Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Big River on October 09, 2012, 02:22:07 AM
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G'day Guys, I have a Romaxx WD 1 router and I was wondering how to change how far the Z Axis travelled up upon the start of the cut? When I zero everything at the moment and start to run the program the Z axis travels about an inch up before going to its start point, normally no big deal but I am cutting some thicker guitar bodies and have run into my upper limits a few times, is this adjusted through Mach3? Any help much appreciated, cheers Paul
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Your Gcode will be controlling that.
Hood
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Ok so how do I change that? When I create my toolpaths (In Vectric) I have the option to how far I want the tool to travel and finish above the job, I normally choose 10mm, but still it's first jog is too rise up 1"? Cheers Paul.
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Hi Paul,
In Vectric, select 'material setup' from the toolpath window then set clearance (Z1) to the 10mm you require.
Tweakie.
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Thanks for your reply Tweakie, I do set my start/home position as 10mm above the material in Vectric, but for some reason the very first movement of the machine when I click on "Cycle Start" is to travel up 1" then return to Zero then head off to cut the job, once finished it homes back to 10mm above Zero, Cheers Paul. ???
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Afraid I dont use Vectric so cant advise on its settings but if you attach the code I am sure someone will be able to tell you where in the code it is instructing the axis to go too high. You can then manually edit until you can get Vectric worked out.
Hood
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Paul,
In Vectric Cud2d, this is set up on the right side pull out under Toolpath Operations > Setup Material and Rapid Gaps. This is the first icon before the toolpath options icons.
Regards,
John Champlain
www.picengrave.com
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Thanks guys, I know about rapid gaps and homing limits and I set them in my Vectric programs. I will put it this way, even if I have no G Code loaded in Mach 3 and I have X,Y,Z all set to zero, then I hit the return to Zero icon it will still lift 1" and then go back to zero. As I have stated when I load the G code and set X,Y,Z to zero it lifts an 1" comes back down to the homing limit (10mm) and then heads off to cut the job, cheers Paul.
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Hi Paul,
Look at your 'Safe Z' setting within Mach3. ;)
Tweakie.
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Hi Paul,
Look at your 'Safe Z' setting within Mach3. ;)
Tweakie.
Ok so now we are getting somewhere, how do I adjust the "Safe Z", Thanks and cheers Paul.
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Hi Paul,
As you are taking care of safe Z within the Vectric generated GCode - Within Mach3 Config / Safe Z setup (uncheck allow safe z moves).
Tweakie.
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Hi Paul,
As you are taking care of safe Z within the Vectric generated GCode - Within Mach3 Config / Safe Z setup (uncheck allow safe z moves).
Tweakie.
Thanks mate, found it and yes it was set to 1", changed it to work only with the Vectric G code Safe limits, I knew it would be in Mach3 somewhere, Cheers again, Paul.
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Hi Paul,
I am pleased you got it sorted.
Tweakie.
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Struggling to see how Safe Z in Mach would affect things if you were doing as you said, ie
when I click on "Cycle Start"
As far as I see safe Z is only used when you press the GoToZ button or do something like a Run From Here.
Further on you said that it happens when you press Go to Zero, it will do that of course and is why I always say safe Z is best set in Machine coords as you will always know where it will go in relation to your axis travel.
Hood
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Yes understand that, i just did not want it to go up a whole inch so i set it to 5mm, as i am cutting some pretty thick guitar bodies. And yes my machine was going to the top of Safe Z on "Cycle start" or I would not have had a drama. Anyway all sorted now
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What I am getting at is if your safe Z had been set to say -0.5 in machine coords then it would never go to your limit switch as it would always stop 0.5inch before it no matter where you set your material zero.
Also sounds like you have not set up soft limits, might be worthwhile looking at doing that as it would also stop you hitting the limits unintentionally.
Hood
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What I am getting at is if your safe Z had been set to say -0.5 in machine coords then it would never go to your limit switch as it would always stop 0.5inch before it no matter where you set your material zero.
Also sounds like you have not set up soft limits, might be worthwhile looking at doing that as it would also stop you hitting the limits unintentionally.
Hood
Yes that is basically what I have done now, I did not know how to do it, that was the question I had posted. I would love to set soft limits, how do I go about doing that? Thanks, cheers Paul.
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Soft limits are easy enough, go to config menu then Homing and Limits.
Set X min Y min and Z Max to Zero
Set X Max YMax to the amount of travel you have on each axis
Set Z Min the amount of travel you have but as a negative value.
The above is assuming you have your home switches at the negative end of X and Y travels and Positive of Z.
Hood
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I was having Z axis issues too, I didn't know how to do the tool touch-off at the time. I would run my code and the upper Z limit switch would get tripped - was driving me crazy. After I did Auto Z, problems solved. It was driving me crazy tho