Messages

7181

General Mach Discussion / Re: CAM recommendation, other than CamBam

« on: February 22, 2011, 02:21:51 AM »

Rick,

I think all the software I use allows the 0,0 position to be set in the centre of the work as an alternative to the corners. On some jobs, such as your oval, it may be easier to mark the centre of the work and then set tool zero to this position.

Tweakie.

7182

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need help with basic understanding

« on: February 22, 2011, 02:06:49 AM »

The results are not really any better, OK the mis-allignment may be less but overall it is still a poor result.
IMO the reduction in the amount of error does tend to indicate that it is the belts/pulleys which are the main cause of the problem though.

Tweakie.

7183

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Router - which is best for this application?

« on: February 21, 2011, 01:02:34 PM »

Hi Jen,

My 2 cents.....

Routers for wood and plastic, Miling machine for metals (and some plastics).
Ballscrews are best and if the router has a table larger than about 600mm x 600mm then servos are best. Three phase high speed spindle with VFD is best and good dust / fume extraction is essential.
Exact model and where to buy - that's another story.

Tweakie.

7184

General Mach Discussion / Re: CAM recommendation, other than CamBam

« on: February 21, 2011, 10:10:05 AM »

Sorry Guys, the confusion is all my fault.

You are both quite right, i don't have a use for Cut2D so I can delete this from my list. 

Tweakie.

7185

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need help with basic understanding

« on: February 21, 2011, 09:11:58 AM »

It's more likely that the belts are innacurate. (almost the same pitch is different to exactly the same pitch)

Tweakie.

7186

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 motion control over two LPT ports?

« on: February 21, 2011, 08:27:39 AM »

What else can I motorise  Cheesy

I suppose that depends on your age Brad 

Tweakie.

7187

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need help with basic understanding

« on: February 21, 2011, 08:20:51 AM »

Dont know if it's any help to you but attached is the GCode file (thanks to Sam) I used for initially testing my laser. (it is Inch units so you may need to scale it)

http://www.cooperman.talktalk.net/laser1a.wmv


Tweakie.

7188

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need help with basic understanding

« on: February 21, 2011, 07:52:58 AM »

Apart from the obvious it came out very well.

On the 'R' you have a vertical shift and on the 'A' a horizontal shift so the problem is occuring on both axis.

Surely that gap is too large for missing steps (how many steps would have to be missed, consecutively, for a gap that large?) so something loose on your machine ? or your PC multitasking ? or drive belt jumping a tooth ?. I think you need to be extremely methodical in testing this to discover the cause, just try one thing at a time until you find it.

Best of luck.

Tweakie.

7189

General Mach Discussion / Re: CAM recommendation, other than CamBam

« on: February 21, 2011, 07:39:32 AM »

Thanks Rich.

If CNC was the only thing I had to spend money on it would be great but my responsibilities have increased with age and my family now takes priority. So, somewhile ago, I set a limit on my annual software expenditure (just managed to squeeze in Art's Gearotic Motion last year - really glad I did that) but Vectric Aspire at $2000 is just too steep for me at the moment.
Not sure if Cut3D is any better than DeskProto (which I already have) or Meshcam, perhaps Gerry has tried a comparison on this one.
PhotoVCarve has many rivals and once you get the hang of it Art's Mach1filter makes a pretty good job for free.
I may just buy Cut2D as this seems useful and easy to use and at a price I can afford. I tried the SheetCam trial version and the jury is still out on this one at the moment.

Incidentally, a buddy of mine has more money than he can count and he said to me the other day "don't you ever get bored" ? he was genuinly supprised when I said "no, don't haye the time to get bored". Perhaps the moral here is to have almost just enough money but never too much.

Tweakie.

7190

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need help with basic understanding

« on: February 21, 2011, 06:24:51 AM »

This logo has just been downloaded from "Brands of the World".
Loaded in Lazycam and toolpath produced.
GCode and dxf attached - see what you can do with it.

(this has been set up for my vinyl cutter so you will need to edit the Z in the GCode  and scale etc. to suit your machine)

Tweakie.