Messages

61

General Mach Discussion / Re: When I Hold Feed then Start Cycle, A axis abruptly turns;-(

« on: February 16, 2016, 09:23:58 AM »

Now that I think about it, when I was milling my pistol grips, this happened to me.  I was cutting a 3d code with no A axis movements from Aspire.
Motion controller is a USB Smooth stepper.
mach version is either .061 or .066  Dont remember exactly right now.

62

General Mach Discussion / Re: UC100 issues

« on: February 14, 2016, 11:37:18 AM »

well seeing how mach3 is a motion controller.......
Config>slave axis

63

General Mach Discussion / Re: Educational Sources???

« on: February 14, 2016, 11:31:52 AM »

DO NOT GET ON BABCADS LIST!!!!!

bobcad can be talked down alot on price, but god man, they will never leave you alone!!!!!  Sales holes will call, email ect to get you to spend more money.  A friend of mine has purchased it years ago, and they still call him every week.

64

General Mach Discussion / Re: Educational Sources???

« on: February 14, 2016, 11:30:03 AM »

you cad/cam packages should be geared to what you want/hope to achieve.  
Want to do wood engravings then dont look at Visualmill, ect.

With a router and vectric products, you really cant go wrong.  I have aspire and really love the software.  powerful, lots of tutorials ect.
HSM express and fusion 360 are amazingly powerful software packages.  but they can overwhelming for somebody new that just wants get the ball rolling.  But also do not dismiss the wizards in mach3.  They can help make a part by using multiply operations.

Speeds/feeds Depth of cut ect is going to be your biggest hurdle.  G WIZARD.  Its a speeds and feeds calculator that will get you in the ballpark 90% of the time.

Welcome to the wonderful world of CNC.  Wear a hat at all times so you cannot pull your hair out.  This crap aint easy!

65

General Mach Discussion / Re: UC100 issues

« on: February 14, 2016, 11:03:58 AM »

So that tells me that not everything is the same.   What versions of mach 3 are you running?

Do this.
On new computer copy the UC100 DLL file from the C:/mach3/plugins folder to a memory stick.
Rename the C:/mach3 folder on new computer to say C:/mach3 old

On the old computer copy the entire  mach 3 folder (yes all 200+ meg of it) to a memory stick.
Copy this to the C drive of the new computer.
So on the new computer you have a C:/ mach3 and C:/ mach 3 old directories.
Copy the UC100 DLL back into the C:/mach3 plug ins directory.

Go and download .062 version of mach3, not the 66.  ftp://machsupport.com/Mach3/
download and install with default values.  it will overwrite the core files of mach but not any settings.  This also gives you a stable version of mach that works with USB motion controllers.

now you should be set with exactly the same setup as on the old computer.  As its the old computers files. 
When you open mach for the first time, you may have to reset device selected and restart mach so you can choose the UC100

66

General Mach Discussion / Re: I cant get my feed calibrated in Inches yet mm works...

« on: February 12, 2016, 12:15:03 PM »

how exactly are you changing over to inches?  Setting the native units to inches?
Take your steps per in the metric settings and divide them by 25.4  tune motors.

Look in the settings page to see if your in inches or MM`s.

Make sure you code has either a G20 to set the machines code in inches or no G21 (sets the machine in mm`s) regardless of the native units.  You can have a machine setup in MM`s and use a G20 to run an inch Gcode

67

General Mach Discussion / Re: feed rate changes without f command

« on: February 09, 2016, 10:34:19 AM »

ran fine on mine

68

General Mach Discussion / Re: Configuring Z access

« on: February 09, 2016, 10:16:39 AM »

Ball and nested circle I think are lathe files, I know ball is.

Shapes is an engraving or cut out of a small db9 pin connector.  is to cut a db9 plug socket, there is an M30 at line 29 which tells mach that the program has ended and to rewind.  Regardless of what is beyond that line.  So you are experiencing perfect behavior.

69

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper Motors Heating Up

« on: February 09, 2016, 08:59:25 AM »

Here is a quick video I made about home switches, tool probe and fixture offsets.
maybe it will help as I am a visual learner not a text learner.
This is for a minitech desktop mill and mach3 screenset.  But the fundamentals are the same

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvfh5Ou0FRM

70

General Mach Discussion / Re: 5 axis opportunity in Scotland

« on: February 09, 2016, 08:42:18 AM »

it would help if you knew what kind of 5 axis project your trying to do.  Are you wanting to do simultaneous 5 axis work where all axis`s are moving at the same time?

There is also indexing 5 axis.  Where the A and the B rotate to a certain set of degrees and then you fut a Gcode at that angle.

Deskproto is a good cam software to look at for 5 axis indexing.