Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: head stopping up

« on: February 12, 2012, 03:34:41 PM »

finally remembering to post again O_o

how exactly should we clean it out? our orifice is .010" but the only thing I can think of to reach far enough inside, is either a very thin piece of wire, or water/air pressure...but they both seem pretty impractical to me

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General Mach Discussion / Re: head stopping up

« on: February 10, 2012, 09:12:43 AM »

just the nozzle clogs, I believe - we can reattach it upside down and blow it out, and then it'll work again

I don't think we've considered contamination from the water...how would we go about checking if that's the case?

also, wouldn't that make it clog on anything and everything? it pretty much only clogs when we're cutting the fiberglass

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General Mach Discussion / head stopping up

« on: February 09, 2012, 04:57:09 PM »

we have a recurring problem with our waterjet, we are sure it's not anything to do with Mach3, but this is about the only CNC forum I have really gotten any help from, and I'm hoping some of you have some suggestions or even maybe have had something like this happen before

the problem is that the nozzle frequently clogs when we're cutting ring shaped parts out of "haysite?" fiberglass (not sure how it's spelled)

it RARELY clogs on anything else we cut, but it's not a matter of the head getting too close, since it was about a 1/4" away from the highest point of the material on the last job, and still clogged more often than it ever has, even on this haysite stuff

the only guesses I haven't been able to disprove completely are...
1) the abrasive is getting wet and clumping, or otherwise getting some larger debris, when we put it into the hopper
    but...we've devoted 2-3x the attention to that step when on this job, as compared to normal

2) the haysite gets inside the head somehow, when the water stream stops, since the stuff does tend to bubble up, as the dust forms bubbles, sometimes up around the nozzle
    but...I distinctly remember at least a couple times watching it as it stopped, no bubbles even close to it, and it still clogged

3) the nozzle itself siezes up due to heat, and the orifice closes
    but...wouldn't heat make it EXPAND, not contract?


I'm relatively sure yall are going to want our .xml file, and maybe a code sample, so I'll do what I can to get them posted, but not in a position to do so at the moment...hopefully tonight if I can remember

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Feed Hold bugs

« on: January 14, 2012, 08:16:40 PM »

yeah, that's what we do...guess I always thought it a bug, now it seems I was trying to make it do something it wasn't intended for?

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Feed Hold bugs

« on: January 14, 2012, 07:51:46 PM »

yeah, we've found the same...hadn't really thought about the math that went into arcs though, so I'll forget about that

I don't see why I can't raise the Z axis though, and have it otherwise continue without problem...we don't TRY make any such changes any more, mind you! but we had to learn the hard way...I just don't see much of a use for Feed Hold beyond letting it come to a gradual stop, or pausing it to give ourselves time to make sure we want to continue...maybe that's all it's supposed to be for, though, idk

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General Mach Discussion / Feed Hold bugs

« on: January 09, 2012, 11:43:52 AM »

I've been trying to research Mach3 revision history/bugfixes, but the only thing I found so far was a large text file I saw as painful to search through...can anyone direct me to any bookmarks that may help? or, better yet, maybe someone has had this happen before, and can tell me what's going on?

Our problem with FeedHold pops its ugly head in one of two cases...1) any time we pause on an arc, and 2) any time we try to do anything in between pausing and resuming operation

1) it kind of seems to forget it was on a G2 or G3 line, and instead of resuming as it should, it goes straight to the end of the arc as if it defaults back to G1...this also applies if we pause in between cuts (on a G00, when the head is turned off) and instead of moving quickly, it moves at the current FeedRate

now that I post it, I wonder if it would go straight to the end of a second arc, since our CAM software doesn't include G codes on many lines...something for me to try, I guess (would it be important?)

2) we tend to get very erratic results when we try to shift the origin while its paused (namely, shifting upwards so it doesn't hit the material)

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: problem immediately after REF ALL HOME

« on: December 12, 2011, 03:18:04 PM »

thought I had already posted again, but I guess not

Auto Zero solved it instantly! THANK you so much! it is now acting normally
every day, I wanted more and more to take a sledgehammer to it, lol (emphasis on want to - I never would have of course)

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General Mach Discussion / Re: problem immediately after REF ALL HOME

« on: December 07, 2011, 08:29:04 PM »

thought for sure I fixed it today...but then it started doin it again

on the upside though, I do think I've realized when and why it changes what point it goes to once its done referencing - it seems to go back to the point it was at when the Reset button is first pressed...I don't see why I hadn't noticed this pattern before, and wonder if this is what happened every time, but that seemed to be the case for all of today

so, the main thing I'd like to know now, is how to make it stop changing what point it goes to after referencing

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General Mach Discussion / Re: External E stop

« on: December 06, 2011, 10:45:25 PM »

hmm, thought I replied to this...

I didn't mean to imply that this is a current problem for me, I was just offering something for moonrunner to try, see if it solved it. It's been quite some time since I've seen this happen on our machine, though I have been meaning to try again to learn how to use soft limits anyway

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General Mach Discussion / Re: problem immediately after REF ALL HOME

« on: December 06, 2011, 10:42:19 PM »

well, I went to the Diagnostics screen and watched the lights as it referenced, as you said! they flashed on briefly as it found each switch, but went right back off...that's what they should do, right?

Also, it changed how far it goes again.
Saturday, the point it moved to on the X and Y remained the same, and not far from the switches, while the Z occasionally decided to drop further.
Today though, the X and Y both moved a lot more, but the Z decided to be kind to me, and only drop a few inches.

I marked the location it went to, and had it reference again, and it went right back to the same exact spot.

Hood, you referred to true machine home a few times...when I click on the Coordinates button in the upper right, that makes it display the DROs as machine coordinates, right? that is, it uses true machine home as the coordinate origin?