Tips for Handwriting a Turning Program

Tips for handwriting a turning program with G-code.

Writing programs by hand is often quicker and easier on a CNC lathe than using a CAD/CAM system.

Marc from GCodeTutor shows us some important tips and tricks on how to achieve this.

Always make your programs easy to read. Good, clean layout and operator notes make the process of running someone else’s program a stress-free process.

Variables are very powerful, but overusing them when not needed makes the program hard to follow and read.

Having pre-written code saved on your machine can enable us to copy/paste to speed up the programming process and also helps keep the program uniform.

Cycles reduce the programming time by a considerable amount and use multiple repetitive cycles and canned cycles whenever possible.

Expect bugs in your code and prepare for them when running tape tryouts and first-offs by using the safety tips Marc talks about in this video.