Messages

3531

General Mach Discussion / Re: T-D 3 axis contoller

« on: June 02, 2014, 03:31:49 AM »

Hi Martin,

Welcome to the forum.

Looking at your website, you have certainly made some extremely beautiful pieces - my congratulations sir.

Could you perhaps post a picture of your controller board so it can be identified as I suspect that some damage (other than the fuse) has been done to the spindle control circuitry. I may be an easy fix and if we can help you we would be pleased to do so.

Tweakie.

3532

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: June 01, 2014, 02:49:50 PM »

Hi Art,

Wow, that motion is fantastic – I’d love to have that on my CNC (perhaps one day).

My view is that the motion would not cause any damage to a glass CO2 tube (the water coolant mass is really not that great) but…

There are serious problems with mounting single CO2 laser tubes (metal or glass) vertically – basically there is debris produced as a result of the RF or plasma arcs, this debris settles (under gravity) onto the ‘output coupler’ which burns in and results in early failure of this component. For example, Synrad withdraw their warranty on tubes mounted beyond a specified degrees from the horizontal. Having said that, the ‘double’ glass tubes which only have 100% reflecting mirrors at the lower end (outside the plasma envelope) are often mounted vertically in medical equipment. Obviously their tubes are changed very frequently but I think it indicates that there are ways around the problem.

I think you would have to go a long way to better the performance of the Mach3 Impact / Laser Engraving plugin (which you wrote way back when) but I look forward to hearing more of your progress.

Keep up the good work my friend.

Tweakie.

3533

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 Printer Port Discussions

« on: June 01, 2014, 10:31:52 AM »

We need to see some pictures of that robotic arm in action Art (please). 

Tweakie.

3534

*****VIDEOS***** / Re: Mobile CNC Router (Home Made)

« on: May 30, 2014, 03:18:25 AM »

Brilliant work Artcarver - my congratulations on the construction of your machine which is quite inspirational. 

Tweakie.

3535

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z Axis problem

« on: May 29, 2014, 07:56:56 AM »

Hi Bob,

Your GCode plays out fine here so nothing wrong with your Cut2D settings as I had suspected.

Perhaps look in Mach3 / Config / Safe_Z Setup – if the Allow Safe_Z Moves box is checked then uncheck it (or alternately if you wish to use Safe_Z then make sure all the settings are correct).

Perhaps stupid suggestion but is your machine’s Z axis configured correctly with Z0.200 moving the spindle upwards and Z-0.0500 moving it downwards ?

Tweakie.

3536

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z Axis problem

« on: May 29, 2014, 06:50:57 AM »

Hi Bob,

My guess is that you have your settings wrong in Cut2D.
If you .zip and attach your GCode file I will check it here and see if it is OK.

Tweakie.

3537

Tangent Corner / New Tool Holder.

« on: May 28, 2014, 11:20:00 AM »

Tibs has been testing a new tool holder but he reports that it struggles a bit with the larger sizes of end-mill. http://hobbycncart.com/_ph/17/2/881854535.jpg

Tweakie.

3538

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: CNC Portable Milling Machine in 15 Days

« on: May 27, 2014, 04:38:11 AM »

An excellent project guys, thank you for sharing the information and posting all the pictures.

Tweakie.

3539

General Mach Discussion / Re: Chinese router setup

« on: May 26, 2014, 12:04:05 PM »

When I run the Mach3 driver test, the pulse line is pretty flat but starts at the top of the graph axis at about 80 micro seconds and slowly works down to be steady at about 40. Is this normal?

The driver test should look something like this.

Tweakie.

3540

General Mach Discussion / Re: Chinese router setup

« on: May 26, 2014, 02:40:38 AM »

Hi Jim,

When you power up the machine do the stepper motors 'lock' or are they free to be rotated by hand ?

Tweakie.