Multi-Start Threads with Intercon

[guitarchitect]

I'm in the final planning stages of a CNC lathe conversion, and as a last approach I was test-programming some parts in Intercon to see how easy it was to use.

Aside from the fact that I can't see my part in Graph mode and probably need to learn it a bit better, I noticed it has a lot of preset threads but it's missing critical ones for me - M13x0.8mm pens are the bread and butter of the pens that I make - and about everything i do is triple-start... so technically it's M13x0.8-3T. I also do M14x0.8x3T, M10x1, etc. I have taps and dies but I'd like to change to single point threading for ease of production, but I want to use those existing thread sizes in case i even need to chase them by hand to tweak the fit.

So - is there a way to program this in intercon? What I'm imagining is that I can have some default programs for all the basic operations that I typically do (make tenon->thread->drill->etc), and those will be in intercon so that I can customize them and modify them easily. As an extra complication - is there a way to have the threading tool leave the cut as it approaches the bottom of the cut? To keep my tenons strong I don't like to relieve the base of the threads, and a lot of the threading i've seen has a the cutter "stall" at the base of the tenon - something I'm keen to avoid.

[tblough]

You can program any thread you want in Intercon. For special threads, I usually start with one of thrme pre-programned ones with the same pitch. In your case that would be a 2.4mm pitch. If you can't find one, don't worry. Just pick anything because you can change all of the thread parameters.

For the triple start thread, once you have the first 2.4mm thread pitch set up, use copy and paste to make two additional copies of the thread block. Then offset the start position of the second thread block by 0.8mm. Offset the start position of the third thread block by 1.6mm.

The "chamfer" variable controls the thread run-out at the end. I usually run with mine set to 0, which is the minimal amount. You need to have strong motors and fast accellerations to get away with this, and you'll need to thread at slower speeds to minimize banging.