Manufacturing Information Solutions

[JamieR]

My boss bought an '82 Okuma LC-10 off of E-Bay for about $1,200.00 about four years ago and hasn't been able to figure-out how to program it. What little I know about CNC is self-taught, but I taught myself how to manually program an '84 Raskin Turret Press and an old Bergmaster turret drill press that had a 2-axis retro-fit cnc table run by a A&B Bandit control with a Spindle Wizard handling the Z-axis. I've enjoyed these experiences very much!

But the Okuma manual isn't helpful! It is not at all clear, in my opinion, how to run the machine. They've got info all over the place and you've just about got to read the whole thing to get the answer.

My trouble is that I'm having a hard time inputting the codes into the machine. I put a code in (All of this is manual. We'll get CAD/CAM later when we're sure we can run this machine...), hit 'WRITE',put in the rest of the block doing the same, and hit 'CR'(Carriage return) at the end of each block, which I am assuming you have to do, even though I'm not punching paper tape. I keep getting a 'Parity Error' code when I try to switch to auto, though.

I managed to get a program to run, before, so I don't know what's going on. Also, I thought that maybe what was messing up my 'program' before was bad info in the buffer, so I cleared the memory and now I can't seem to write to it. I put in code the way I think I'm supposed to, but when I switch to 'edit', there's nothing to edit!
_________________
++++++++++++++
Thanks!

[dawn]

You use the 'edit' function and use the 'insert' key to manually enter commands. The manual is kind of vague, to me, as to how to do this. I had to get it by going back and forth in the manual...My next problem was that the program was stopping without an error. 'Couldn't figure it out. I looked in the manual at the sample programs and realized that I had placed my tool changes in the 'wrong' place. Now, to me, it seems that you would make your command to go to the indexing position and cammand for a tool change and THEN command your next x/z axis moves, but it shows to command for your tool change AFTER your next x/z move from the indexing position! That's just plain crazy to me, but that's the way it does and is! Now, to see if I can input more complex programs without having to pull my hair out all over again!