Hi Guys,
I wrote along message and then it did not load and now I have to do it again!!!!
I finally got all my axis to move and home in the correct direction.
Questions:
1. I have a rockcliff router, according to their literature; the "Step Per" setting should be 4000. Is this correct, I was using 32000 before. See attachment.
2. My units are all incorrect. I have my Mach3 configure for inches. I have my home limits to be 18x24x5 inches, the working envelope of my router. When I try to run some programs, the units on the DRO are sometimes in the thousands, like the unit conversion factor is very wrong. The machine runs out of room and cannot do the job on the table size.
3. I am using Solidworks for my CAD, which I know fairly well and SolidCAM for my CAM, which I am learning on my own (unfortunately I cannot find a SolidCAM book). I created a small part profile 4" long and .051" deep, I did this intentionally so that I know that it will fit on my router table size. This is how I set up my machine.
a. I reference all axis and the machine finds all the home switches.
b. I then jog all the table axis away from the home switches to about the center of each axis.
c. I then zero the axis DRO to set this position as my working home. Follow me so far.
d. Then I load my program and hit go.
So this is what happens. From the screen shot attached, the z-axis will move down to the home switch zero position and stop. Why does it do this, if I have my router in place, the bit would have crashed into the work piece? When I hit start again, the z-axis will move up and away from the zero home switch position and stop. When I his start again, all the axis move but I have to hit the emergency stop because if I did not, the x-axis would crash into the home switch. Some how, the work piece units are very off from the machine units. Like I mentioned before the part is only 4" long so it should fit on my table. What is not configured correctly. Am I setting up the part right in steps a-d above??
Is this pretty clear? I am so close to putting everything together but some things are not jiving.
Thanks,
skipper