Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 cutting text backwards or mirror image tool path

« on: May 09, 2014, 06:00:01 AM »

Thanks for the reply
got my head round it now, effectively i am homing to 1220 (x) and 0 (Y) as this is the bottom right hand side of the table, this is done by adding an offset in the homing tab X axis.

This also means that you have to redo the park position, tool change position and fixed plate as they will also now be wrong as they use the machine coordinates.

Just done another test cut and it works perfectly.

thanks for your help, sometime a point in the right direction is all that is needed

Hope this is useful to someone else as well

Regards

Gary

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach 3 cutting text backwards or mirror image tool path

« on: May 09, 2014, 05:34:36 AM »

HI
thanks for the reply, i understand what you are saying regarding the tool movement over the work piece but i don't understand what you mean regarding offsets, if i home to the bottom right then this will not be 0,0 are you saying that i home to the bottom right which will give me the bottom right of the table and then apply an offset to this ?

if this was your machine with this problem how would you do this.

thanks

Gary

3

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 cutting text backwards or mirror image tool path

« on: May 09, 2014, 04:50:11 AM »

Hi
I have just built my second CNC machine and have a problem.
On my previous machine the the X axis went from left to right and the Y Axis from bottom to top, The home point was set to bottom left.
G code files were created using vectric aspire and XY origin position was set to bottom left. All worked well.

On my new machine the the X Axis goes from right to left, the Y axis is set the same as before so hence the home position is now bottom right. This is the only change.

When i cut a test piece on the old machine with home in bottom left all is good, when i cut the same test piece (changing the XY origin position to bottom right in Aspire) the cut is a mirror image of what i see in the tool path window in Mach 3.

changing the XY origin in Vectric aspire only seems to change the start point.

i am guessing i have a setting wrong somewhere in Mach 3

My motor setting are in normal mode and not reversed
My Home limits are set normal and not reversed and the home limit is set to negative.

This all works fine with the DROs with the direction correct (X axis going right is + and Y axis going up is +)
Home all works fine homing to the bottom right hand corner.

The machine has to be set this way as i have retro fitted mach 2 to this machine and this is where the home switches are fitted and the orientation of the machine so please do not say change the axis, this is how it has to work

i need to get this set so that what i see on the screen is what i cut.

i have tried changing the setting in the motor settings and Homing by reversing the motor direction but this makes the table direction wrong.

Can anyone help me on this problem, i am sure that this has come up before and is a really frustrating problem.

i look forward to any help offered

Thanks

Gary

4

FAQs / Re: I am sure this has been asked but i need a bit of guidance please

« on: February 04, 2013, 01:42:00 PM »

thanks for the info Brett, i will get on with it tomorrow but this looks great.
regards

Gary

5

FAQs / I am sure this has been asked but i need a bit of guidance please

« on: February 04, 2013, 10:16:11 AM »

Hi All and thanks for reading this posting.
i am new to the cnc world and have just completed the build of my CNC machine.
I am currently running the demo version of mach3 until i get the machine working correctly.

All the axis work and it seems to run well except for i havnt got to the stage of calibrating the motors so that the file i run from mach 3 cuts or machines an accurate part.

I have created a couple of test files..... 100mm circle and square to see how far out i am.... ehhhhmmmm miles off.... about 40mm at the moment so small mainly in the y axis.

So you guessed it here comes the question.... what is the best process to set up the stepper motors and machine so that what i design is what is cut.

I am sure that this has been asked countless times before but searching the internet comes up with umpteen different ideas, i am looking for an explanation of what the process is and the best way to achieve accurate results and the best way to test the changes.

The other question i have is how do you set up a probe with a plate so that i can zero the z axis, i have plenty of spare inputs into the controller and i understand the principle of how to set this up  but again find lots of conflicting information on how to best achieve this.

I am really looking forward to getting my machine up and running accurately but want to do it properly so that i understand what i am doing and hopefully in the future will be able to help someone else out that is running into
problems.

Thanks for your time and i look forward to any help or advice that can be offered, i am based near hastings in the uk

I have attached a photo of the machine i have build just in case anyone was interested, its taken quite a long time to get to this stage !!!!