Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tube/pipe coping or notching

« on: October 28, 2010, 06:49:54 PM »

Thanks !

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tube/pipe coping or notching

« on: October 28, 2010, 06:29:07 PM »

Figures.  Too many steps make it hard to justify.  Oh well, I'll keep looking, maybe somebody will have an "in cnc" solution down the road.

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tube/pipe coping or notching

« on: October 28, 2010, 03:11:19 PM »

TP:  Well, bad news and some "I don't know" news.  The developer, Stan, of the Dig Pipe Fitter program can't do anything because of some non-competes.   He did offer this bit of information, and I thought based on your experience it might be worth testing:


"There is a DXF export of the template itself.  No toolpath offset is available.  That DXF file is intended for documentation but once you have the polyline from the DXF file you could manipulate it as you wish.
Please go ahead and download Digital Pipe Fitter from the website.  It will even print and export DXF files in a limited way to let you test your workflow. To print or export a DXF from an unlicensed installation: use the Branch Joint and set the branch angle to 53deg.  Export to DXF is under the print menu item."

What do you think?

David

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tube/pipe coping or notching

« on: October 26, 2010, 07:20:24 PM »

That is closer!  I sent their main email address a query and directed them to this thread - it will be interesting to see if they respond...

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tube/pipe coping or notching

« on: October 26, 2010, 12:19:31 PM »

Chrome moly, titanium, thin wall mild steel, some types of aluminum alloys; they all get hosed up or don't work at all with a hole saw type coper/notcher.  Sometimes you have very long copes due to curves and small angles between tubes, and even with the right material and the right holesaw, I'll have more than 10" of travel to get the coping right. 

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tube/pipe coping or notching

« on: October 26, 2010, 09:26:38 AM »

Whew!  Considering all the different ad hoc cuts you have to make during fab, that would be a large body of work.  Well, if no one else has any other ideas, I'll contact the guy at digitalpipefitting and see if he'd be interested in doing a plugin/screen set for Mach 3 - I don't think I'm the only one who could use this, especially for more exotic materials where a hole saw type cutter won't work.

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Tube/pipe coping or notching

« on: October 25, 2010, 11:20:21 AM »

I looked at their website as well and didn't see the plugin.  I use Solidworks, but haven't picked a cam program yet, still undecided.  Very interested to hear how your miter works, but designing the cutout inside of Mach3 would make fabrication of racing frames much easier than drawing each one.  I found an interesting program called http://digitalpipefitter.com/ , and if it worked with Mach3 (it doesn't), it looks ideal.

8

General Mach Discussion / Tube/pipe coping or notching

« on: October 25, 2010, 08:46:58 AM »

I can't seem to find the right topic, so my apologies if this has been answered.  I'm finishing up a Mach 3 machine with three axis plus a rotary table that mounts in either vertical or horizontal orientations, and I'd like to know if there is a plugin or relatively simple method to program in various tube / pipe fitting cuts.   It could be done with an end mill similar to the way RMD does it with their manual TN-800, or with a profile cut using a small mill or plasma torch with the pipe rotating. 

Cheers

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle Speed measurement question

« on: December 04, 2008, 02:49:25 PM »

Ok got the spec sheets and the motor.

Moog D315-007B  Brushless DC Servomotor (Resolver with IP65 housing)
Cont Stall Torque:  5.5 Nm, 48.675 in lbs, 4 ft lbs
Continuous Stall Current:  12.4 A
Peak Torque:  16 Nm
Nominal Speed: 4900 Rpm
Terminal Resistance:  0.88 ohms

Here is the Duty Cycle graph and graph legend as attachments.  The current motor is a 3 phase 208 2hp 2500Rpm Chinojunk special, so this Moog will pull the teeth out of the AC motor at any RPM, and has a top end RPM that's almost double the speed.  What's left is:

Deciding whether to mount an encoder (mounting will be difficult, and I'm worried about slop in the gear head, so I'm thinking I might need the encoder on the spindle itself), or go with some kind of Resolver to encoder converter board;
Sourcing a drive that will do 310VDC at 15 amps peak and 5.5 amps continous;
Finding a power supply.

Recommendations?

David

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle Speed measurement question

« on: December 02, 2008, 04:12:32 PM »

It's  out at the shop, I'll be out there later today and will get the nameplate info...

David