Messages

491

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: No Entities Shown

« on: October 18, 2012, 06:07:58 PM »

Yes Gerry it did and the attached files show that. But this is in my Laptop which is not connected to cnc. On the cnc computer I cant do that but tomorrow I will try to just copy the gcode and see what happens.

RICH I know about changing Layers etc but I found it more convenient to make two dwgs

But how can I create my own text in Acad?

492

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: No Entities Shown

« on: October 18, 2012, 03:57:56 PM »

Hmmm, that is a problem I didn’t know about it. I do have MastercamX5 and that is where I developed my control panel drawing but the fonts in MC are not good. I tried selecting various fonts but they all look alike at least on the screen and so I exported my drawing to Acad and made the letters there.

Since this is the control panel, the letters must align under each hole / square perfectly to describe the function of each pushbutton and I don’t know if I will be able to do this with OutlineArt or F-Engrave which I have.

I will have to experiment with both to see what I get and if not I might have to settle with the fonts provided by MC regardless is I like them or not.

The other funny part is as I said above when I export the letters file from LC to Mach, I could see all my letters on Mach and running the program on Mach I could see that it went and cut all letters (that was in my Laptop which is not connected to cnc). When I tried the same file on the cnc computer, LC says no file loaded and there is nothing loaded in any window

493

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: No Entities Shown

« on: October 18, 2012, 10:44:25 AM »

Sorry, I made a mistake I guess but both attached files are the same

494

LazyCam (Beta) / No Entities Shown

« on: October 18, 2012, 10:42:29 AM »

I made my control panel layout in Acad V14 which includes various holes / squares / and letters. Since I want to do the cutting in two steps I made two drawings out of this drawing; one includes all the holes / squares and the other includes only the letters.

As per attached picture, when I open the DXF file which contains only the letters, Lazycam loads the DXF file but I see nothing on the drawing area and the info window tells me “No Entities Found” but the project window show all the Layers and chains. And when I post the code to Mach3, I see my drawing correctly and executing the code all seem to work fine. When I open the DXF which contains the holes / squares all are ok.

I Just wonder why I don’t see the letters drawing in LC

495

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problem Lifting Z Axis

« on: October 17, 2012, 06:24:17 PM »

Will give it a try tomorrow Gerry, thanks for the help

496

General Mach Discussion / Problem Lifting Z Axis

« on: October 17, 2012, 03:20:50 PM »

Very seldom when I lift the Z axis during testing the motor still screams and I wonder if it’s a matter of tuning the motor with different settings. The Z weights approx. 25Lbs (90VDC Sherline motor, Taig Spindle and the 1/2" thick aluminum parts). Going down I never had a problem, its always when she goes up and I’m afraid that it may happen during a program run so I would like to resolve this issue.

The settings I have for all motors, including the Z are: Velocity=100, Acceleration=20, G’s=0.05180, Step Pulse=2, Dir=2. Are these settings sound ok?

497

Building or Buying a Wood routing table.. Beginnners guide.. / Re: Level the Table Top

« on: October 15, 2012, 09:58:41 PM »

Looks like that the best way is to machine the top. I will complete my leveling and if the results are not good then I will machine the top.

As for squaring the machine, I did a 10"x10" square and the last leg of the square did not hit the starting point by about 1/8". I adjust the home switches on the Y&A axes a few times and finally I got a perfect square (but the depth of cut was not equal). So as far as I know this proves that the Y&X axes are square, unless I'm wrong

498

Building or Buying a Wood routing table.. Beginnners guide.. / Re: Level the Table Top

« on: October 15, 2012, 01:51:07 PM »

Now it works much better Russ, thanks. Before I only had it touching by 2 thou but as you mentioned I did not count for the side loads.

EJ I had the impression that MDF was perfect flat but you may be right. I was thinking to machine the table top but this will create a “pocket” and if later I want to work at the center of a long piece it will not sit flat on the table.

499

Building or Buying a Wood routing table.. Beginnners guide.. / Level the Table Top

« on: October 15, 2012, 10:45:50 AM »

I have attached a dial indicator to my spindle and trying to level the table top which is a 5/8” MDF piece about 28”x40” (cutting area about 24”x36”)

It looks like that the dial indicator has its own mind because as I move it slowly over the table I always get different readings and I wonder if it is appropriate to use a dial indicator for this job or my dial is not good.

I bought the indicator with a magnetic base from eBay and I only paid $35.00 so perhaps its not one of the best?

500

General Mach Discussion / Re: New startup

« on: October 06, 2012, 11:59:58 AM »

I did have a ThinkPad before but run into many problems running my cnc and after I sold it I got a desktop which is the best for cnc

Having said that, I did have on another cnc a DELL very old laptop and never had a problem with it running my cnc. Conclusion: if I must use a laptop I will try a Dell

Also the cnc computer should be a dedicated cnc computer which has only the cnc related software. No Internet, no anti virus, no firewalls.