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Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Fastest1 on October 20, 2010, 04:01:38 PM

Title: Anyone walk me thru the OD Arc turn wizard?
Post by: Fastest1 on October 20, 2010, 04:01:38 PM
I have just tried the turn wizard. I am trying to turn a spherical tip onto a .94" diameter aluminum bar. X start/X End Z Start/Z End dont seem to give the results I would have thought. I place my stock in the chuck, touch off the Z axis at the furthest point from the chuck, zero Z dro. All moves to cut would be a negative value now. On the X, I touch the tool to the face and record the diameter of the stock. I enter that measurement into  the "Part X" Dro. From there it goes South. I cant seem to come into contact with my part until the end of the file. I have tried different clearance amounts, positive and negative values, moved the sphere center to inside the chuck!. I would like a .5" diameter sperical end on a .5 diameter bar. Seems easy enough but it hasnt been so far. I keep getting a spherical cut with a round rod sticking out. I want a ball end.
Title: Re: Anyone walk me thru the OD Arc turn wizard?
Post by: Hood on October 20, 2010, 04:15:42 PM
Can you post a screenshot of the wizard with your settings.
Hood
Title: Re: Anyone walk me thru the OD Arc turn wizard?
Post by: Fastest1 on October 20, 2010, 05:26:40 PM
Hood, With the threat of you walking me thru another of my issues in machining my machine acted like I thought it should today. I did go ahead and save the screen just in case there is an improvement to be made (which I am sure there is). It did cut a ball end after this screen that was .5955 in diameter so I cant complain. However its toolpath was going to the positive in Z, this is exerting a pulling force on the chuck. The part did not come out of the chuck as the cuts were light but a cutting direction towards the chuck would be better. I would ass/u/me that just reversing the Z Start and Z End would do that leaving the Z center in the same location as before (a - value) but that throws a ZStart<=Z End error?  
Title: Re: Anyone walk me thru the OD Arc turn wizard?
Post by: Hood on October 20, 2010, 05:40:55 PM
I have never used the wizard but that just seems t be the way it works, ie away from the chuck. If you look at the style of tool that is shown it would make sense to cut that way.
Not sure how you would reverse things with the wizard, would probably need a rewrite of the VB.
Hood
Title: Re: Anyone walk me thru the OD Arc turn wizard?
Post by: Fastest1 on October 20, 2010, 06:03:51 PM
Hey couldnt I just edit the gcode after it was made and substitute all + Z values for- and vice versa? That sounds way too easy now that I think about it. However yesterday cutting a ball on the end of a rod seemed easy and didnt prove to be. After thinking about how to convey my issue to you all in the first post, I guess I answered my own question or saw the problem better. Too bad I have no real clue why it didnt work yesterday.
Title: Re: Anyone walk me thru the OD Arc turn wizard?
Post by: Hood on October 20, 2010, 06:33:25 PM
Just looked through the wizards and I think if you use the fillet one it will work the way you want.
Hood
Title: Re: Anyone walk me thru the OD Arc turn wizard?
Post by: RICH on October 20, 2010, 08:49:06 PM
Quote
However its toolpath was going to the positive in Z, this is exerting a pulling force on the chuck.

The first thing i will comment on using the wizards is to be very carefull as to the cutting action for each of the pathing moves. Also what turn mode you are in ( ie ; diameter or radius ) as the code generated will be different. ( i may be wrong, but not sure if some only work in the diameter mode???) Knowing the cutting action, then you need to select the appropriate shaped cutter / oriented correctly to accomplish the cutting. If not you will "gouge" the arc as your cutting it. Try cutting a partial ball in the middle of a shaft. As far as the force, it all depends on what way you want the piece to spring relative to the depth of cut ....and the od2 arc wizard has somewhat the reverse of the od arc wizard.

Frankly i haven't used them in some time now  and i get confused.  ;) If i can find it, i'll post some info relative to them.

RICH

Title: Re: Anyone walk me thru the OD Arc turn wizard?
Post by: Fastest1 on October 20, 2010, 10:13:29 PM
Hood and Rich, Thanks for the effort. I am running in diameter/inch mode  if that makes any difference. The piece I am making dimensions are irrelevant. It is a forming tool for a heat gun my sister wants. She shapes materials with it and it slides into some form of a soldering iron handle. Lower temps than a soldering iron but similar in operation. I was even thinking of engraving around it with the rotary table as an A axis. Maybe like the "Mad Hatter" as she makes hats too. LOL
Title: Re: Anyone walk me thru the OD Arc turn wizard?
Post by: DMBGO on October 21, 2010, 03:52:12 AM
I had exactly this problem when I first tried this wizard, although not for quite the same reason as you, for some reason I thought that X0 was the outside of the stock instead of the centre of the stock.

(Anyway I made it work by making X the centre.)

I realize that this probably wont fix your problem, I think what will fix it is changing to radius mode.

I read somewhere that the wizard's output is designed for radius mode, I thought it was in the manual, but I cant find it now that I look.

Title: Re: Anyone walk me thru the OD Arc turn wizard?
Post by: DMBGO on October 21, 2010, 04:01:02 AM
Found it.

If you go to this website

http://cnc.novalab.org/mach_files.htm

and look about 4/5 of the way down the page in the mastercam9 section they say "Output is in the RADIUS mode, to follow MACH3 wizards convention"

I dont think this is where I saw it before, I just found it by googling mach3 wizards "radius mode"

Also this thread is probably relevant http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=10578.0

Cheers
Dave
Title: Re: Anyone walk me thru the OD Arc turn wizard?
Post by: Fastest1 on October 21, 2010, 08:14:49 AM
Dave
Thanks for the response. I have been running in diameter mode and reversed arcs was checked. I will have to go back thru and check it out with the changed settings. I was having some problems with OD arc s 1 & 2 after the original post.