Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Settings lost?

« on: February 22, 2013, 06:37:21 PM »

So I found Mach Loader (had apparently been ignoring it on the desktop for years), and there were a few mill profiles listed, but none of them worked.  I did find in that root folder a file called "Mach 3 Mill.xml-GOOD" from 2010, which could only have been put there by me, so I copied and used that and it works again.  Only thing I changed recently was to reduce the max speed of the X-axis, so that's already re-corrected.  Much thanks!

Neil.

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Settings lost?

« on: February 22, 2013, 12:32:15 PM »

Oh, okay.  I'll be back at the machine tonight, so I'll check that.  Thanks.

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Settings lost?

« on: February 22, 2013, 12:09:11 PM »

What do you mean by "profile"?  Are you referring to different Windows users?  This is on a dedicated Win 2000 system with an auto login as the same user each time (actually as administrator IIRC).

4

General Mach Discussion / Settings lost?

« on: February 22, 2013, 08:19:21 AM »

Hi,

I closed out of Mach 3 mill and shut down my computer, then rebooted and hour later, only to find that my Mach 3 settings seem to be lost (all motor settings, tuning etc).  Is there any way to recover this (ie: perhaps there's some backup file in some folder)?  Where does mach hold these settings btw?  Thanks.

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: What causes this?... circle interpolation perhaps?

« on: January 29, 2008, 01:15:09 AM »

Hood,
No I'm not sure the gibs are setup properly.  I recently picked up this mill from someone else and have been learning to machine on it (I'm not even familiar with non-CNC machining) so I've not tweaked the mill yet.  I need to adjust out the backlash too.

But I ran a number of tests today.  I do get that same problem (periodic "waves") with a straight diagonal line though.  This is 0.375" thick...




I then adjusted out (in software) the notch/divot at the cardinal point due to the backlash compensation stepper reversal, and reducing the backlash speed from 50% of max to 10% seems to have worked beautifully.

I also played with different feeds around an arc and the repetitive waves stays mostly the same, though a little less pronounced at lower feeds.  I also noticed that the finish is much better at lower feeds.  Here's the best I got at the end of the day, which is a 0.010" finish pass at 0.5ipm and 1500 rpm.  The material is still 6061-T6, approx 2" wide x 0.375" thick.  This photo makes it look a bit better than it actually is, but still it's much better than yesterday. 




Still a lot of tuning and tweaking to go, but on the mechanicals of the machine.  We're leaving the scope of this forum now, so I'll go research that quietly 

Cheers,
-Neil.

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: What causes this?... circle interpolation perhaps?

« on: January 29, 2008, 01:02:28 AM »

Graham,
I used hand written g-code.  That part is 1.25" wide x 0.625" tall.  Here's that code snippet, but I'm eliminating any resolution/interpolation as the problem at this point after some tests today.  See next post below.

(----- Profile outside -- 0.1" steps -----)
G01 Z2            ( Clear over top )
G01 X0 Y-2 F30         ( Clear of material )
M6            ( Load 0.5-inch finishing endmill )
T03         ( For CNC simulator )

G01 Z0.1 F30         ( Over top of material )
G01 X7.25 Y0.625 F30      ( Start point on R.H.S. )

G01 Z-0.1 F1         ( Plunge 0.1 inch )
G02 X6.375 Y-0.25 R0.875 F5
G01 X0.625 F5
G02 X0.625 Y1.5 R0.875 F5
G01 X6.375 F5
G02 X7.25 Y0.625 R0.875 F5   ( End on center of R.H.S. )

G01 Z-0.2 F1         ( Plunge 0.2 inch )
G02 X6.375 Y-0.25 R0.875 F5
G01 X0.625 F5
G02 X0.625 Y1.5 R0.875 F5
G01 X6.375 F5
G02 X7.25 Y0.625 R0.875 F5   ( End on center of R.H.S. )

