Messages

4791

General Mach Discussion / Re: HELP !!!! What Do I Need??

« on: April 09, 2013, 06:29:21 AM »

Hi Jacqui,

You should never let anything stand in the way of your dreams.

Having said that, from my experience, you are unlikely to be able to CNC machine the modern day styles of spectacle frames at anything even approaching a realistic manufacturing cost.

You would be well advised to initially draw up your intended design in a CAD/CAM package then take it to an established CNC machine shop and ask their opinion as to the feasibility of manufacture and if you are brave enough, ask about the cost.

Mind you, if the ‘Buddy Holly’ style ever comes back into fashion you may be in with a chance. 

Good fortune with your fund raising. 

Tweakie.

4792

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: CAD file convertto DXF, but G code is not reading

« on: April 09, 2013, 03:18:13 AM »

My CNC is bought after veryfying if MACH3 accepts drawings from Autocad. They told me that I have to save the drawing as dxf and than upload them. MACH3 converts automatic to G-code.

Butt it does not work.

As Dave has already said...

Mach3 did do this once upon a time but unfortunately, no longer.

Try opening LazyCam, loading your .dxf file and see what it makes of it. If it is the correct type of .dxf (for LazyCam) you may be OK and able to generate usable GCode.
If this fails then you need to consider a more versatile CAD/CAM package (such as Vectric).

Tweakie.

4793

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: April 06, 2013, 07:24:30 AM »

My congratulations Yanxin, this looks like you are well on your way to producing some stunning images.  

A really excellent job my friend.  

Tweakie.

4794

General Mach Discussion / Re: Losing Pulses at lower accelerations

« on: April 05, 2013, 08:05:07 AM »

Hi 10k,

Just out of curiosity...

Did you still get a voltage drop on the psu after adding the capacitors ?

Are you using a switched mode (regulated) power supply ?

Tweakie.

4795

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: April 04, 2013, 01:56:35 AM »

Hi Yanxin,

Excellent work my friend, you are certainly making good progress on this project. 

Tweakie.

4796

General Mach Discussion / Re: Disable Sound

« on: April 03, 2013, 05:59:38 AM »

Does this help ?  http://www.machsupport.com/documentation.php

Tweakie.

4797

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Tool length offset to an Arduino

« on: April 02, 2013, 03:35:29 AM »

Hi Bozidar,

Thanks for posting your excellent video. 

(I have difficulties clearing the mineral filler from laser cut acrylic (Corian) and currently use two air nozzles, alternately pulsed but I can see the advantage in sweeping the nozzle directions so you have just set me off on a new project  )

Tweakie.

4798

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie with TB6560 1st time testing problems

« on: April 02, 2013, 02:53:07 AM »

To get back to the subject of slaving one axis to another.
direct quote from another source:
"In Mach, go to config->ports and pins->motor outputs.  Change the check mark or x in the "Dir LowActive" column so it is opposite between X and the slaved A axis.  This will cause the motors to be slaved together, but to rotate in opposite directions, which is required since they are mirrored in position to one another."

If the motors are indeed 'mirrored in position', (which is likely for a rack and pinion setup) then 'yes'.

Can I interpret the 1/2"-10, 5 start  acme screw's lead screw pitch (mcmaster-carr says 1/2" travel per turn) into metric format namely 12.7mm per turn.

Yes.

Tweakie.

4799

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbee Question... More than one machine, only one Mach3 install

« on: April 02, 2013, 02:24:33 AM »

I know you can setup different profiles in a Mach3 installation, but do they allow you to run more than one machine?

Yes it does.

I only have one Mach 3 licence but I run 3 entirely different machines (only one at a time) using a different profile (called from a shortcut on the desktop) for each without any problems or issues.

Tweakie.

4800

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie with TB6560 1st time testing problems

« on: April 02, 2013, 02:10:16 AM »

Hi Gary,

Slaving the X and A axes.

As said, I am not an expert at this because I have never had occasion to actually do it but…

In Motor Tuning make the settings exactly the same for both the X and A axes and save the settings for each.
In General Config uncheck the A-Axis so it makes the A axis Linear.
In Slave Axis select X to A then restart Mach3.

You should now have both these axes slaved.

Tweakie.