Other Lathe Tools

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Other Lathe Tools

You do not have to use the tool profiles shown in WELturn or even Plansee Tizit tooling. Other brands and shapes of tipped tools may be substituted and also HSS tools hand ground in the traditional way. The only requirements are that you assign a tool a number, remember it and that its offsets are correct before attempting to machine with it.

If you are an AlphaCAM user, you will need to make your own accurate drawings, in AlphaCAM, of the alternative tools and their tips or import and scale them from the extensive library in AlphaCAM. An important dimension is the tool tip radius. Because the tool tip has a radius and is not a sharp point, AlphaCAM does tool tip radius compensation calculations when it works out the NC code. Without an accurate radius measurement and these calculations, a part will not be dimensionally correct when machined.

For example: to use a tool with a 5mm diameter button tip. In AlphaCAM, create an accurate outline drawing of the tool holder and its tip. Define the tool and give it a number, for example, 3 (the number used in WELturn for the neutral tool). In WELturn, treat the button tipped tool as a neutral tool, tool 3, and measure its offsets accordingly. Machine whatever part requires the use of that tool.

The only reserved tool number is number 1. Tool 1 must always be a right-hand tool, though the tip profile need not be that supplied by Emco with the lathe.

WELturn uses the profiles of the Plansee Tizit tools, as supplied by Emco with the lathe, for its real time machining screen image. If machining is being done with other tool profiles, the actual part will be machined correctly (provided the NC code is correct) but the real time machining screen image will be wrong. You can turn off real time graphics by going to File - Settings and unchecking the box labelled Show real-time graphics.

Defining Tools in AlphaCAM
Lathe Tools
Set the Tool Offsets
Speeds and Feeds for Turning and Parting with Indexable Tipped Tools
Tool Setting Microscope