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Topics - Buggalugs

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1
General Mach Discussion / Mach3 shuts W7 Down on Startup.
« on: December 29, 2022, 06:34:07 PM »
Well my old WinXP has eventually died so I had little option than to upgrade to something with a little more acumen and even though W7 is also obsolete it is fast enough for my needs.

The problem I'm having is that as soon as I have installed Mach3 ver 3.043 and opened it up it causes a system error and reboots the PC.

I'm thinking it could perhaps be the Parallel port driver. I'm still waiting for the new LPT Card to arrive by Royal Snail so at the minute it doesn't have one.   

Any ideas anyone?

2
I am now finding my CNC skills, learning and ability to make what I want is being hindered by my Spindle Motor setup which I never really managed to get running properly with the Mach3 PWM and ended up running my Mill Spindle with an external Pot hanging out of the controller.

Anyway, the limitations of having this thing revving its nuts off at 10,000 revs max, it’s time to move on only this time I want as much advice as possible before I throw more cash out the window.

I’m looking at a water cooled 800W Spindle Motor and a 1.5Kw VFD on FleaBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/0-8KW-WATER-COOLED-SPINDLE-MOTOR-1-5KW-VFD-MILL-GRIND-GERMANY-BEARING-VARIABLE-/250959558703?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3a6e5af82f

Some of the questions I have are:
1.   I don’t seem to be able to find any way to interface this into Mach3 other than a straightforward On/Off

2.   Looking at the termination panel image I think it looks like I could use a Charge Pump Circuit from the PWM output on Pin but I’m not too sure.

3.   Is it possible to control the Motor Speed with Mach3?

4.   Where does the water bit come into the equation, How does the water circulate?
 
5.   Do I need a circulating pump and a cooler setup?
 
6.   The run-out claim of 5 microns seems a bit farfetched – what can I expect the run-out to be?

 Has anyone bought one of these and what are the pitfalls?

Can anyone give me a thumbs up on this please.

3
General Mach Discussion / Feeds and Speeds Milling Aluminium
« on: April 04, 2015, 08:05:52 AM »
I’m back again with my favourite stumbling hurdle. I had a very intricate job to Mill in 1.5mm Aluminium sheet. The job is quite small about 120mm x 60mm with quite a few holes and shapes.

I first tried using an 800 Feed Rate and 6,000 RPM with a 4 Flute 3mm End Mill, but it appeared to be labouring the Spindle Motor. I then changed the Feed to 400 and the Spindle Speed to 8,000 RPM.

It appeared to prefer the slower Feed Rate cutting 2/3 of the job but then it seemed to snarl-up  and then my End Mill shattered.

My questions are, am I using the wrong Feed Rate, Spindle Speed, Mill Tool  or is it because I am using too cheap a grade aluminium  ???

As always, any help would be appreciated.



  

4
General Mach Discussion / Help Me Please - Mach3 Corrupting Code
« on: April 03, 2015, 04:45:54 PM »
I'm back with another dopey problem. I haven't used my Mill since before Christmas, but I'm sure this problem wasn’t there when I last use it.

For some reason or other my code from CamBam is not being translated properly. What it is making the machine do is create a multitude of circles.
 
There are circular cutouts and profiles in the job but it wants to cut them from using the start point as the centre. It is best to see the screen shots of the Tool Path to explain what is happening.

I have attached a test file of my G-Code in case it is something dopey that I am doing again!

Once again my grateful thanks to all.

p.s. the second image is the results of the code in the .txt file. The first image is supposed to be a name plate engraving which worked fine before!

5
General Mach Discussion / Help Please with PWM Spindle Motor Speed
« on: August 03, 2014, 05:00:57 PM »
Been on best part of a day trying to setup my new Spindle Motor. The problem is in trying to calibrate the actual Spindle RPM to the Mach3 DRO RPM.  I am using 35KHz base engine and setting the PWM Base Frequency at 60 does nothing for it as it still runs about 20 times faster than the DRO.  I don't seem to be able to find the right answers in the Mach3 Manual. To give an example, using the MDI at S1000 the motor is doing 5,200 RPM and I don't seem to be able to bring the two together.

