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1

General Mach Discussion / Spindle button disables stepper motors (Laser engraving on a 4 axis mill)

« on: January 31, 2018, 01:36:44 PM »

Hello to everyone!
I've got a 4 axis milling machine connected to the 6600 board, spindle is manually turned on, not connected to the board (I use the milling machine mostly for engraving brass pieces).
I've recently bought a 2W chinese laser, one of those that come with a small router, to engrave metal tags an similar things.
I've taken the laser off the original controller and thanks to a friend I've connected it to the relay and a 12V power brick.
I've found a way to turn it on with the relay and to change the "power" of it with PWM, now when I set it at S0 it turns off and S100 is 100% on.
I've modified a post processor for Aspire so that I can vary turn on and off the laser with S commands while moving the all the axis, including the Z one.

PROBLEM: when M3 is issued the steppers stop working, DRO's move but the steppers seem to be lacking power.

If I manually turn the "spindle" off (hitting F5) the steppers start working again.

Any clue?

Thanks!

2

General Mach Discussion / Hit hard with the turret on the spindle... Damn!

« on: January 30, 2016, 02:56:50 AM »

Hey guys, here's the problem: after setting up a quite complex trail of operations (center drilling, peck drilling, boring, chamfering, internal relief, threading, turning, parting) and having perfectly set all the tools' positions in the tool table I felt like I could finally turn the piece.
I did make one part and I was very satisfied but then I hit the E-Stop (stupid move, I literally sat on the jog shuttle...).
Anyway, I simply hit the reference button and the machine went to the limit switches as usual.
Now, being the limit switches VERY precise I normally don't need to make any further check and I can continue machining. This time I decided to see if all was right and I went with my master tool (number one) to the stock to check the Z and the X.
Something very strange happened: I was off by about 30mm on the Z and 45mm on the X!
I said: "you son of a...!!! You wanted to screw me!!! Not this time, I'm smarter than you!"
So I made a new facing cut to zero the Z and a light turning on the stock to zero the X.
Feeling satisfied for having dodged death I started the next part and then disaster!
As soon as I hit the start button Mach3 changed the DRO to some strange values and run full speed into the spindle!!!!
ER40 clamping nut is now thinner, the two bolts that keep the turret have been stripped, tool holder shattered, tool wheel lost its position, gibs need to be adjusted again and a puddle of tears to be moped from the floor...

4 hours later the lathe was back in business and I decided to investigate why this happened. So I set every tools' positions again in the tool table, I machined one part and then I hit the E-Stop on purpose to recreate the previous nightmare.
I click the reference button again and the machine goes to the limit switches. And then I see the same problem again: the position of the master tool is not right!
This time I decide not to reference X and Z with a facing and turning operation but I instead make an M6T0202 tool change and then an M6T0101. (I change from tool 1 to tool 2 then back to tool 1).

After this double tool change everything is correctly positioned.

Now the question is: why??


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3

Mach Screens / Help with tool changer macro

« on: January 01, 2016, 08:21:13 AM »

Hello guys, I finally received my repaired lathe.
It's been a long wait but now it is finally, mechanically, ok.

Problem is the screenset or the macro pump provided by the company who made the conversion sucks: the first referencing doesn't work most of the times.
Sometimes it pushes the tool changer wheel out and not back in, sometimes it doesn't go towards the limit switches, sometimes it halts for no reason...
After a successful referencing sometimes it doesn't react to M6T0x0x tool change command. Sometimes it does it without loving to the tool change X/Z position.
Sometimes it looses some parameters...
It's a total mess and this German company who made the screen set and macro pump doesn't help.

I was wondering if any of you had something for a 2 axis lathe with the A axis for the tool changer. The lathe has limit switches, two servo motors and a stepper for the A axis.

Please help!


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4

General Mach Discussion / Rippled finish only when cutting arcs

« on: December 22, 2015, 02:16:45 PM »

Hello, after many months of mechanical problems with my new lathe I'm now facing a software related problem...

Long story short: lathe had both Z and X axis compromised, ball nuts where pushing the saddle up and down, left and right, so the finish was MECHANICALLY wavy.
Leadscrews have been fixed, sliding surfaces grinded and so on.
When I now cut a straight line (be is only on Z, only on X or any angle) the surface is silk smooth.
So any G1 movement is perfect.

