Anyone with CNC programming experience?
Asked by STEVEN MC
I will be starting a new job that requires programming of bearing producing CNC machines soon.I would like to get a jump start on training and learn about this process.I have no experience.Does anyone have experience enough to elaborate on CNC programming?Any brand of machine will do.Just take me through the process as you performed it.

Best Answer:
I have done quite a bit of CNC programming in addition to my primary duties as designer/engineer for my former employer...a cast stone manufacturing company. The CNC work was to create dies for the mold making department. The materials that were cut were engineered wood products. Anyway to be considered for that position you had to have an excellent knowledge of AutoCAD, understand 3D models and their associated telimetry (cooridinates), and be able to decifer/decode the resulting programming code if something is amiss. You also had to have an understanding of bit depth and shape. ...so knowing how to carve wood with a Dremel tool came in handy. CNC machine bits aren't much different, just much larger. When I started handling the CNC programming I didn't know anything about it and there was noone to train me. I essentially learned by trial and error. No, that didn't make my boss happy. In fact it infuriated him because he expected perfection on the first run. Anyway to program this particular machine you had to import a 2D drawing into the CNC modeling programing. Using the modeling program you used the 2D drawing to create a 3 dimensional model. ...and with that 3D model you assigned a bit and the roughness of the cut. The modeling program used the information you gave it to create a tool path. Then you use the tool path checker program to make sure the path is going make the cuts correctly. If it checks out ok then and only then do you send the program to the CNC machine operator.