I thought to ask this since we do have a number of active English speaking members in the lab.
If there is interest, i am willing to run the introductory course for CNC in general and operating Lotta in particular, in English language.
For those who are not in the loop; we have done this introductory course in Finnish a couple of times now. The purpose is to initiate people in the general concepts of CNC machines and to demonstrate and practice several routine operations at the machine itself. Acquiring the course information together with an operator’s test (where you will demonstrate ability to understand and operate the machine) will grant permission to work with Lotta independently.
If you would like to see this happen, please give me feedback here or elsewhere.
OK, we will do it then.
Alternatives are to do it on Wednesdays, possibly on Mondays or then during the weekends. The course will be about 5 sessions or 3 long ones if done during weekends.
Easter is upon us so my suggestion is we do it after that. Please let me know what days of the week would be best for you.
Last chance to suggest days for this. If none are coming we do as follows:
Introduction to CNC milling i.e. Lotta 101 in English will start Wed April 6. We start at 18.00 hrs. If at least 2 persons show up we run the course as planned.
If there are not too many participants we can be efficient and run the contents in 4 sessions on successive Wednesdays.
Sorry for the delay, I thought by replying in discourse I was automatically “Watching” this thread and getting all the replies in my email. Turns out the default of just “Tracking” didn’t automatically email me of new replies hence my delay.
I’m free whenever really. Wednesdays evenings are fine if that’s best for you @Kremmen. @daned33 mentioned a preference for Mondays or weekends when I was chatting to him but hopefully he’ll see this and chime in.
One last tweak. After this no more changes:
Since Mon 11 is not good for all, we start on Wed 13 Apr. The other sessions will be held on Mondays as previously suggested.
I added and English language version of the Lotta Operator’s Test wiki page. Our native English speakers may want to check and comment whether it is understandable or otherwise.
All suggestions are welcome! http://wiki.helsinki.hacklab.fi/Operator%27s_Test
Topics were Coordinate systems, chip formation as well as various tools and tool holders.
A key topic that we started is how to define, measure and program the necessary work coordinate and tool offsets.
We also did a brief introduction at operating the machine in manual mode.
Next session will refresh the above and we will practise the offset measurements at the machine so that all trainees are comfortable with doing that.
Also, you can download the entire material in one convenient zip file from Hacklab Github site at Hacklab Git-Lotta 101_en
Next time will be Monday Apr 18, @18.00
Since I was the middle part away yesterday, I am not sure when the rest of the meetings are - the only thing I know is Monday 18th @ 18:00; what about the rest of the course, are the dates fixed?
Topics were workpiece or stock holding and squaring or how to create an accurately rectangular piece from irregular stock.
Also we started to introduce the general principles of G-codes and programming in them.
This session's practice was to manually square an extruded and hand-sawn piece of aluminium. That gave all the participants a chance to try various manual operations on the machine and to familiarize with the control panel.
After introducing the G-codes last time, this time we went through the most common individual G codes that one needs for a basic program. Also some notes about the general structure of a G code program (not much structure there…).
At Lotta we practiced measuring and programming tool offsets as well as measuring and programming work coordinates using the test piece produced during the previous session.
The G code material is here: G Codes
The task for the 4th session was to produce the classical Turner’s Cube do demonstrate the ability of course participants to set up Lotta for automatic program execution including tool setup, workpiece preparatiuon and setup as well as program planning and entry into memory.
All of the other tasks were accomplished successfully except the actual entry and execution of the program. This was due to an unforeseen problem with Lotta’s display soft keys after the recent memory upgrade. Fortunately this was a known issue and an astute course participant was able to spot the fix in Internet. After quickly applying the fix (change parameter 9300 bit 7 from 0 to 1 - don’t ask) the soft keys again worked beautifully.
Unfortunately the hour was late already and we decided to assemble once more during next monday to finish the job. This will be done so all participants are invited to attend once more on Monday May 9.
P.S. After fixing the problem the course participants present wanted to test if the program can now be entered and run. So we did just that and it worked. To prove the program, one of the 6 sides of the Cube was milled and the result was as expected. We did note that one tool in the magazine was not properly calibrated which once more underlined that it is a really good idea to always run a new program in single block mode until you know for sure that it works as intended.
Next Monday we will go through the program once more when all are present and mill the remaining sides of the cube.
I will enter the program code here shortly for your information.
##Unannotated G Code Turner’s Cube for Lotta 101-en course session 4:
This is the code you actually enter in the machine. In the following post is the annotated version with explanations.