When I make any arc (G02 or G03) I get a rippled finish.
Like here:

I tried J/K, absolute or relative parameters with no luck.

I use servo motors, if this can make any difference.

Controller is a Ethernet kind.

Does Constant Velocity or Exact Stop have any influence with that?

Thanks a lot!


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5

General Mach Discussion / Taper correction

« on: December 15, 2015, 09:55:17 AM »

Hello!
The lathe I have cuts a bit tapered when moving in the Z axis only. It's less then 1 degree and it's annoying...
Is there a way Mach 3 can compensate this error in some way?
Thanks!


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6

General Mach Discussion / Setting Spindle Speed

« on: September 24, 2015, 03:24:56 AM »

Hello guys,
I have a problem with spindle speed: I often have programs involving M3 and M4 (both clock and anti-clock turning) but I can't set Mach3 to WAIT until the given speed is reached and, even more important, to wait for the motor to slow down to zero before inverting the sense of turning.
I correctly use the S command and indeed the spindle goes to that speed in the end but it can take a from 3 to 8 seconds depending on the rpm you choose: the faster, the longer it takes.
I know there is a setting in the config page to set how many seconds to wait after the S command before starting machining but this is not enough when you have to wait for the spindle to slow down before changing the sense of rotation.
Since the lathe has an rpm sensor that works perfectly it would make much more sense if it were read by Mach3 to know when to start machining or to wait until TE counter reaches zero before issuing the change sense of rotation.
Can it be done on mach3? What is the command?
Thanks!


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7

General Mach Discussion / Input not recognized with USB controller

« on: August 27, 2015, 07:52:09 AM »

Hello!
I have a CNC lathe connected with the parallel port and a Mill connected with a USB controller (I don't know which one...).
Both work ok when cutting but with the Lathe I can feed inputs both physically (with Wires) and virtually (key strokes).
In this way I'm testing the probe functionality.
On the mill I can virtually map the digitize input and it's recognized correctly in the diagnose page (it blinks when I hit the keyboard letter mapped to it).
When I do a G31 scan the key stroke doesn't stop the mill and it keeps going forever.
Fearing it was a problem with mapping I mapped another key to the E-Stop and it works ok.
I then mapped it to the spindle index and while it blinks when pressed it doesn't update the RPM as it does with the Lathe with the parallel port.
How come?


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8

Video P*r*o*b*i*n*g / Best setup for probing a trumpet mouthpiece

« on: August 26, 2015, 05:39:48 AM »

Hello!
I'm into the mouthpiece business and I have made many so far using mach 3 with a couple of lathes.
Now I bought a 4 axis mill that I'm using for engravings and light 2.5 sculpting on brass plates.
From time to time I have customers asking to copy their mouthpieces and most of the times I ask a friend of mine to make scans with a "arm"specifically made for this kind of jobs.
Unfortunately he lives far away and timing can be an issue for some customer.
I then thought to make it on the mill or on the lathe.
Can mach 3 do a scan of a curved shape?
What probe is best for this job?
Since a mouthpiece is a simple Mix of curves revolved on one axis I need the probe to scan only on two axis: let's say I want to measure the width at different depth values.
Can I then obtain a cloud of points that I can then transform into a complex curve?
The minimum diameter is 3.5mm.
Can the program compensate for the probing tip diameter?
Thanks!


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9

General Mach Discussion / Scale button in mill

« on: August 26, 2015, 05:21:24 AM »

Hello!
I've used mach 3 lathe for quite a while and it works great for me.
I just bought a 4 axis mill and I'm trying to do some engraving on brass rods telling the machine the A axis is the Y axis.
I then use the text engraving wizard to create the paths.
In order to keep the letter dimensions correct I need to down scale the A (Y) axis to a value that depends on the rod's diameter.
So far so good, I did my math and I know how much I need to down scale it.
Problem is that when I click on the scale button it blinks but when I start machining it goes back to 1.000 (no scaling).
For now I did a workaround, I changed  the motor pulse number to make a mechanical scaling but the software one would be much better.
Ideas? Why does it revert to 1.000?