St0rmBringer

Updates (June)

Contact: tae@st0rmbringer.uk

June 2025

  • 29/06/25 Got more codes added to the G-Code page HERE including the essential G50 details. G50 ,or a lack of ,crashes machines and hurts engineers, please ensure you take note if you are new to this. Added the G54 etc WPC pages (Work Position Co-Ordinates) So I guess it’s on to the canned cycle G-codes now.
  • Think I’ve found a machine that will better suit my needs as well, TBH I don’t really need a bar feed as most of the stuff I do for fun are one-offs or small numbers of high value items so having a bar feed isn’t really of any great purpose. A company that always seems to have a good supply of mid and high level machines are Jet Machinery up near Brum. Have a look at their page HERE. Some decent kit at reasonable prices as well if you don’t want to spend £100k on a new Doosan etc.
  • Work tomorrow so a sensible sleep time tonight, rather than spending half the night typing.
  • 28/06/25 Bit of a long update and a general rant, More pages updated such as G41 and G42 being added, these pair of codes are really easy to use but if you struggle with “thinking” in space (lack spatial awareness) they can be problematic to implement. My advice? get a chunk of plastic from the scrap bar ends bin and try it out. bad cutter comp affects accuracy but unless you stick something really stupid in the Tool Geometry page you are unlikely to do any real damage. Often “seeing” and “doing” are more useful than just “reading”. On my more usual ranty type of posting, 2 things,
  • 1: Doing a three day course for your new machine is f**king pointless, you will learn just enough to bang the thing like a worn out bongo unless you already have a dam good idea of what you are doing.
  • 2: I probably seem angry all the time (hence the nickname), I’m actually not, in fact, it’s more a case of frustration, frustration over the years when you can see really easy solutions but folks want to take the long route. as a demonstration, you want to drill a 10.5mm hole…I know, lets get a Dormer 10mm drill and offset the point on the tool grinder very carefully so that quality 10mm drill produces a 10.5mm hole?
  • For me? No !!, how about you just use a 10.5mm drill to begin with…
  • On machines, I got a Cobra 42 and yep, it’s great but as always with me I tend to jump into things without a great deal of thought. I got my usual weekly emails from tool suppliers this week and saw a couple of other machines I really like, a bit more capacity and some features I could use so a buddy of mine has said he would like the Cobra (and he lives quite close) so I’ll probably let him take that on and get one of the slightly bigger machines before I put too much time into settling the Cobra in for long term use.
  • On the subject of my buddy, we were chatting about engineering yesterday evening, is it just us or does the “pride in your work” thing seem to be disappearing these days? finishing a job on whatever kind of machine and getting a real kick out of it being both accurate to drawing AND all the little finishing touches being done, no sharp edges, clean, uniform and generally looking great? those times seem to be falling off these days and “Near enough is good enough” is creeping in. Well you know what? NO it isn’t good enough. Your name goes out with that job, your entire reputation and how your colleagues view you is contained in that job, your sense of pride reflects on your employers reputation as well. Some people simply “need to do better”.
  • 25/06/25 I have done some updating but only on a couple of private pages I’ve added for my employer, apologies for not doing much this week so far, I will get back to it between now and the weekend.
  • 20/06/25 Some blinding weather isn’t it, given I live in the land of eternal rain quite unusual as well. Hoping to get plenty of stuff updated over the weekend in between getting a new machine all set up. That and some 3d printer stuff for another mate who want’s a bit of help with his new printer So likely to be a busy one, of course, as Hoppy always says “If the Good Lord spares us”
  • 18/06/25 Not a huge amount of time today so only added a couple more G-Codes. Some people may wonder why I’m not adding very much data yet for stuff like G10, G32 etc. Well at this stage you probably won’t need them and before using them having a decent understanding of what’s going on will prevent stuff going tilt if you make a syntax mistake. (and an Email from your boss saying, “WTF they just banged a 1/4 million quid machine” is not going to earn me a new reader). Oh and before I crash out and watch a film, Skin has to go in the really clever engineer list (coz Dave told me so) 🙂
  • 17/06/25 Normal working week for me and I’m kinda busy so not too much will get done weekdays this week. I’ll try to do at least some work on the page and have added some more codes and other useful syntax explanations. Finally found a layout that works and am also writing up the code for an easy access web based shape solver and geometry solver.
  • 15/06/25 Made some additions to the G-Code lists and added a Generic list to include terms folks may come across and not recognise as well as stuff like tooling. Things like a U-Drill and a Gun-Drill, you know what the difference is? Layout is being changed and tested as time allows to find the easiest way to access pages without big ass drop down lists.
