Topics

1

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Ship Wheel

« on: April 06, 2018, 11:45:41 AM »

Hi All
This is a ship wheel I made for my daughters school. she is in the Peter Pan play, I designed in Artcam and machined it out of the 2" blue Styrofoam that Lowes sells. Did a painted finish.
Bill

2

General Mach Discussion / Debounce

« on: January 18, 2018, 11:42:24 AM »

I done a bit of searching and haven't found this part of my question. I think I understand that the debounce setting can help with electrical noise and errant limit switch tripping. And it is best to find the problem a correct it. My question is what do high or low  debounce settings do to Mach 3 performance what are trade offs
Thanks Bill

3

General Mach Discussion / VFD Noise

« on: November 17, 2017, 11:07:53 AM »

Hi
Been getting a tripped emergency switch every half hour or so while running my machine. I know I have some noise interference so decided to try and isolate it. I ran my machine for a couple of hours just cutting air without the VFD and spindle running no tripping so I am confident there lies my problem. My question at one point while running the g code maybe 45 minutes into the program everything stopped no emergency trip just stopped could not move anything even by rewinding g code ended up shutting down the computer and restarting ran the same gcode for a couple hours with no problem was checking other noise sources florescent lights, my water pump for the spindle, dust collection. just  the VDF trips it will work on that. any idea why it would just stop.

I read this forum everyday for a couple years, and have learned a great deal from all you guys
Thanks for sharing
Bill

4

General Mach Discussion / Run from here

« on: February 08, 2017, 02:41:24 PM »

Hi
I was reading a post in which run from here was being talked about. I have a slight noise problem in my wiring which I have been trying to find the culprit, In the mean time when running code sometimes during the end of a long run I get an estop and must run from here. Mach rewinds the code and must go thru to the line requested which can take quite a bit of time if it is a long session. Am I doing this correctly or is there a faster way to run from here.
Thanks Bill

5

General Mach Discussion / Debounce

« on: September 05, 2016, 05:34:15 PM »

Hi
I have a question about the debounce setting, A few months back I was having a problem with a program running were it would suddenly stop and I would have to reset  and start running again. It was  recommended that I increase my debounce setting because I probably had some ground issues or perhaps something was unsheilded in my wiring. In reading posts since then I have read that some people have these issues and have theirs set at a variety of numbers. My question is how do these affect how Mach 3 runs when you are not at the ideal 0 setting.
Thanks bill

6

General Mach Discussion / VFD problem

« on: June 25, 2016, 09:34:43 PM »

Hi
I have been running the roadrunner gcode to get use to my machine coordinates, thought I would run with my spindle on also no tool. When I power up the spindle I get a limit switch tripped, when I reset I get a Emergency e stop requested, I can run the program with the VFD in power but if I start the spindle I get the emergency stop. I have the power cable to the spindle shielded and grounded at the VFD. I read recently that it should be grounded both sides is this my problem or could it be something else
Thanks Bill

7

General Mach Discussion / One last problem

« on: June 13, 2016, 03:41:51 PM »

Hi
Finally almost there on my set up, one last issue. I have a rectangle work area 24" x 96" my home is the bottom left corner. When I ref all, all axis home fine to the home spot. I load the road runner to test out the system it loads in the bottom left corner fine. I push start and the machine try's to move in opposite direction of the work, and out of my table workspace.
Went to homing and limits page  to uncheck and reverse X but all it does is move my home to right hand corner. How or what do I change to orient my movement in the proper direction. I don't know if this issue is affecting my Y and Z because off the direction movement it trips my limits right away.
Many thanks Bill

8

General Mach Discussion / Homing setup

« on: March 05, 2016, 06:56:58 PM »

Hi
Finally have some time to set up my table. In motor home /soft limits I am trying to get my directions right with my axis's get my soft limits correct and to correlate with my screen view. If i go to my home on the table and zero every thing, on my Offsets screen the currant work offsets are not at zero. How do I reset, or is there a way I can start from scratch to set all this up.  I have been working on this set up a roadrunner shows up on the screen way out of my table view and my X and Y go out of my table view to run. I would like to start fresh on this setup but don't know how to get the right orientation.
My table is 24" in the Y and 96" in the X facing the table the long side in front of me I want my home to be bottom right hand corner
Any help is appreciated
Thanks Bill

9

General Mach Discussion / Mach 3 setup

« on: February 15, 2016, 02:22:16 PM »

Hi
I have read the manual and watch the videos many times and thought I had set up my table location correct. My work surface is 24" Y and 96" X My home is the bottom Right hand corner of the table When I hit ref home The gantry moves there fine. On my screen it shows my table limits but when I load the roadrunner is shows up in the top center when I jog the full length of my table in the screen the high lite of the travel only show about a quarter length of travel in the X and the Y my soft limits are 24" x 96" . I would like to go thru and reset everything can anyone refer me to the best info in the videos or reference resource to get this correct.
Thanks  for the help
Bill

10

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 homing and limits

« on: February 14, 2016, 02:57:20 PM »

Hi
Just finished tuning my motors and setting up my homing and limits, works well. I ran the road runner sample no spindle or tool and my Z stays up through  the program and hits my limit switch half way thru, I assume because it has a raise Z g code. do I have something entered backwards for the Z command or do I need to zero the Z at a material height before starting.
Thanks Bill