Messages

71

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z axis direction

« on: March 03, 2008, 03:29:26 AM »

This is not easy. Much harder to understand than my foam cutter I`ve build for 6 years ago.

When I move my tool until it touches my material and zero the axis and regenerate toolpath, is that the position when I start the milling or do I have to home first?

Adam

72

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z axis direction

« on: March 02, 2008, 05:47:46 PM »

Thanks Hood

The positiv Z value is only 0.1 unit, but i don´t have that thin material to mill in. If I use a piece of blue foam which is 1cm high, how do I move the tool to the top of it, if Z moves only 0.1 from the buttom?

Adam

73

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z axis direction

« on: March 02, 2008, 05:08:14 PM »

Thanks Chip, I will try that.  I wrote an "E" letter with LazyCam and want try to mill it.

What if I get a large 3D job with many Z movement - do I have to correct all the positiv values to negativ manualy?

Graham - do you mean I have to zero the Z Offset Coordination when the tool is touching my table?   Because I can`t zero the Machine Coords down there. Only the home switches can do that.

I`m confused her. What is the order?

1. I home all the axis
2. I put a piece of material I want to mill somewhere in the middle of my table
3. I move all the axis until all of them (my tool) touches my material ( Offset Coords)
4. Zero all axis(Offset coords)
5. Regenerate toolpath
6. do I have to Home ?    
Graham - when to zero the Z, touching the bed of my machine?

... and I can`t wait to push the Start button.

That what I call Offset Coords - is this what you call DRO?  Is it when there is no red ring around the Machine Coords button?

Adam

74

General Mach Discussion / Z axis direction

« on: March 02, 2008, 11:24:09 AM »

Hello

I want to try to mill something for the first time, and have a little problem with Z axis. 

My Z axis is homing in the positive direction, from -60mm(limit) to 0(home/limit).
If I want to miil something, I want the Z axis to move down to my table in the negativ direction, but the G code Z has a positiv value. When I start the program the first thing that happen is, the Z axis hits the home/limit switch.  Anybody know how to change the Z direction without messing the rest of the Z setup, like homing diretion ect.

Thanks
Adam

75

General Mach Discussion / Re: MACH3 is starting the router on its own... Scarry!!!!

« on: March 01, 2008, 06:10:50 PM »

Bruno, I´ve been watching the instructions videos of Mach3 maybe 10 times because I´m trying to setup my machine, and the man talks about your problem and how to set it up, in one of the first videos. Nr2 or 3 i think.

Adam

76

General Mach Discussion / Size and offset of Roadrunner

« on: February 29, 2008, 12:09:35 PM »

Hello again

I have a lot more questions

1. My Roadrunner is very, very little when I draw it in stead of milling it. Its like 5mm x 10mm. Is that the "original" size or can I make it larger with the Mach3?

2. When I`m trying to offset the Roadrunner to the middle of the working area (like on the video) it looks like I`m moving the working area in stead of the drawing around the table. 
    Is that something to do with my Mach3 version? My is R2.63,  file version 4.3.0.347   - or is there something wrong? 
    Please don`t say that I have to download another version and go through the setup again.
   
Adam
 

77

General Mach Discussion / Re: homing limits problems

« on: February 29, 2008, 04:34:30 AM »

No, the autozero is not checked - one of the things i did right :-)

My problem is that I have never seen a cnc machine and don`t know what to expect.

But if my, lets say, X axis is -64  just a second before it hits the home switch, will the -64 turn to 0 when it hits the switch?

It must be normal, because if you turn on the Mach3 and jog forward with the axis, and then turn the driverboard on, and the machine was homed last time you used it, the machine coords will not be 0.

It was a "stone-age" way of doing it, but I did it.  I homed the machine, turned the driverboard off, so only the Mach3 was on,  jogged on the screen until all the axis was 0, turned the driverboard on, homed the machine one more time and now the Machine Coords are 0 when homed - is this really the wright/only way to do it? 
The software should be able to zero the numbers when homed.

I`m not exactly shure when the machine coordinates are 0 - is it when it hits the home switch or when it moved a little bit backward after hitting the switch?
I use a piece of foam to activate all my switches for now - I don`t want do damage anything, but now when it works I can change them to sometning harder.

Adam

78

General Mach Discussion / Re: homing limits problems

« on: February 28, 2008, 03:30:29 PM »

Thanks Hood. Now I really understand the difference between Homing and Limits.

But about the zero, my Offset Coord`s are zero, and I can make them zero at any position.  But the Machine Coords after homing, are Zero somewhere outside my table . I can`t use Software limits because of that.
Why can`t  I  just  press the zero X, zeroY and zero Z like I can with the Offset Coords - that will solve the problem.

Adam

79

General Mach Discussion / Re: homing limits problems

« on: February 28, 2008, 02:17:54 PM »

Thank you for the great explanations.
Now my machine stops when it hits a switch and moves a little bit the other way.
But still there is something wrong. When I hit the switch and then hit it again, I can`t reset or move anything. I mus play with the switch assignment a bit.

But now I can`t zero the Machine Coord`s.  My X is -64 in home position and I can`t zero it. I have try many different things, but it`s not working. The mach3 videos starts with the machine coords in zero, so there isn`t much help there.
I`m so close to end the setup :-) 
Sorry for all the questions, but I´m tryin to find some answers somwhere else, before I ask here in this forum.

Adam

80

General Mach Discussion / Re: homing limits problems

« on: February 28, 2008, 08:03:02 AM »

Thank you for the quick answers.

I think I have to do some soldering and try again. 
Will the switches stops the motors also when I jog or use the arows keys?

But what about the lead screw pitch? The software only knows , that the motor needs 400 steps to rotate my lead screw 1 revolution.   But doesn`t know the pitch of one revolution?
There must be a field somewhere where I can type the pitch value.

Adam