of all you will need special holders for the driven tooling. If you want to apply for this classroom course, then don’t bother reading this article.īy all means read on, in fact you’ll probably not need to do the course and waste your money!Ī new CNC Machine is a very expensive investment even a simple two axis X Z lathe would represent a large investment to most companies. There is also a lot of advanced CNC Turning material too and you get to test it all out on your own virtual CNC machine. You will learn about machines with a Y axis and machines that use a virtual Y axis. This article is about driven tools (sometimes known as live tooling) on a CNC Lathe and how we use G12.1 (G112) to mill shapes.Īt the CNC Training centre we have a two day course which covers all aspects of driven tools on a CNC Lathe.

Boxford taper turning