Messages

1

VB and the development of wizards / Re: proffesional mach3 programmer

« on: April 06, 2019, 02:44:37 PM »

What's the application. I have done 2 wizards. One for making pens and the other does giant knurling with a spot drill.

2

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

« on: March 30, 2019, 07:21:35 PM »

Thought you guys might get a kick out of this. Its a Champion 3X spark plug four time scale. Most of the parts were CNC'd about 50-75%. There is a battery pack in the top insulator that can be charged through a USB socket. The base houses a 400,000 volt module that can easily jump a one inch gap. I set the gap at 3/4 inch.

I made it as advertisment because I sell miniature spark plugs. Hoping it will draw attention to the business at the model engineering shows.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69DJEpu_64A

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Goofy forum layout

« on: March 29, 2019, 06:39:15 PM »

Hello Bryanna
If you talk to the team improving the forum, why not tell them to at least make displaying
"I am USING MACH3"
or
"I am USING MACH4"
Compulsory in every NEW user's profile signature (to be always displayed).

What if I use both?

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Parallel Port Legacy Plugin

« on: March 29, 2019, 01:21:02 PM »

Hi stevehuck,

Your description suggests that you are entirely happy with your machine the way it is, you neither need
or want extra functionality, so stick with it.

Craig

Yes I am. The reason for the upgrade would be for the lathe. Mach3 Lathe isn't all that great so I would like to upgrade to Mach4. I run both a lathe and mill from the same computer so I would need 2 motion cards and the software and the driver. After tax, title, and delivery i would have to spend north of 650 bucks to upgrade a $1200 mill and $1400 lathe. I would also have to spend the time to rewire the panel. Not worth the trouble. If it were a simple software upgrade for $250 bucks I would be on board right now. It's just not worth the trouble and expense to have better screens for one of the 2 machines. I'm not knocking Mach4 but there isn't anything in it for me when both machines are running great other than a better looking gui. I just don't need any of the other funtions.

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Parallel Port Legacy Plugin

« on: March 27, 2019, 04:55:38 AM »

Why on earth would you want to run Mach4 off a parallel port? You could use that $25 toward a purchase of a Warp9 or other modern controller?

In my case I have a system that runs perfectly on the parallel port. I would like to upgrade to Mach4 but I am not going to spend hundreds of dollars to rebuild my control panel for a software upgrade. The lack of parallel port support is the only reason i'm not running Mach4 right now.

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Jogging A Axis ???

« on: March 02, 2019, 05:39:17 PM »

Page up and down is the Z axis.

Configured the A axis in system hotkeys and it worked. Then X, Y, and Z wouldn't work so I configured all 4 axis in system hotkeys and all is good now. Before this all were 999.

BTW the A axis is now + and -

7

General Mach Discussion / Jogging A Axis ???

« on: March 02, 2019, 04:28:19 PM »

I just installed and configured a 4th axis on the mill. Everything is setup and working perfectly. I can use MDI to move the axis but I cannot figure out how to jog the axis with the keyboard. Is there a set of keys that are already configured like X, Y, and Z or do I have to manually setup the A axis with the system hot keys.

read somewhere it was - and + but that did not work.

I also tried to search "jogging A axis" but the forum won't search unless all words are more than one character so that was zero help.

Thanks in advance.

8

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: I need a simple code writer for lathe

« on: February 08, 2019, 05:49:45 PM »

I use CAmBam. I just finished a lathe and it does take care of my needs pretty well.

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe making moves not in Gcode

« on: February 07, 2019, 05:26:01 PM »

Ill send it this weekend when i get out in the shop and get a copy.

Thanks

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe making moves not in Gcode

« on: February 06, 2019, 09:17:19 PM »

Vince,
Cute little spark plugs your doing............... ,

The code you posted does exactly what the program called for, except it never changes the tool because you
need an M6 to do whatever you want to do for the tool to be changed, thus it just runs through the complete program
program and ends on X0.020 Z0.005.

Don't know how you are setting up the job, even the modes you are in, as the program just seemed incomplete.

Now you say you inserted a M0 and removed the T2 and the program stops.
So the controlled point would ne located per the code  G0 X1.000 Z-0.100.

RICH

the program runs right up to the t2 (now M0) and stopped at X1.000 Z-0.100 as expected.
I then manually center drill and drill the part.
Hit cycle start after drilling and the machine finishes the part at X0.020 Z0.005.
Then the machine moves to X1.000. Unwanted movement is when it parks at X1.000. That move does not exist in the gcode but it happens every time i run the program.