Topics

1

Share Your GCode / Celtic Cross

« on: January 01, 2013, 02:15:50 PM »

Hi all. Looking to make a Celtic Cross for a friend whose father passed away. The services are Thursday and I was going to try to have it done by Thursday morning. I have been looking for g-code or a file that can be converted to create a 3D type cross. I have access to Artcam 2008 and Mastercam X5 or X6. I know it can be created in Artcam but I really haven't used it much and would have a tough time getting it done in time. If somebody has a file that can be opened in one of those that has the reliefs in it already that would be great.

Also,
any sites where users can share their files? I have found a few, including this one, but wondered if there are some I don't know about.

Thanks in advance.   

2

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / First aluminum cut (and a few other projects)

« on: December 18, 2012, 10:15:26 PM »

Well I tried my first aluminum cut tonight. I figured I would mess up somewhere so I no loss. I'm cutting 6061 .250 aluminum. The piece is about 8" x 3.5".
-I started with the logo using a .5" v-tip bit. The first problem was the material wasn't flat obviously. Not sure what caused it but I think when I put the hold down screws in the material lifted a little instead of going all the way down into the next layer. Then I used a .125 upcut bit to make the 6 .182 holes. Next I tried using a .5" ball nose to create a contoured edge then used a .250 bit to cut the outer profile.

Another issue happened when I changed to the .125 bit and forgot to re zero my X. That is what the big boo-boo is just right of center. So that bit snapped! The last issue was when I cut the profile the bottom left corner did not cut all the way through. So I lowered my Z and re-zeroed it and ran it again. I guess I re-zeroed the Z too low because it was chugging pretty hard and before I got a chance to hit the e-stop the router mount flexed and the bit when way off course.

I made all cuts with a .005 step with a slower spindle speed and the feed rate at 100 IPM. I started out soaking it with Rapid-Tap but it was getting messy so I tried just blowing on the bit with compressed air.

The cuts look ok but could be better. Thoughts? Opinions? Advice?

3

Share Your GCode / Decepticon (transformers)

« on: November 04, 2012, 11:09:07 AM »

Anyone have the Decepticon logo in g-code, or an acceptable file format to open it in Mastercam? My nephew would like an aluminum plate made for his car with the Decepticon logo engraved in it. He showed me a picture of the logo on his phone and it looks fairly simple. Anyone have this already or wouldn't mind converting it for me? I guess any image from Google would be fine for conversion.

Thanks in advance.

4

General Mach Discussion / Text centering

« on: August 26, 2012, 05:28:43 PM »

Did a search but couldn't find anything. It looks like it should be pretty simple but if I have a square that I want to center text on, what is the best way to do it? I tried using the mach 3 text wizard but when I import it to Mach 3 it shows as being way off my table. I marked the center of my material and zero'd my machine on it but haven't actually ran it. I'm using Mastercam X5 if there is a simpler way of doing it there instead.

5

General Mach Discussion / tool compensation?

« on: August 16, 2012, 10:31:36 PM »

I am still a noobie and am using Mastercam X5 with Mach 3. I have drawn a 6" x 12" rectangle in Mastercam and set the tool to .125 and set it to left offset with a clockwise rotation (outside perimeter). When I view the NC code it shows G40 at the top (along with a few others). When I import that into Mach 3 the G40 disappears and my cut is too small.

I have looked through the Mach 3 manual (section 7, 9, and 10) but haven't found anything that stands out. Is it best to est this in Mastercam or in Mach 3? I tried setting it in Mach 3 and I still get no offset.

Any ideas? What am I doing wrong?

