Messages

1811

Tangent Corner / Re: Boo Boo !

« on: October 08, 2012, 08:02:04 AM »

   Oh Snap!  LOL

Brett

1812

SmoothStepper USB / Re: New ess install, can not get smooth stepper to write to XML

« on: October 07, 2012, 09:09:34 PM »

 

1813

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: October 07, 2012, 04:30:56 PM »

Welcome Dale, post any questions you have in the proper board of this forum and you will usually get some very good help.  Lots of talented people hanging around here!

Brett

1814

General Mach Discussion / Re: Another newb, another issue...

« on: October 07, 2012, 02:59:09 PM »

 

Brett

1815

General Mach Discussion / Re: Another newb, another issue...

« on: October 07, 2012, 02:02:01 PM »

No trouble at all Kevin, I just don't want to cause you any either.  If they had it running with your PC and tested they will probably get you running very quick.

Brett

1816

General Mach Discussion / Re: Another newb, another issue...

« on: October 07, 2012, 11:40:30 AM »

I think you should probably talk to ez-router.  I don't mind helping at all but I have no idea how they have things set up.  You have heard the old saying that there is more than one way to skin a cat.  With Mach that is such an understatement. 

Brett

1817

General Mach Discussion / Re: BT30 spindle from scratch - with power drawbar and ATC of course

« on: October 07, 2012, 11:32:43 AM »

Let me first say that I am merely speculating when I comment that it occurs to me that in a perfect world the friction would always be sufficient for the job. There are those extreme cases where perhaps a tool spins or even dislodges from the spindle, and then the momentary slip where the friction was overcome momentarily.

I suspect that the latter is far more common and would include things like tool crashes. The damage to the spindle taper could be significant if the holder were allowed to spin, so perhaps the dogs have always been intended as 'arrestors' rather than 'drivers'

The dogs may be overkill for this but they are used as an orientation device when you need to orient the tooling such as when back boring.

I actually think them being arrestors (cheap insurance) were more an added benefit rather than a feature by design.  Most I have seen use tiny bolts to attach them to the face of the spindle.  All though they are in a shallow groove an empty tool holder allowed to spin at spindle start up could easily shear them off.  Totallyrc hit the nail on the head as to why most I have seen use keys.  I hate to mention these last 2 because I really don't like either one but.........  I have seen them use keys for a fine orientation adjustment, an alignment tool.  These were on a belt driven spindle and I'm just guessing this was their motovation.  The outside edges were ground on an angle. This would only allow them a tiny bit of misalignment but between the tool holder rack and some other low end features it needed it.  They did however run for many years like this with good results............. most of the time.    I think my least favorite use of a key on a spindle was to actuate a release on the tool change arm.

Brett 

1818

General Mach Discussion / Re: Dual home/limit switches, how to setup?

« on: October 07, 2012, 10:33:46 AM »

You should be able to do it with a macro if you want to I think.

Brett

1819

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: A few of my projects..

« on: October 07, 2012, 05:36:03 AM »

They are loading here but very slow.

Brett

1820

General Mach Discussion / Re: Dual home/limit switches, how to setup?

« on: October 07, 2012, 05:31:08 AM »

Dual switches arent necessary with Mach.  Most industrial machines work a little different than Mach.  They usually have a slowdown switch and an emergency stop switch.  Their homeing routine is they will travel in the home direction and once they see the slowdown switch they will slow down and begin looking for an index pulse from the encoder. Once it sees the index pulse it will travel a set distance (adjustable by a parameter) and when it reaces that point declare it homed.  The estop switch is incase there is an overshoot for some reason. If the axis activates the estop then it puts the machine in Emergency stop state.  Mach's homing routine is this.  When you refrence an axis it will travel in the home direction untill it sees your limit switch and stop.  It will then go in the direction opposite of home a set distance to clear the now active switch and declare that home position.  In homing and limits there are settings you can use to adjust the homing speed, slow down distance (slow zone, how far from where it thinks the home position is that it goes to speed set in homing and limits) to get pretty accurate results with not so good hardware.  You might be able to set yours up like this.  Run your signal form your rough home position switch to your fine switch as the supply and then use the signal from your fine switch to mach as the home signal.

Brett