Once again thank you in advance for your response, only kindly note that I am still an (old) newbie to CNC so please do not baffle me with mathmatical calculations I just want to use the Mill not re-invent it :)

6
Well, current update is All Limits fitted and working, I have mastered the Soft Limits issues and I am now nearly ready to start making something (Weee!)  :)

 I have been following Mr Tweakies Project using an RC Model Aircraft 3 Phase Outrunner Motor as a Spindle Motor with great interest as I have one or two of these beasties knocking around looking for something to do. He makes it look so easy!!!

I have spent some time with CamBam and eventually got my head into it, produced a string of Gcode to make my parts and tested it on my Machine with a lump of expanded polystyrene and to my amazement it does exactly as the drawing - Wonderful!!

My question is that I want to machine some 9.5mm Aluminum Bar with a 3mm Long Shank End Mill and I am becoming confused with all the information about Spindle Speeds and Feed Rates around the web. I am not concerned about ripping it out at x rates of knots, time is no longer a bonus here, but what I don't want to do is snap bits and or destroy the metal.

What would the recommended Spindle Speed and Feed Rates be to give me a nice finish with this size of End Mill. I gather the feed rates are in feet per second Y/N

Thanks in advance  

7
I'm having a hell of time getting my head around this. I have gone over the manual like a rash but I still cannot get my Machine to behave. Firstly, I am assuming that DRO means the Digital Position of my X, Y & Z axis, and that the digits I ought to be using as Safe Limits are the Machine Coordinates Y/N ??

For arguments sake my Z Machine Coordinates that I want to set as Safe Limits are -5 and -63 I enter tham into the Max an Min Motor Home/Soft Limits Dialogue box then close the box. On testing the Z sails straight past both safe limits completely ignoring them on either end of the travel.

My questions are is there something disabling the Safe Limits? A check box perhaps ? Secondly, am I setting this up right? Taking -63 to be lower in value than -5

Finally, What are the other options in the  Motor Home/Soft Limits Dialogue box ? Home Off, Home Neg and Auto Zero What do they do  :-\

8
Well, before I begin to use this thing in earnest I have taken onboard everyone’s advice and started fitting Limit Switches to the X, Y and Z planes. Everything is going smoothly, and as a matter of prolonging the usable life of the control electronics I have upgraded several components on the parallel port with high temperature low ESR electrolytic capacitors, half decent 5v and 15v regulators and a better spec TTL Tri-State Buffer I.C.

My question/query is that I only have input ports on Pins 10, 11, 12, 13 & 15 means that need to use the limit/homing method as in fig 4.7 of the manual in an OR configuration to where both ++Limit and the –Limit switch have the same signal i.e. active LO. This being the case how does Mach3 determine which way to work away from the active Limit?

I may not be putting this over too well, so to simplify: The Transverse Beam X is moving ++ towards the limit switch, it hits the limit switch and stops. How does it know which limit it has come against, and more to the point which way to move to allow it move off the limit…


Once (and if ever!) I finish the upgrades and modifications I will publish the details and offer the electronics at cost to anyone interested.  


Recreational Chemistry is probably a more pleasing chore!

9
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...

10
After a tremendous quantum leap in knowledge and a huge learning curve I am almost ready to put my efforts to work in drilling lots of PCB's. I am using the Nesting Wizard which Mr Hood pointed me to. I have created several Nest routines which will hopefully drill six boards per pass then I need to change the bit to go over the same six drilling the larger holes. - I am really pleased with my efforts but once again I need a little help.
The feed-rate at which the bits drill needs to differ, so in my wisdom (or folly!) I created my nested routine for the 1.3mm holes as:

Y34.2000X11.7560F200
Z-2.5000F100
Z-6.4000F25
Z3.0000F200
M99

The logic being to drop the bit 2.5mm at 100% rate (I think this is called the plunge rate) then drill at 25% then withdraw at full rate. Well to me it sounds good, but it doesn't bleedin well work.  What the Hell am I doing wrong?

Secondly, is there any way to have Mach3 inform me that a tool change is needed? I have put M6 T(n) onto the top of each Nested Routine. The T(n) in this instance is Tool 3 being a 1.3mm bit.

Once again all help and comments are appreciated (apart from abuse and violence !)   
 

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