Messages

8871

Share Your GCode / Re: GCode Sharing

« on: July 13, 2008, 07:55:02 AM »

Plexiglas is opaque perspex - the type of stuff used on the surface of light boxes (by pcb makers) or for outdoor illuminated shop signs. It is the same color right through. Lithophanes are made by converting a photo or other image to a 'height map' which is then used to produce the GCode. 'Mach1 filter' will do this job converting .bmp or .hpgl files to GCode (it can be downloaded from the Artsoft site). The height map is used in reverse (negative) so that white is cut deep and black is cut shallow, if at all. The litho is back lit, the ones shown above are just stood on a window sill and that does it just fine. Please check out my website for further details  http://www.cooperman.talktalk.net

Tweakie.

8872

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: iPod Nano Case

« on: July 10, 2008, 08:39:03 AM »

Brilliant, just brilliant.

8873

FAQs / Re: do not delete this as Im linking to it.

« on: July 09, 2008, 09:34:17 AM »

WHY ?

8874

FAQs / Re: About licencing Mach

« on: July 09, 2008, 09:30:48 AM »

Hi zimba43,

I trust your problems have now been resolved, if not you have infinite patience and have been waiting an extremely long time to use Mach.

I wonder why this topic has had so many views - trust me, nothing in this life is for free.

Tweakie.

8875

FAQs / Re: Laptop requirements with Mach 3

« on: July 09, 2008, 09:21:46 AM »

Don't start me wondering about the differences between the D600 and the D800 - It has taken me a whole 5 months to get my head around the functional differences between my old desktop and my cheap'o laptop.

Has this possible solution helped anyone yet ? - if so please post a reply.

8876

FAQs / Re: Laptop requirements with Mach 3

« on: July 05, 2008, 11:07:49 AM »

Since my post in February I have been wondering just why my Dell Inspiron (cheap but good spec) Laptop did not work well with Mach3 whereas an old (low spec) desktop worked so well. The answer has been found in the posting by 'DaveC' at :-   http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,3378.0.html.

An extract from his post is as follows :-

The secret is .... disable the ACPI driver!
Open the device manager and find the 'Computer' icon.
Click on the plus next to that and you will see something like Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) computer.  Chose the 'update driver' option and select 'Standard PC' as a replacement.
Windows demands a reboot after this, and a lot of the hardware had to be 'rediscovered' and reinstalled (all used drivers it knew about already, so was painless), another reboot for good measure and now it works flawlessly.

Thanks to DaveC my Dell Inspiron now works beautifully with Mach3 and I have every confidence it will solve all the issues mentioned by others (unfortunately not Dave's latitude D800 it would seem) in the above posts.

Tweakie.

8877

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Routing Wood

« on: July 05, 2008, 09:53:39 AM »

Don't get too excited Budman - I work in millimeters not Inches.

(The G-Code had a F300 feedrate and this was increased to 150% within Mach3)

8878

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Routing Wood

« on: July 04, 2008, 11:53:58 AM »

Sorry, I should have posted full details with the picture.

There were no tool changes and the cutter was 3.5 mm diameter as the one on the right in the picture here :-  http://www.flickr.com/photos/22267456@N05/2547381165/
However, I reground the end to make it more of a 'ball nosed shape' ( this took some time to do as the cutter is solid carbide and I do not have a diamond wheel ). The feed rate was F450 and the spindle speed was 3000 rpm. I took approx. 1 hour to cut.

Thanks to everyone for looking at my postings, I hope they have been of interest.

Tweakie.

8879

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Routing Wood

« on: July 04, 2008, 02:29:53 AM »

Another Fleur, this time in mahogany and ready to be incorporated into a piece of furniture.

8880

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Routing Wood

« on: June 30, 2008, 08:55:30 AM »

This sign from the Vectric VCarve pro examples took 15 minutes to cut ( not including the time it took me to change my trousers after a straight plunge heated the v-bit to red heat and could easily have caused a fire within the dust extraction ). To anybody else cutting this plaque - Use caution with the feed rates that have been set in the example - I had already reduced them to 30% within Mach3.

The end result is again a credit to Vectric and their wonderful set of programs. Like Budman68 said earlier 'save your pennies for this software' it's brilliant stuff.