Radius Interpolation (Feature suggestion)

[MidniteMachinist]

A YouTube-inspired suggestion:

Watching the latest An Engineer's Findings video, he mentions that his DRO has a radius interpolation function, which allows him to mill a radius on a part, using XY coordinates. I feel like this could be a useful function to incorporate into TouchDRO.

Not only for milling machines, either. I remember watching a video by That Lazy Machinist, where he machines a half-dome on the lathe using a round-nosed tool, and XZ coordinates.

In either case, you'd need to know the center point of the radius, the radius length itself, and the radius of the cutting tool. The user could also set the number of desired coordinates, depending on how precise the radius needs to be, or how much finish work they want to do.

This kind of function would almost negate the need for a rotary table when milling radii, or of a special ball-turning tool on the lathe.

(I also posted this over on the YuriysToys forum, apologies if the redundancy is annoying)

 

[MBuechle]

I use the bolt hole function in Touch DRO to do this.

 

[MidniteMachinist]

I use the bolt hole function in Touch DRO to do this.

Neat! I assume you subtract the tool radius from the bolt hole radius? How many "holes" do you use?

I think the similar function for the lathe configuration would be pretty valuable.

 

[RJSakowski]

I have that function on my Grizzly DRO. I basically generates x and y (x,z or y,z) coordinates for any arc given the start point, the end point, the radius and the center of the arc for any arc. The tool radius is either added or subtracted depending on whether you are cutting inside or outside.

Yo use, you move to the start and it then gives the x and y distance to move to the next point. When you reach 0,0, you have arrived. Then you call up the next point. For small steps, it is tedious and time consuming. I have only used it a few times in the last twenty years. The biggest benefit is that it strengthens you resolve to buy a proper CNC mill.

 

[benmychree]

I have that function on my Grizzly DRO. I basically generates x and y (x,z or y,z) coordinates for any arc given the start point, the end point, the radius and the center of the arc for any arc. The tool radius is either added or subtracted depending on whether you are cutting inside or outside.

Yo use, you move to the start and it then gives the x and y distance to move to the next point. When you reach 0,0, you have arrived. Then you call up the next point. For small steps, it is tedious and time consuming. I have only used it a few times in the last twenty years. The biggest benefit is that it strengthens you resolve to buy a proper CNC mill.

Or a rotary table ----