I have a 12 place tool carousel on my mill, but I have about 30 Cat40 holders that I use on this mill. I have been loading tool information for the required tools into the tool table by hand every time I run a different program, but this is very time consuming and VERY prone to making mistakes. My other mill has a system that makes life much easier, and I was wondering if it could be used on the KmotionCNC tool table.
On the other mill, you can call the tool by either Pocket# or ID #, The Pocket# has to be 2 digits or less, the ID# has to be more than 4 but less than 6 digits.
Tools can be saved with a blank or empty Pocket#, this is not allowed in KmotionCNC
I can load all 30 Cat40 holders into the tool table, with unique 4 digit ID#'s and Blank Pocket#s , this would represent an empty carousel, but the tool table would be populated with 30 tool ID#'s including length/diameter offsets.
If my CadCam software is making a cut with Tool number #6001, which is always the same .500 2 flute end mill, it will output M6 T6001 G43 H6001.
Where the magic happens is, I can leave all the Pocket#'s blank in the tool table, EXCEPT for the line that has ID#6001. I can put the Cat40 holder that is permanently marked #6001 into any open pocket on the carousel that I like ( I chose the physical pocket 8 in the example below ), and enter that physical pocket number into the Pocket# field on the tool table.
Pocket ID Length Diameter Comment
1001 1.4 .25 1/4 2 flute
2001 2.3 .375 3/8 2 flute
2002 2.43 .375 3/8 4 flute
8 6001 3.22 .497 1/2 2 flute
4021 3.3 .25 1/4 drill
2 4015 2.75 .375 3/8 drill
4033 2.55 .500 1/2 drill
When the cam software calls for M6 T6001 G43 H6001 it will load the ID#6001 ( pocket 8 ) tool into the spindle and load the length offset from the line with tool ID#6001.
All I have to do when swapping different tools into the carousel is change the tool file pocket field to match the physical pocket that the tool is located in.
Also, I do not have to modify the tool tables in my CadCam each time different type of tool needs to be loaded into a specific pocket. With 30 holders and 12 pockets, I am constantly changing my tool table in the cadcam because you never know which of the 30 cat40 holders may have to be called to one of the 12 available physical pockets.
I have not found a way to do this in KmotionCNC, but It could be that I am just missing something.
Todd
