Messages

61

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie Help Please with Tool Offsets

« on: June 10, 2012, 11:29:27 AM »

Wow... Thanks for that Graham. I have just had a quick peep at one of the tutorial videos. It looks quite good and relatively easy to get to grips with.

Thanks once again, I'll get back to and let you know how I get on. 

62

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie Help Please with Tool Offsets

« on: June 10, 2012, 08:53:52 AM »

Thanks for that Rich, I am going to try to stick with this FreeMill stuff for the time being, it is right what you say about it taking time to get to grips with, it is a very steep learning curve. I have heaps of Milling, Drilling, Engraving and making projects waiting to be exploited on this 'expensive toy' as it has been named by my wife.

No kiddin, I have wanted one of these machines for eon's, I tried making one about twenty years ago - I spent 5 weeks and only got as far as the gantry !

However the other half has commented that my ¹Recreation Chemistry Hobby has been ignored of late! 



¹Recreational Chemistry: Coverting Ales Wines and Whisky into urine.....

63

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie Help Please with Tool Offsets

« on: June 09, 2012, 08:24:28 AM »

Hi Rich and thank you for your reply. Point taken about the software,  but why promote something as being FREE when it isn't... that is just short of deception and should be outlawed globally. Anyway, that is my 'Rant' out of the way for today.

I may have done FreeMill a bit of an injustice in my previous post as it DOES allow you to save certain parts of your work. On the other hand it is way too complex for my inexperienced brain to take in at this stage.

64

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie Help Please with Tool Offsets

« on: June 08, 2012, 05:26:13 PM »

Well looks like I have answered my own query... FreeMill ? it's FREE to use until you come to save your project. 'Cannot save in DEMO Mode' this really chips me off you know. Why the Hell do they say it's FREE when after nearly a day of poking and pressing you find, 'Well, it's not really FREE it is FREE to find out how it works.....

Real pity they have abolished hanging, these people are prime candidates   

65

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie Help Please to a Stupid Question about Feedrates

« on: June 08, 2012, 02:48:11 PM »

Mmmmm...

That's a new one. Never been 'Canned' before!

Stoned, Hammered, Wellied, and absolutely off my face, but never 'Canned' 

Seriously now, that sounds interesting. I think I have seen that in the Wizard thing, I'll give it a try and find out what it does.

Thanks for that.

66

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie Help Please to a Stupid Question about Feedrates

« on: June 08, 2012, 04:44:20 AM »

I hope to be using Drills and Mills between 0.5mm and 6mm. My machine is quite small with a table size of 300 x 500 with the maximum gantry height of 80mm.

67

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie Help Please with Tool Offsets

« on: June 07, 2012, 05:51:52 PM »

I have found FreeMill......

Any good??

68

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie Help Please with Tool Offsets

« on: June 07, 2012, 05:03:08 PM »

oh, thanks for that, Ill look into that. Real pity there is no help files for LazyCam it seems to do as it says on the box. Is there any other CAM software about that you can recommend which will do the same? preferably on free/shareware.  I have just spent another 110 quid on an MPG  from the little yellow people - if I spend another penny I will be needing the help of a good divorce lawyer!
 

69

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie Help Please to a Stupid Question about Feedrates

« on: June 07, 2012, 04:55:20 PM »

Thanks for that, I found that G1Z and G0Z worked out fine.

G1Z-2.5000F100 (Drop to drill hight at100%)
G1Z-6.4000F25   (Drill at 25%)
G0Z3.0000F200  (Withdraw at full pelt!)

70

General Mach Discussion / Newbie Help Please with Tool Offsets

« on: June 07, 2012, 04:50:33 PM »

 I am about to start my first serious milling task so please bear with me on this. I have taken my drawing from AutoCAD it is a new spindle mount which will take a smaller motor. The 200W spindle motor is a bit of an overkill with the size of tools and work that I will be doing. The mount I am wanting to make is a 34mm Split Collar type Clamp with a  a couple of Allen Bolts to close the clamp.

I imported the drawing into LazyCAM which created my G Code (So far so Good! ). To prove my code I put my trusty pencil lead into the chuck and set it away. Perfect.... or so I thought, but then things went pear shaped and ground to a halt  I will be using a 5mm End Mill to machine the job, which effectively means all my dimensions will be + - 2.5mm  I have started to look into the Tool Offsets but after 40 minutes or so I'm more confused than I was when I first started....

Am I on the right track here? Does Mach3 take care of the the offsets for you or do you have to force some calculations yourself?

Could some kind person put me in the right direction please...