Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / 4th Axis Help

« on: December 09, 2010, 05:55:46 AM »

I read in a post that 4th rotary axis must be assigned A-axis
I’m using duel ball screws and my A is slaved to my X.
 do I need to change the A to B or can I assign the 4th axis B
Thanks Rusty

2

General Mach Discussion / Stepper and servo controlled by same controller?

« on: November 29, 2010, 12:09:21 PM »

Stepper and servo controlled by same controller?

My machine is servo driven X, Y, and Z with A slaved to X (Duel ball screws )
I want to add a 5 th rotary axes can I use a stepper motor or must I use servo motor
Thanks
Rusty

3

General Mach Discussion / Help wih Mach 3 Download

« on: September 11, 2009, 09:16:23 PM »

I do not want to expose my machine control computer to the internet, can I download Mach3 to a flash drive and then install on my machine computer
Thanks Rusty 

4

General Mach Discussion / Need help with port selection using smooth stepper and USB

« on: September 10, 2009, 06:29:18 AM »

I’m using C23 - Dual Port Multifunction CNC Board  and smooth stepper board from CNC4pc 
I’ve been watching the video tutorials on setting up Mach-3              I understand how to identify parallel ports, but I’m not using parallel ports I’m using usb  so my question is how do I assign the proper usb address and dos the computer have to be hooked up to the machine or smooth stepper board to accomplish this task
I would prefer to set up and test I/O and machine functions before I hook up to my machine
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks Rusty 

5

General Mach Discussion / Hi All, I need help Desperately (Building controller)

« on: August 04, 2009, 07:23:31 PM »

Hope this day finds you all well,I have been reading posts for sometime and just want to say thanks for Sharing your knowledge, experiences and expertise
Now here’s the situation I am building a CNC Router, work envelope of 62” x 98” with ball-screws and linier slides on all axes dual ball-screws on the x with a slave motor
 I’m also using servo motors and gecko drives
The machine is about 75% complete
And I’m working on the controller
I have heat sinks for all the drives, my power supply, my control box, fans for cooling, sensors for over travel and homing,
Touch screen, 7.5HP Colombo spindle and VFD, vacuum pump
But I have not purchased breakout board
Because I do not know what board or combination of boards I need
I have read so much material that I just don’t know how to make a decision on what I need
So I’m asking for help
I will tell what I want to control from my touch screen
1.   Vacuum hold down
2.   Spindle off and on
3.   Spindle speed VFD voltage 0 to 10 (do not want to use a pot)
4.   Home machine From Touch screen and home individual axes at my discretion 
5.    Also turn off and on dust collection
6.   E-stop reset
7.   Tool height touch off plate
8.   Pop up Material Locating pins I have built into my table I don’t think machine should move while locating pins are in the up position (all axes disabled when locating pins are activated) 
9.   I also have a pendant
I have looked at all kinds of boards just don’t know what to buy to get me where I want to go using Mach3
10.   I will be adding a forth Rotary axes (technically 5th axes)

Any help would be appreciated   
Thanks
 Marvin (Rusty) Bowling
 
 

 


 

 :-\

6

General Mach Discussion / V Carve Pro

« on: May 26, 2009, 03:00:53 PM »

Any of you using V-Carve Pro
And are you having any Difficulties
Thanks Rusty

7

General Mach Discussion / Turning on a 3 axis router the 4th axis being a indexing head or a rtating head

« on: January 28, 2009, 09:04:16 PM »

HI every one
I would like to know if Mach3 will support turning on a 3 axis router,
Using a forth axis as a rotating head
I would mount stock between centers just like on an lathe and then use router to shape stock or flute round columns, or turn a spiral leg or whatever, Just like you were using an ornamental mill will the add-on mill package software support this type of tool path 
any one tried this
thanks rusty