CNC machining centers are very popular in manufacturing companies. Just about every company that performs metal-cutting operations has at least one. Since they are so popular, people beginning their CNC careers are often exposed to machining centers first. This makes learning about them an excellent first choice for people beginning their careers in CNC.

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In this text, we assume you have very little or no previous experience in a manufacturing environment. Indeed, the first one-hundred pages are devoted to basic machining practices, and get you ready to learn about CNC. Topics here include shop safety, shop math, blueprint reading, tolerance interpretation, measuring devices, and machining operations performed on machining centers.

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While these topics are often considered prerequisite to learning about CNC, more and more people are entering the field of CNC with little or no shop experience – so we include this important prerequisite information.

We use a Key Concepts approach to teaching you about CNC. This proven tutorial method allows us to stress the reasons why things are done as importantly as how they’re done. It provides a building blocks approach to learning. And it limits the number of things you must master in order to become proficient.

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The Key Concepts are further divided into lessons. Most lessons include quizzes and practice right in the text (answers provided close by) and every lesson ends with a test (answers provided at the end of the text). This combination of tutorial text, explanatory illustrations, and lots of practice truly turns this text a self-study course that will teach you what you need to know in order to become a proficient CNC machining center setup person or operator.

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There are four Key Concepts divided into twelve lessons:

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• Key Concept number one: Get ready to learn about CNC machining centers

  • Lesson One: Basic machining practices required for machining centers

  • Lesson Two: What does a CNC machining center do?

• Key Concept number two: Know your machine from a setup person’s or operator’s viewpoint

  • Lesson Three: General flow of CNC process

  • Lesson Four: Machine configurations

  • Lesson Five: Understanding the control panels

  • Lesson Six: Important procedures needed to run the machine

• Key Concept number three: Know the three compensation types

  • Lesson Seven: Understanding compensation

  • Lesson Eight: Fixture offsets and assigning program zero

  • Lesson Nine: Tool length compensation 

  • Lesson Ten: Cutter radius compensation

• Key Concept number four: Master the tasks to run a CNC machining center

  • Lesson Eleven: Tasks related to making setups

  • Lesson Twelve: Tasks related to completing a production run

 

When you finish reading this text and doing the exercises, you will have a firm understanding of what it takes to setup and run a CNC machining center. However, we must point out that there’s more to learning how to setup and run a CNC machining center than you can read in a book – regardless of how good the book is. You will need practice on an actual CNC machining center in order to fully master its use. If you are enrolled in a technical school’s CNC course – your instructor will provide the necessary practice.

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If you are not enrolled in a CNC course, you will need on-the-job training to complete your education. Unfortunately, no text can provide hands-on training. But we can provide classroom-type training and the theory you must understand before you can spend any meaningful time at a CNC machining center.