6

General Mach Discussion / spoilboard surfacing

« on: July 12, 2012, 10:50:23 PM »

Finally started up my machine tonight. Tried to surface my spoilboard using the surfacing program in the Mach 3 wizard. I have my machine home set at the front left corner. My axis' are correct in that when I hit X+ and Y + they move away from the home corner. I set my job home to the corner of the spoilboard next to machine home. My work area is 24"x24" but my spoilboard is more like 22"x24". The X axis dimensions are correct but the Y goes past the ends of the spoilboard. This is not a big deal but I am mentioning it for reference. So my job home is at about X1.0 and Y1.0. I put the cutter bit where I want the work home to be then zero all work axis' then hit regen toolpath. The problem is that my job home is at X and Y about -4.8***. My machine then tries to go to the negative and hits the soft limits. The only way I could get it to work was to put the job home at about X and Y +5.1***. The toolpath would then go back towards my job home and start the cut. I have tried several times to reset my job home but it doesn't seem to change. I have set the Surface Wizard program to be 24"x24" and have also tried down to 15"x15". It still puts job home past the machine home and hits the soft limits.

I can probably figure it out with more messing around but just wondered if anyone had any suggestions.   

7

General Mach Discussion / configuration issues?

« on: June 28, 2012, 11:59:10 PM »

I'm trying to set up my new CNC running Mach 3. I am using the XML file that came with the machine. I was having trouble setting up my soft limits but being new I figured I was doing something wrong. So I decided to do a dry run of the roadrunner.tap so I loaded it and 'homed' my table at the far right rear corner with the Z all the way up. The machine has a 24" by 24" by 4.5" work area. I set up my limits by entering 24 in the X and Y soft max column and -4.5 in the soft min for the Z. When I jog X- the gantry moves to the rear of the machine (towards the X motor). When I jog Y- it moves to the left when looking at it from the front. I don't remember which direction the Z goes but it seems to be backwards. When I view the job view window the job is at what I have set as 0, 0. I then jog closer to the center of the table to home my job and I hit ref all home and it zeroes the job area. Then I hit Regen Toolpath and switch to machine view and my job is now moved down and left, opposite of where I jogged to. After that I jogged the X and Y while watching the machine view and it seems like it is rotated 90* from the actual machine. The X axis moved my plane left to right in my machine view window and the Y axis moves it up and down.

Any thoughts? I have attached my XML file. This is the native file that I was given prior to making any configuration changes.

Thanks.   

8

General Mach Discussion / Trouble at first test

« on: June 14, 2012, 11:47:40 PM »

Just put my new DIY CNC together and tried to test it tonight. I am running an HP NC6320 running 32-bit Windows XP Pro. I know there are several issues with running laptops but it seemed to be working ok during a 'dry' run of Mach 3. I wired everything up but only wired the Y-axis motor to test. I tried running the roadrunner.tap (no router installed) just to see if it moved. Everything on screen looked like it was fine but I had no movement. So I tried just jogging it but still nothing. It was getting late so I did no further troubleshooting. Any ideas? The drivestest on the laptop showed about 23.877 Mhz and was pretty steady.

What are the likely scenarios? laptop? not having all motors connected? mis-configured software?

Now that I think of it I only enabled one motor in the pins and ports settings. I might have enabled the wrong one. I won't get to look at it again until late Saturday or some time Sunday.

Any thoughts in the meantime?

9

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 on virtual machine

« on: June 11, 2012, 08:11:12 PM »

Being a Systems Administrator and doing computer repair in my basement shop you would think that I would have several eligible candidates laying around??? Well I still haven't tracked down a donor for the CNC machine.

I have quite a few PC's but most are 64-bit OS's. I tried to install Mach 3 on a virtual XP 32-bit machine running in a Windows 7 64-bit host. It doesn't seem to be working. It was a laptop but I am just trying to get some movement within Mach 3. I don't even have the motors or controllers hooked up yet.

I have a laptop with 32-bit XP and a parallel port and another XP laptop with a docking station that has a parallel port. I'll have to look but I don't think my main PC has a parallel port. I could install a PCI parallel port card. I currently have a server, 1 desktop (mentioned earlier) and several laptops down there.

Or should I just pick up an older PC with an integrated parallel port.

Thoughts?