On Tuesday, 12 April 2022 18:11:49 EDT William F. Adams via Discuss wrote: > gene heskett wrote: > >That tool is your brain. > > One still needs software for previewing G-Code, and there's the issue > of the firmware I'm using, Grbl, not having loops and variables, > making any direct coding of G-Code, rather tedious. > >I do some woodworking too, and I'm quite fond of the Green & Green > >style of furniture which is basically a huge box joint. But I use > >cylindrical carbide tooling, and write my own gcode to carve those > >joints in either mahogany, maple or even white ash but it really > >shines in mahogany with ebony buttons hiding the screws. White ash, > >or maple with ebony button covers looks odd, cherry I think would > >look much better against the lighter ash or maple. Writing gcode is > >not THAT hard. I, by percentage probably write 90% of the gcode I > >used here before I bought some 3d printers. > > While I can do that, it isn't a solution which is scalable in terms of > other folks using my designs on different machines. I'd say you were using the wrong software. LinuxCNC doesn't have Grbl's limitations. Loops are a lifesaver. I have one file that assumes a dremel handpiece bolted to a bracket on the side of an X1's head, to use a rotary table to sharpen a carbide tipped 10" ATBF tablesaw blade. Laid the front of each carbide tooth back about 4 thou. Just enough to take off the rounded, worn part of the face with a diamond wheel. Very light touch, no ablation of the diamond when working carbide. Don't waste your time useing diamond on HSS steel though, you'll wipe out the diamond. Use CBN for HSS. But bring money, its higher priced than diamond. Around 80 LOC in that file, takes three days to run. Sharpest blade ever, I ran it on my table saw about 4 years before it was as dull as a fresh new blade, even cutting some 1/2" alu plate, a total over nearly 4 feet of cut, before it was dull enough to start making burn marks in cherry. Oh, and LinuxCNC is like OpenSCAD, its free. Runs on Buster boxes, or even on rpi4b's, I'm running an 80 yo 11x54 Sheldon with an rpi4b. > > William Cheers, Gene Heskett. -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940) If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. - Louis D. Brandeis

Switching to LinuxCNC isn't an option --- I see no reason to have a dedicated PC attached to a machine when an Arduino will do, and boots up essentially instantly and has close to zero overhead and energy usage. More importantly, it limits the potential audience too much. There have been tens of thousands of machines sold w/ Grbl, if not hundreds of thousands. I'd also like a programming environment which is a bit more flexible, w/ better previewing than G-Code affords --- OpenSCAD is actually pretty close to that, and I'd like something at least that capable and flexible --- will have to look for other options once I finish the current iteration of: https://willadams.gitbook.io/design-into-3d/ William