Messages

5141

General Mach Discussion / Re: crashing....

« on: July 23, 2012, 09:12:23 AM »

If you end up getting an opportunity to try it yourself, I'd be curious to hear what you think.

Unfortunately, I have just un-installed it but I will load it again and report back.

Again, If it's any help....

The best results I have had with pencil drawings and the like is to convert them to one bit halftones (dithered image) then either use Art' excelent Engraving plugin  (some reading - http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,16446.0.html)

or using a GCode generation program such as DotG http://dotg.weebly.com/download.html   (some reading - http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,20490.0.html)

Both of which are free to use.

But there are many other choices and it is really just a matter of preference.

Tweakie.

5142

General Mach Discussion / Re: crashing....

« on: July 23, 2012, 06:59:09 AM »

Hi Banks,

If it's any help.......
I have just downloaded and installed the 'Image to G Code' program in an attempt to replicate your problem but it runs just fine here so I doubt that this software actually caused the issue you are having.

Tweakie.

5143

General Mach Discussion / Re: Intigrated video

« on: July 23, 2012, 02:08:43 AM »

Hi Cole,

If you have a spare slot then you could fit a PCI video card and use that. The bios should automatically set the new card as the video output during startup (at least mine does  )

Tweakie.

5144

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Tangential Knife blade holder.

« on: July 21, 2012, 11:34:52 AM »

Hi Jammerm,

For vinyl cutting you will only need the small, lightweight, Roland style drag knife (similar to the one I constructed here http://www.cooperman.talktalk.net/files/11.htm) The clones are now so cheap to buy complete from China that it is hardly worth constructing your own but at the time I made mine they were only available direct from Roland and very expensive. Tangential control is really not necessary with this type of drag knife as it self-steers into the direction of movement without any problems except perhaps that sharp corners have an 0.5mm radius but when it comes to the durability of vinyl signs the sharp corners will always lift first and a small radius here is actually an advantage.

The knife blade holder shown in the earlier post is intended to be used for cutting a particular gasket material that I cannot laser cut so I have resorted to tangential control of the knife direction and ultrasound to assist with the cutting. It does not need to be finished before early next year so I am taking my time and experimenting with different designs etc.

Tweakie.

5145

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cut parts are wonrg size

« on: July 21, 2012, 05:34:32 AM »

Just another thought on this one….

If a 1/16” diameter cutter had been used for this particular toolpath that could explain why the parts are coming out at 6 3/16” wide.

So, with a 1/16” diameter cutter and this toolpath, changing the X & Y Scale DRO’s to 0.9700 should bring the part back to 6” wide.

Just a silly thought.

Tweakie.

5146

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cut parts are wonrg size

« on: July 20, 2012, 01:08:03 PM »

Hi Dave,

If it's any help to you - providing you are using a 0.25" diameter cutter that GCode produces a part exactly 6" wide.

I have a sneaky feeling you may have your axis calibration set incorrectly. 

Tweakie.

5147

General Mach Discussion / Re: Gremlins

« on: July 20, 2012, 11:18:01 AM »

Hi Tony,

Almost anything is possible but if you made any changes / alterations to the Mach configuration last time you used the machine then some parameters require a system restart to take effect so would not be noticed at the time but would come into effect next time the machine is used.
Your configurations are stored in the xmlbackups folder so you should be able to return to an earlier configuration without too much trouble.

If you are using a PCI parallel port card may be worth checking that it has not worked loose.

Tweakie.

5148

General Mach Discussion / Re: buy new cnc router kit ((which recommend))

« on: July 19, 2012, 05:02:36 AM »

Hi elpuebla,

It would help if you tell us where in the world you are located.

If you are located in the UK then these guys sell most of what you would need http://www.worldofcnc.com/
I have dealt with them many times and have had excellent service.

Tweakie.

5149

General Mach Discussion / Re: Machine set to millimeters can I use gcode with inches OK

« on: July 19, 2012, 03:54:06 AM »

Hi Keith,

Nice RC website. 

Tweakie.

5150

General Mach Discussion / Re: Engraver Conversion

« on: July 19, 2012, 02:24:50 AM »

Hi Bobby,

It depends on how your GCode is produced in the first place but it sounds like you need to add additional M3 / M5 codes between each letter.
For example, standard GCode containing Z Axis movements (as would be produced with the Mach3 Write wizard) can be edited (basically using a ‘search and replace all’ function) where every +Z movement is replaced with M5 and every –Z move is replaced with M3. Although this may sound tedious, the task can be automated within most post processors.

Another example… Using your favourite software - If you were to create your text or design and save the result as a .plt or .dxf file etc, this could be loaded into LazyCam and using a modified post processor the resulting GCode would then have the M3 / M5 commands automatically inserted into the correct places.

Tweakie.