Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: What would cause this ? ? ? ? Actually 2 questions

« on: October 07, 2012, 09:25:34 AM »

Calibrated machine to Mach3 , I guess that's steps per unit ?  In M3 you put in a unit of measurement , 0 the DRO , M3 moves the axis , then input the actual distance it moved.

Had to re-calibrate , because I was trying to setup M3 spindle speed control , and coolant on/off , but MFG'er gave me the wrong info to change and I had to reload M3 and lost original Cal. numbers.

But what stumps me is , I had to rewrite the G code to get it to work properly again , slot size stayed the same , the spacing changed?

ETA; I've been really watching the return to 0 numbers since , it's REALLY accurate (to me at least ) always goes back within .0002 of 0 ,many times back to 0 , I assume that's good ?

2

General Mach Discussion / What would cause this ? ? ? ? Actually 2 questions

« on: October 06, 2012, 03:39:21 PM »

We have been cutting a series of angled 1" slots (18) in alum. , have run about 12-15 of these

Started the machine up , hit return to 0 , DRO went to 0's , put in new piece , hit run.

It started cutting the first slot where it should have ended , and cutting away from where it should , basically moved the slot 1".

Hit the panic STOP ! , return to 0 , it went back to original 0 , checked everything , all good , took the mill out, hit run , worked perfect.

I have cut about 20 since then NO problems  Any ideas ?

2nd ?
Calibrated machine , ran parts , all good


RECALIBRATED machine , ran same G code , same parts , cuts were .05" closer than the first run

Both times machine calibrated fine.

3

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Visualmill demo locking up ?

« on: September 30, 2012, 08:55:41 AM »

Figured out PART of the problem

Part was drawn in VisualCAD then imported to VM , for SOME reason VM wont recognize the part drawn in VC

If I redraw it in VM it works ? ? ? at least I can get through that glitch.

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G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Help , newbie needing a ?FREE? cam program that will translate an STL to G code

« on: September 29, 2012, 06:00:21 PM »

SUCCESS !                                                                                         SUCCESS !

THANKS for at least not ignoring the newbie , and the offers of help

FINALLY got it to work

Dolpin - partmaster CAD - Lazycam - G code - Mach3

Took quite a while to finally get dolpin to draw it without errors

Can draw the part from scratch in 2min 40 seconds now

5

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Help , newbie needing a ?FREE? cam program that will translate an STL to G code

« on: September 29, 2012, 03:57:27 PM »

Nope , STILL haveing problems.

How do I change/add to an stl file to be able to post it here?

6

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Visualmill demo locking up ?

« on: September 29, 2012, 03:55:39 PM »

I am wanting to mill a flat oval with 2 holes in it
Program is locking up in the
2 1/2 axis -
profiling -
Select Drive/Containment Regions - I select that and get the box thats says "Select objects-hit right mouse to end" , nothing happens ? ? or it will freeze everything for 5 minutes or so ?

I can Select Flat Area Drive Regions and it highlights the inner holes and the outside of the oval and has a small square box on the lines ,and says
"1 Drive Flat Area 1" in the box above that is supposed to define the area.

What am I doing wrong / or is this another "If you want that to work you need to buy the $800.00 program" ?

Which I am contemplating , but would rather be able to at LEAST complete a simple operation without the program locking up, before spending the $$$.

7

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Help , newbie needing a ?FREE? cam program that will translate an STL to G code

« on: September 29, 2012, 02:06:23 PM »

We MAY have it figured out , still getting some errors. We'll see what happens

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G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Help , newbie needing a ?FREE? cam program that will translate an STL to G code

« on: September 28, 2012, 09:18:27 PM »

Ok , thanks , I'll have to do that tomorrow morning , my son took the laptop with those files/drawings home with him. No internet access where he's at.

9

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Help , newbie needing a ?FREE? cam program that will translate an STL to G code

« on: September 28, 2012, 08:57:08 PM »

Thanks , I edited my previous post to include a pic ,only took a couple of hours to figure out the slots on the tube (using the wizard) , about an hour for drawing the end cap , 5-6 hours trying to convert CAD to CAM to G code.

I had the mill less than a week.

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G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Help , newbie needing a ?FREE? cam program that will translate an STL to G code

« on: September 28, 2012, 08:47:55 PM »

Only way I can think of is email it to somebody for translation.

Here's a pic of what I made , I'm wanting to cnc the end cap , instead of cutting/fitting by hand