Messages

171

General Mach Discussion / Re: what is mdi line "closed" or "open"

« on: December 24, 2011, 06:53:54 AM »

also note that when the MDI line is OPEN it is a different color..........  and while the mdi line is open you CANNOT jog the machine.  The ENTER button on the keyboard will also toggle the MDI line.

For Example...... you open the MDI line, execute a command, then go to jog the machine.........  It will not jog.... Press enter again and it will close.

172

General Mach Discussion / Re: Missing steps! Upgraded my screw drive to R&P

« on: December 20, 2011, 08:54:43 AM »

Dont know if its relavant, but I have had issues with the 4030`s on highly detailed small parts. (Jewlery waxes)

They would just act stupid as in what you are describing.  On simple profile shapes they would work fine, it was the small very small 3d movements that would give me grief.  I replaced them with the 5056`s and all was fine.

173

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Sherline EdgeCAM Compatability

« on: December 20, 2011, 07:33:03 AM »

Slow it down,  hat speed are you running the sherline?  The sherlines I believe have 20TPI lead screws.  That is alot of RPMS on the stepper to get a descent feedrate.  Possible loosing torque and missing steps?

Turn off the view port in mach3

Im going to assume that your toolpath is quite large in filesize.

I cut 3d organic shapes all the time and have found that with small tools and high stepovers the viewport cannot keep up to well.

Most of my problems were noticed on flips ect.

Also check your motor tuning.  do you have any axis`s that are tuned higher then the rest?  I used to have a maxnc with a 4th axis.  My x y and  z were tuned to 800 mm a min.  the A axis was tuned to 2500 mm a min.  after every small a rotation the X would stall out big because the computer did not like the differences in processor load.

174

General Mach Discussion / Re: Motor Tuning Help

« on: December 12, 2011, 04:37:44 PM »

what stepper drive are you running?

is the machine binding? twisting casing the motors to loose steps?
any change that the coupler between the motor shaft and the lead screws are slipping?

what kind of lead screws?  acme screws with plastic backlash nuts?  (I have had acme screws get worn in the center of the screw and anytime I tried to move outside of the worn section of the screw the backlash nut would stall the motor because it had adjusted itself to the worn smaller section and bound up when it tried to go over the larger non worn section.

175

General Mach Discussion / Re: X-Axis rotation

« on: December 12, 2011, 11:44:18 AM »

i dont know if you can actually do that in the way your describing. 

I think your trying to make it harder then it needs to be.

If you mounted a rotary table on the end of the X axis (like was mentioned above)  It is still another axis (a) rotation along the X axis.  Even if you mounded your X axis table to the rotary face it will still be another axis all together.  You can even do this with the Y axis.  Rotate your stock around the Y axis and X axis.  That would end up being a 5 axis machine needing a custom most processor for your cam software.

Think of it this way.  Z Y X are fixed (standard coordinate system).  Anything added to them will be another axis designation.

176

General Mach Discussion / Re: Y-axis not moving

« on: December 12, 2011, 11:38:04 AM »

for artcam, the post processors you want to use are
for flat/flips/indexing use the modelmaster 3 axis flat

For rotary around the 4th axis use the modelmaster rotarty x->a if your rotary is oriented on the end of the X axis

These are the posts that I use everyday for my mach based machines

177

General Mach Discussion / Re: z axis loosing zero

« on: December 11, 2011, 10:36:12 AM »

stupid question, but how old is your mach3 version?

I remember a point in time when mach 3 FRO would actually try and get the machine to move faster then the motor tuning settings.  Caused me a lot of headaches in the beginning.  But that has been YEARS ago.

178

General Mach Discussion / Re: Just have to say...

« on: December 08, 2011, 11:15:43 PM »

a few words of advice, when she calls you in for dinner GO RIGHT THEN...NEVER EVER EVER SAY..."I will be there in 15 minutes"  That NEVER happens!

Take your shoes off in the garage.

Dont ever refer to the machine as the name you have given her to your wife........ as a matter of fact done refer to it as a "HER" either!

Make a gift for her..... YOUR WIFE I MEAN using the machine...... wooden signs, lithopanes......something..... it will buy you some time

ohhh and wear your saftey glasses, just not at the dinner table

have fun and remember... pictures are worth more then a thousand words........

179

General Mach Discussion / Re: Double Mach3 Conversion, Need all the Help I can Get!

« on: December 08, 2011, 11:00:17 PM »

is the lathe stepper based? If so, get a G540 and GO..... you will loose the panel functionality but then it will all be PC based anyways from mach3

if the mill is not working and will cost more then some servo drives ect, then do the same with the mill.  (assuming its servo driven of course)

180

General Mach Discussion / Re: Y-axis not moving

« on: December 08, 2011, 12:07:03 PM »

Ben where are you located?  maybe we can do a call together and we can see if we can get it figured out?  Do you have internet connection on the mach3 pc?