Technical Bulletin

Single Spindle Lathe and Part Flip

This bulletin provides a methodology to program the front and back of a part on a single-spindle lathe. When
a lathe has a single spindle, the part must be machined on one side, flipped over on the machine by the
operator, and then machined on the second side.
There are different ways of programming 2 sides of a part for a single spindle lathe. The method presented in
this bulletin programs both sides of the part in the same ESPRIT document.
This bulletin also includes a macro that handles the simulation of the part flip and assists in creating the
geometry for the second side. The macro flips the stock during the simulation of a custom operation.

Installing the Part Flip Macro

The Part Flip VBA macro is provided as an example.
To install the macro, copy PartFlip.vba, PartFlip_16.bmp and PartFlip_32.bmp onto your hard drive and in
the same folder.
Note: The best place to store your VBA projects is in your local user folder under DP
Technology\ESPRIT\Data\VBAProjects. If you store your VBA projects in the ESPRIT program folder, they
will be overwritten the next time you install ESPRIT.
Then, in ESPRIT, set your VBA project in Tools > Options > File Locations to PartFlip.vba.
Open a new document and a new tool bar appears.
Make sure that your VBA project references the following items:
- Esprit 2.0 Type Library
- EspritConstants 2.0 Type Library
- EspritTechnology 2.0 Type Library
- EspritSimulation 2.0 Type Library
- EspritCommands 2.0 Type Library

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Programming the First Side
Start programming the first side of the part as you would usually do. Create tool, features and operations up
to the point where all operations are complete for the first side of the part.

Part geometry for the first side Features Operations and tool path

Flipping the Part

The first step in programming the second side of the part is to get the geometry of the part flipped in the
spindle.
Geometry for first side: Geometry for second side:

Geometry must be flipped in order to use tools with the same orientation.

Manually flipping the part

If you were to program the part manually, you would rotate the part 180 degrees and then translate the part
geometry to put the opposite face of the part on P0 for programming convenience.
Note: We’re using a rotation and not symmetry. Symmetry modifies the part; it transforms a left part into a
right part.
The second step is to create an operation that tells the simulation and the post processor when the part is
flipped in the machining process.
For this we’re going to use a custom cycle.
To make these 2 steps easier, this bulletin provides a macro that does the following:
1- It creates a new layer called “Second Side”
2- It copies the part geometry with a rotation of 180 degree about the Y-axis (ESPRIT global Y axis).
3- It moves the new part geometry to put the opposite face on P0
4- It creates a new custom operation called “FLIP” with a custom interface (custom dialog).
5- It modifies the simulation and flips the stock in the spindle when it hits the “FLIP” custom operation.

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Using the Part Flip Macro to flip the part
Open the file PartFlip_Start.esp
In this file the first side of the part has already been programmed.
Geometry, features, and operations for the first side are located on the layer “First Side”.

Select the geometry (not the tool path) of the first side and select the Part Flip Macro button .
The following dialog appears:

The first parameter “Part Length” corresponds to the length of the part.
This corresponds to the offset between the first side origin and the second side origin. The Part Length
defaults to the Part Stock Length from the machine setup.

The second parameter “Rechucking Position” defines the position where the part is rechucked after flipping.
This is the position of the front face of the chuck on the initial geometry.
Illustrations are provided on the next page.

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On our example, the Rechucking Position is set to -30.

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Click OK to accept the part flip.
The new geometry is placed on a new layer called “Second
Side”.
Hide the layer “First Side” to see only the new part geometry.

A Flip operation has been added to the project

manager:

Working on the “Second Side” layer, create a feature and an

operation for the second side OD.

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Simulate the Part Flip
Run the simulation in continuous mode.
Simulation automatically stops on the Flip operation.

Restart the simulation, the part flips and simulation stops again.

Restart the simulation, simulation goes on and cut the second side.

Open PartFlip_End.esp to see the process with the part flip.

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Macro limitations
The macro works only with a left oriented spindle
P0 must be set to the front face of the part when programming the first side.
P0 must be set to the opposite face of the part after flipping.

Stock automation cannot be used for the second side. If the stock flips in the simulation, the stock doesn’t flip
for the programming. Therefore when programming the second side the stock from stock automation is not
correct. Select Diameter type of stock instead.

Post processing
When using this method, the postprocessor needs to be updated to output the necessary codes to flip the part
during the custom cycle. The output code can be a stop code and the operator would manually flip the part or
it can be codes to command a robot.
Add the example EX_AUXCYCLE to the postprocessor and add the code needed for the part flip.
Example:

EX_AUXCYCLE : “(M0)”
: (MANUALLY FLIP THE PART)
: “(M0)”

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