G01 Z-0.3 F1         ( Plunge 0.3 inch )
G02 X6.375 Y-0.25 R0.875 F5
G01 X0.625 F5
G02 X0.625 Y1.5 R0.875 F5
G01 X6.375 F5
G02 X7.25 Y0.625 R0.875 F5   ( End on center of R.H.S. )

G01 Z-0.4 F1         ( Plunge 0.4 inch )
G02 X6.375 Y-0.25 R0.875 F5
G01 X0.625 F5
G02 X0.625 Y1.5 R0.875 F5
G01 X6.375 F5
G02 X7.25 Y0.625 R0.875 F5   ( End on center of R.H.S. )

G01 Z-0.5 F1         ( Plunge 0.5 inch )
G02 X6.375 Y-0.25 R0.875 F5
G01 X0.625 F5
G02 X0.625 Y1.5 R0.875 F5
G01 X6.375 F5
G02 X7.25 Y0.625 R0.875 F5   ( End on center of R.H.S. )

G01 Z-0.6 F1         ( Plunge 0.6 inch )
G02 X6.375 Y-0.25 R0.875 F5
G01 X0.625 F5
G02 X0.625 Y1.5 R0.875 F5
G01 X6.375 F5
G02 X7.25 Y0.625 R0.875 F5   ( End on center of R.H.S. )


(----- Full depth at once finishing pass, 0.010 inch into side -----)
G01 Z-0.65 F1         ( Plunge 0.65 inch, through complete depth )
G01 X7.24 Y0.625 F5      ( Cut in a bit )
G02 X6.375 Y-0.24 R0.865 F5
G01 X0.625 F5
G02 X0.625 Y1.49 R0.865 F5
G01 X6.375 F5
G02 X7.24 Y0.625 R0.865 F5   ( End on center of R.H.S. )

(Return to home)
G01 X7.25 F10         ( Clear away )
G01 Z2 F30
G01 X0 Y2 F30

7

General Mach Discussion / What causes this?... circle interpolation perhaps?

« on: January 27, 2008, 05:15:44 PM »

Hi all,

I am using Mach 3 with a converted HF geared-head mill (acme screws).  I am getting a really odd effect around curves (using G02 command) that makes it look like it's being estimated or interpolated to something like a 35-40 sided polygon.  The photo below is 6061 milled with an M42 cobalt 1/2" endmill at 1500 rpm, 5 ipm and this a 0.010" finishing pass.  You'll notice that the straight sides have a very clean consistent finish, but as it continues around the curve, the finish gets nasty -- mostly due to the polygon effect. Ignore the incorrect backlash compensation which is visible at the cardinal point.

I'm not at the mill now, but the setup has something like 50,000 steps per inch so I'm sure it's not a resolution problem.

The question is ... are circles really being interpolated to a polygon of this resolution in Mach 3?  If so, is there a setting that controls this?  I do have backlash compensation on, and IIRC I had to change the CV settings and acceleration for that but I'll post those values when I get back to the mill later.

Cheers,
-Neil.

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Configuring PC speed, motor speed, etc.

« on: June 27, 2007, 12:39:30 PM »

Saw that now, thanks.  This is all confusing me, so I am still running some experiments to help my understanding of things.  I'll be back...

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Configuring PC speed, motor speed, etc.

« on: June 26, 2007, 07:51:21 PM »

Thought of something else here... rather than be limited to 45khz, why not use a PCI parallel-port card that (allegedly) goes to more than 45khz?  I'm sure I've seen these somewhere.  I'll go google now...

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is this a good PC setup for Mach3 ?

« on: June 26, 2007, 09:26:55 AM »

Another option, I just found, at a lower price is this...
- ECS K8M800 Micro ATX, socket 754
- Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 2.2Ghz.
- 1GB of DDR-400 Ram

Shouldn't this be faster than the MSI w/1.8Ghz above (the MSI uses DDR2-667 though)?

Thanks again,
-Neil.