Messages

7741

General Mach Discussion / Re: can you move the motors manually

« on: February 23, 2009, 03:02:23 AM »

It's completely unnecessary to move the table manually - Move the part to its new position, jog the table to where it needs to be, and re-set the DRO.  This is the more conventional way of handling your problem.

Regards,
Ray L.

Brilliant solution here by Ray. Coincidentally that is the way I used to do it before I fitted the disable switches. It is only when you come to actually making stuff that is longer than the table size that you discover the most convenient way of doing it.

Luckily, in this world, there is always more than one way of doing everything.

Tweakie.

7742

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Prolight 3000 Lathe

« on: February 22, 2009, 08:03:31 AM »

Hi Henry,

Hood is the expert on this type of conversion, I am sure he will be able to help.

Tweakie.

7743

General Mach Discussion / Re: can you move the motors manually

« on: February 22, 2009, 02:32:46 AM »

By way of explanation for what I use the axis disable for :-

I have had occasion to make wooden signs that are longer than my work table and so they have to be routed in stages. When the progress of the work reaches near to the end of the table, I pause Mach, disable the Y Axis, reposition the work and table manually (with the cutter in exactly the same position on the work), re-enable the Y Axis then restart Mach for the next phase. As Mach knows nothing about this repositioning (DROs remain the same), the work progresses as normal. For this to be successful the routing on each part of the job must be complete prior to the move and this sometimes means some GCode editing prior to starting the job. It is perhaps a bit long winded and does require positioning jigs but this method does enable work that is longer than the cutting area to be undertaken.

Tweakie.

7744

General Mach Discussion / Re: can you move the motors manually

« on: February 21, 2009, 08:28:06 AM »

Hi Josh,

As RC has said - I have fitted toggle switches to the enable lines of all axes and this is great for manual repositioning.

Tweakie.

7745

General Mach Discussion / Re: dual arm control

« on: February 21, 2009, 02:53:59 AM »

Ben,

Do you need complete positional control of the two Z axis or is is just 'pen up / pen down' as you would have with a plotter ?.

Tweakie.

7746

General Mach Discussion / Re: dual arm control

« on: February 19, 2009, 09:05:49 AM »

Hi Ben,

Whilst Mach is capable of controlling 6 Axis the software to produce the necessary GCode for positioning and controlling your two arms would be extremely specialized. I have no knowledge of any such available software so I think you would have to write your own GCode for anything you intend to produce. Simple stuff is OK but you would have to be extremely serious to write GCode from scratch for complicated products.

Tweakie.

7747

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 Bug?

« on: February 19, 2009, 03:29:11 AM »

Hi Himy,

After trying many possibilities it only happens when 'Machine Coordinates' are checked. So uncheck and problem solved perhaps ?.

Tweakie.

7748

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 Bug?

« on: February 19, 2009, 03:19:44 AM »

Update.

Restarted Mach and it works fine now - stops as it is supposed to. Could it have been something left in a buffer from the previous program ?.

Tweakie.

7749

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 Bug?

« on: February 19, 2009, 02:59:34 AM »

Thought I would try this and mine does the same - 'no probe, no stop'.

Tweakie.

7750

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Billet Alum Dash

« on: February 19, 2009, 02:53:43 AM »

If the rest of the Dart looks as good as the dash it will really be something. Good work Ed.

Tweakie.