Messages

6071

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: Z axis returning to zero between multipasses

« on: July 16, 2009, 09:46:31 AM »

Cory,
I will take a look at it.
RICH

6072

Tangent Corner / Re: Aluminum Heat Sink Adhesive?

« on: July 14, 2009, 09:25:10 PM »

Dave,
If the motor is not painted then leave it that way as the paint blocks the transfer of heat ( not a whole bunch but it has an effect. Your Al cover is not helping and is actualy hindering the heat dissipation away from the motor casing. You actually insulated the motor somewhat since air ( has a poor heat transfer coefficient ).

Rough rule, say the motor is 80% efficient, so 20% of the wattage is heat generation. The heat travels through the case, the paint, the heat transfer cement and finaly thru the jacket. The heat transfer cement allows for a higher transfer of heat as compared to the air. So the resistance to heat travel is made up of  by each of the individual
heat trasnfer coefficients.

Maybe just leave a gap say, 1/2" around the motor to the Al shield and blow some air through the gap, sort of like
a hair dryer. Or have a little fan blowing across it.

RICH

6073

Tangent Corner / Re: Aluminum Heat Sink Adhesive?

« on: July 14, 2009, 06:37:55 PM »

DAVE,
There are a number of transfer cements that can be purchased. You want to get something with a high heat transfer coefficient. Paint on a motor affects the heat transfer rate. Actually you should do some calc's to see what
can be accomplished.
RICH

6074

General Mach Discussion / Re: Total NOOB Quick start guide. ?

« on: July 14, 2009, 08:30:18 AM »

Chad,
I hear ya, understand, and basically think it is a good idea. It's also a challenge!

The problem is that CNC covers so many aspects of different disciplines.
What level do you atempt to convey the information?
In a heart beat, you can go from  conveying a simple concept, which can be readable and grasped
to detail that a book can be written on. Each subject is a book.  

How many variations on the theme do you have? Computers, Break out boards, pendants, MPG's, drives, different
motors, wiring, code, etc , etc, etc.........
Then when your all done, you step back, and say, gee's,  I am rewriting the manual., and it's just a different format.

The same goes for software.

Oh BTW, there a quick start guide already written called MACH3 TUTORIAL by Henrik Olssen, about 14 pages long.
Here is the link:
ftp://ftp.machsupport.com/Docs/Mach3%20Setup%20Tutorial.pdf

RICH

6075

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Competition rifle stock

« on: July 14, 2009, 07:29:15 AM »

Neat, Looks bigger than the car in the background of the photo.

RICH

6076

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: Missing chain in G-code

« on: July 14, 2009, 07:20:41 AM »

ROCKO86,
See the attached file. Just a quick and dirty for the steps I did from beginning to end.

RICH   

6077

General Mach Discussion / Re: Gecko 540

« on: July 12, 2009, 06:32:00 AM »

Hopefully all will be well.
Resolve yourself to learning some Gcode as sooner or later, no matter what program you have, you may need to do some mocifications to the program for one reason or another.
RICH

6078

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: July 11, 2009, 09:36:53 PM »

Tantrim,
Explain to her that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. That said, tell her a man only meeds an empty
box to play with and not filled like what a women needs. Then go on to tell her the machine is like an empty box and it dosen't need to do anything except make you happy. Tell her that your happy now with this simple thing and for her not spoil it on you. If it's broken, tell her that you need to replace it to get back that simple happy feeling.
It's just the way men do things on Mars. She will surely understand. 

RICH

6079

General Mach Discussion / Re: Gecko 540

« on: July 11, 2009, 09:15:53 PM »

I would recommend you call Gecko or check out their web site as they can tell you exactly how to test the drive to see if it blown or still good.

RICH

6080

General Mach Discussion / Re: x axis loosing current position

« on: July 11, 2009, 09:03:10 AM »

Hmm...
If the loss was intermittent and not consistant, could be that the steppers are getting hot, and
when that happens, they start to behave weird. But you would not get some consistent error
in movement. Don't think it is a noise issue.

As far as occasionally loosing steps, you may want to just drop your velocity and acceleration down a bit
as you may be boarderline when routing out a harder wood.

I don't ever remember needing to reload / reuse an XML because it got corrupted. But that's just my experience.

I am wondering if you don't have some work offset that is throwing things off that you are not aware of??

Is it consistently 10" off"
RICH