Messages

2611

General Mach Discussion / Re: Touch Screens

« on: April 02, 2006, 05:23:38 AM »

Hi,

I use a CTX touch 35, 15" part number PV500.

No special programming just plugged it in and everything worked.

Graham

2612

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with Position of Home and Piece Part

« on: March 28, 2006, 03:57:42 AM »

You could use a setting jig something like the picture.

Make the jig from 1/4" alum plate and bolt it to the machine table anywhere, then clock it square to the axis.

The 1/2" hole is a setting hole so you can clock it at the start and set X and Y zero at this point.

Then have G54 set at -12" and -6"

The 3 off 1/4" dia pins then locate the work in the correct place.

The drawing is in metric by the way.

Graham.

2613

General Mach Discussion / Re: Rotary table question

« on: March 27, 2006, 05:50:23 PM »

I'm not sure Mach3 supports this but on most controls you can enter 'G92 A0' into the code and it will zero out the A axis.

Graham.

2614

General Mach Discussion / Re: Serial Toolchanger Macro

« on: March 25, 2006, 05:56:00 PM »

Hi Dave,

Look at comment below in the code.

What version of Mach are you using?

Older versions of Mach3 needed CR+LF on getfifoentry(), I think Art was going to change it at one point,  it may be worth trying if you can change your output from the toolchange code. It may still be on the to do list.

Thanks

Graham

Select Case tool

Case 1
message "Changing To Tool 1"
Call sendserial ("t1d" & Chr(13))

(what are you getting with this bit below, is it showing any characters, if so the next call to getfifoentry() will be empty)

While getfifoentry() = "None" (what about a & Chr(13) here)
message getfifoentry
Wend

if getfifoentry() = "t1s" & Chr(13)  then
message "Tool 1 Selected"
SetCurrentTool( tool )
End select
else
Message "Tool Change Error"
end if

2615

General Mach Discussion / Re: Serial Toolchanger Macro

« on: March 25, 2006, 12:55:20 PM »

Hi,

Are you getting anything back at all?

Are you using handshaking?

If you want you can send me the macro and I will take a look at it.

Graham.

2616

General Mach Discussion / Re: calibration problems need help please!

« on: March 24, 2006, 10:55:38 AM »

To use the calibrate method you need to have a block or tool shank of a known diameter, e.g. 1.000" dia end mill shank.

You can then use this as a setting block.

Clamp a block (any block NOT the known size one) to the machine axis, it must be set square.

Gently push the table up to it.

Zero out.

Move the table so that you can insert the known size block and push the table up to it so it is clamped by the table and the other block.

Don't move the table so hard it moves the clamped block.

Then calibrate.

This method should be better than a ruler.

Graham.

2617

General Mach Discussion / Re: calibration problems need help please!

« on: March 24, 2006, 10:38:09 AM »

are the pulleys toothed type or v belts?

if you count the number of teeth on each gear and on each pulley we can work out the ratios and set mach3.

if the pulleys are v belt type we need to know the exact diameter.  a rule measurement is not good enough.

Graham.

2618

General Mach Discussion / Re: calibration problems need help please!

« on: March 24, 2006, 02:35:04 AM »

how many decimal places are you measuring to?

The longer the axis movement the more accurate your measurement needs to be to allow for rounding errors.

What is the pitch of your leadscrew/ballscrew?

How many steps per rev of the motor.

What is the ratio of the motor to the screw?

With this you can work out what the steps per 1" should be.

With well adjusted equipment and good screws you could get the accuracy down to .001"

Graham.

2619

General Mach Discussion / Re: High helix end mill keep gouging

« on: March 23, 2006, 06:42:55 PM »

The only thing that can cause gouging is movement.

Something is loose or flexing.

Graham.

2620

General Mach Discussion / Re: High helix end mill keep gouging

« on: March 23, 2006, 05:19:16 PM »

Hi,

are you sure its the head moving?

It sounds more like its the backlash in the table when it changes direction.

Graham.