  • As usual I seem to be beating on machine guys who don’t appear to be maybe as experienced as some of us, there’s a reason for that. Most machine crashes and scrapped jobs I’ve seen of any real note have been down to a small number of reasons. Now don’t misunderstand, we all make mistakes, I did in the last 14 days, I bored two couplings to a flawless 0.03 tolerance and was well happy…until I found out I was an entire MM out (48mm instead of 47mm) so yea, I get it, we all screw up. What boils my bananas is when you have people who are lauded as great engineers who in reality are clueless but too arrogant to admit they need some help. Helping people is the greatest gift we can pass on (that’s why this page exists) but dick swinging and pretending you are too good to screw up really annoys me. 3 that spring to mind, a Mazak H500-50 with three MSR units wiped off in 3 days, a brand new shiny Doosan with a turret hit so hard it snapped off a tool block, another big 600 x 2200 cnc slant bed lathe with the turret jacked straight into the chuck at full noise, this one put the turret out 18mm and twisted the bed. Those 3 things alone make for £100k in damage parts before you add in lost man hours.
  • All for the same Reason, the people working on them either didn’t bother checking or really didn’t know what the hell they were doing and told everybody they did.
  • 14/06/25 Made some additions to the G-Code list and started editing files for the M-code list. Been looking at some new themes for the site with a different format but can’t really find much I like. I’d love to be able to design themes myself but I really don’t have the spare time to learn it all. Maybe one day. Gotta draw up some standard tooling as well for the graphics and that will take a few hours so not really sure what’s going to get finished today and what isn’t.
  • 13/06/25 Made some changes so the G-code list only reflects the code mostly used on Lathes, we can get to the mills when the lathe stuff is done but chucking in 3 – 5 axis stuff seemed a bit *premature to be fair. I’ll get a contact page up eventually but again, at the moment with a new machine to sort out getting commissioned and a day job I’d be unlikely to reply to very much in the way of emails anyhows. It will happen eventually though. I’d forgotten how much I liked the old school 21-T etc controllers and how capable the Hardinge Cobra really is, it’s a cracking bit of kit and I’m seeing mid 90’s versions for under £4k around (with really nice examples under £10k). As you probably worked out, I REALLY don’t like this “interactive” shit so having one of the “i” controls didn’t much interest me. No doubt I’ll end up buying one of the bigger Daewoo Pumas at some point with the later controls but currently I don’t have the time or need for it. Onwards and upwards..
  • 11/06/25 Been playing with the format on a few pages, I decided the actual code pages were starting to look a bit “Huhh what” kinda thing so slimmed down each code page and finalised the format. Yes, it’s going to make needed variables a bit more in depth but having too much on say, a single G-Code page, could be a bit mind numbing for new folks. As time allows I’ll draw up example pictures for all the G-Codes, but that’s going to take a bit of time given I still work and have a new machine to install, get running. (and a family to spend time with)
  • 10/06/25 Added a good bit more on CAD/CAM software (in an effort to help while pissing off as few folks as possible.) It’s one of those areas that won’t please everybody so I’m not trying to. “Yea but I use solidworks mate and it’s good innit” yes probably because you are using a pirate copy you found on the web rather than actually paying the maker for their time. If you paid near £2,000 for it to run your £500 home made CNC well, bigger fool you. Code pages next or Gary will moan at me at work until I get it done (he’s like that, he moans a lot)(sorry Gaz ;)) G-Codes to begin with then onto Misc codes (M-Codes)
  • 08/06/25 Updated a few more pages on the “Software” menu and I’m working on the CAD menu (the bit that will probably upset a few *purists) but heyho. I’ve never given much of a shit about folks getting *offended so long as the data remains honest. I don’t do this to make *friends, I do this to *help people who may need it when they need it. (I’m old and grumpy) I’ll be adding a dedicated menu with a contact email if you are really stuck and need help. There is no charge for my time or help and everything here will remain free for all. I don’t get and don’t want kickbacks for recommendations. If something is good then it’s good because it works, not because I’m getting paid to say it. (told you I was grumpy :))
  • 07/06/25 Updated some more of the G-code pages and adding a software page so some of the useful stuff can be found easily. I’m lucky enough to have 3 Phase in my *hobby workshop so as Mrs St0rmbringer just got a new car I decided to buy myself a CNC to play with as well (outside of my day job), not a huge amount of space left so a Hardinge Cobra 42 it is. Older type of machine but more than good enough to play with in my time off. Decided a software page would be useful as much of the mainstream stuff you can get falls down on two things. 1: it’s usually f**king expensive and 2: Usually has a metric tonne of features you are never going to use (heyho, let’s upset a few of the purists) Not going near a “how to set your machine up” page just yet, at this stage it would be pointless and probably end up with a couple of over-enthusiastic folks losing limbs or money.
  • 06/06/25 Added some of the code lists and links to download a free G-Code / Program editor.
  • 04/06/25 New Landing page for the blog and general update information.