How to Manually Program a Grooving Cycle on a CNC Lathe!

In the 5th video in this series, Marc Cronin, aka G-Code Tutor  manually programs a grooving cycle using two methods: point-to-point programming and by using a grooving cycle. We start off by mentioning that G-Code can be slightly different on each machine. While Marc teaches a generic version of G-Code that can be quickly adapted to your needs, you should never copy someone else’s code and expect it to work.

Marc works his way through programming this sequence, explaining each line of G-Code. The first groove is the same width as our tool, which is perfect for a demonstration on point-to-point grooving.

The second groove, it’s time to break out the cycle.

G75 R(1);

G75 X Z P Q R(2) F;

G75 – Grooving Cycle

R(1) – Retract Amount

X – Final Depth of Groove

Z – Final Position in Z

P – Peck Amount in X (Microns)

Q – Stepover Distance in Z (Microns)

R(2) – Relief at End of Cut

F – Feed Rate

Marc is using the two-line version of a grooving cycle, but your machine might use the single-line version.

More information can be found in an article Marc wrote on his website on the differences between the two: https://gcodetutor.com/cnc-machine-training/g75-groove-cycle.html

Stay tuned for the next video where we program a screw thread cycle.