Messages

571

General Mach Discussion / Re: Well..... That Was Weird....

« on: July 23, 2011, 09:44:27 PM »

Terry,

Actually, with EMC, I don't think speed would be an issue, and that was the primary reason for getting the SmoothStepper for Mach3.  I"m going to give EMC a try tomorrow - the CD is burning as we speak....

Regards,
Ray L.

572

General Mach Discussion / Re: Well..... That Was Weird....

« on: July 23, 2011, 08:09:53 PM »

Ray just do it and never look back you will be a happy CNCer again. It is not the prettiest girl in town but by FAR it is the best cook.
 

(;-) TP

Terry,

My *only* two reservations are I've built a lot of "infrastructure" around Mach (LOTs of custom macros to automate common functions, custom touch-screen screenset, tool-length comp macros using the knee, etc.), and I'd have to give up my SmoothStepper, which means slowing my machine down considerably.   But I am going to give it a try.

Regards,
Ray L.

573

General Mach Discussion / Re: Well..... That Was Weird....

« on: July 23, 2011, 04:46:11 PM »

Ray Now you know why my Mill lives on the Dark Side . 2+ years now and not even the first broken drill bit. It runs faultless and perfect every day and it is still on the same computer that I ran Mach3 on so that ruled out the Hardware from end to end. It is a software problem.

Been there done that one for years, (;-) TP

Terry,

But I haven't touched *anything* in the controller in 2.5 years, since I first built it....  I just swapped out the SmoothStepper, and it seems to be acting better now (hardly perfect, but better...) - at least I managed to get the parts made.  Though it did spontaneously FeedHold twice while running the program.  And, at one point it spontaneously re-set the Z DRO, mid-program, causing it to try drill a 1" deep hole 4" deep.  And at one point I set Single-Block mode, hit CycleStart, and it took off running the program, WHILE SingleBlock was blinking!  I really think I'm going to take a look at EMC....

Regards,
Ray L.

574

General Mach Discussion / Re: Well..... That Was Weird....

« on: July 23, 2011, 02:19:34 PM »

I'm learning to hate Mach3 all over again....  When I last used this machine, about 18 months ago, it was working perfectly.  I used it yesterday with no significant problems.  Today.... nothing BUT problems!  When I first turned it on, I could not get continuous jog mode to work correctly - no matter what feedrate or FRO setting I specified, it ran at full G0 speed - 200IPM.  Nothing I did would get it to work.  Neither would it execute MDI moves.  Yet jogging otherwise worked fine.  Exited Mach3, re-started, and now it was working.  Later on, part-way through a program, it was peck-drilling.  After making a plunge, it decided to no longer move the Z axis (quill).  Naturally, this did not do the drill bit a whole lot of good.  Again, I exited, re-started, and picked up where I left off (with a new work-piece, since the first one was now ruined).  The jog problem re-occurred.  Re-booted the whole system, and tried again.  Now Z probing was not working!  The DROs would count, the Z servo would madke an unusual noise, but no servo faults, and the Z axis did not move.  Neither could I execute any MDI moves, again!  Yet I could jog all axes with no problems whatsoever!  Re-booted yet again, things seemed to be working, until late in the program, it decided to stop moving X/Y.  Again, no servo faults, no E-Stops, no indication of any problems.  At one point, I tried to jog X, and it moved Y AND Z instead!  At several points during the day, I found one or more (usually all) DROs totally whacked spontaneously.  In one case, they were reading completely bogus values, UNTIL I did a jog, at which point they all instantly snapped back to the right values!

Some days, it just doesn't pay to go out to the shop at all....

Regards,
Ray L.

575

General Mach Discussion / Well..... That Was Weird....

« on: July 20, 2011, 09:41:19 PM »

Today, I used my mill for the first time since early 2010 - Just making a simple fixture plate of 1/2" 6061.  A tiny bit of milling, and a bunch of drilling.  Halfway through peck drilling one of the holes, Mach3 spontaneously E-Stopped, leaving ALL FOUR DROs completely whacked - miles from their correct positions!  Never seen anything even remotely like that before!  Re-zeroed, and ran the rest of the program with no problems.

Regards,
Ray L.

576

General Mach Discussion / Re: Whose Fault Is ThIs?

« on: July 20, 2011, 11:13:04 AM »

Well....  It no longer affects me.  At the time I was using the knee on my mill as the Z axis.  I've since built a quill drive (and the knee is used only for tool length compensation), so X, Y, and Z now all run with the same velocity and acceleration, so I no longer see this problem.

Regards,
Ray L.

577

General Mach Discussion / Re: Whose Fault Is ThIs?

« on: July 20, 2011, 10:48:48 AM »

Any update on this issue being solved??

AFAIK, it hasn't been touched.

578

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: What The World's Been Waiting For - Yet Another Power Drawbar Design

« on: June 01, 2011, 09:02:49 PM »

I have a partial set of drawings, but they would require some "interpretation" to be intelligible.  The really hard part is containing the bellevilles, and keeping them, and their container, concentric and balanced.  I never did quite accomplish that, which is another reason to abandon that approach.  Honestly, I would look into the stepper/planetary gear solution. I think it's simpler, more flexible, and presents fewer difficult design challenges.

Regards,
Ray L.

579

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: What The World's Been Waiting For - Yet Another Power Drawbar Design

« on: May 31, 2011, 10:11:48 AM »

Sorry to hear this Ray. When I'm using an end mill I typically only take of .030-.040 per pass. After reading through the post it sounds like you possibly taking quite a bit deeper cuts. Would your ATC work with the shallow passes that I'm taking? Thanks again.

Yes, for a small machine, taking light cuts, a great deal less force is required.  1000# is not terribly difficult to achieve, and is adequate for most benchtop-class machines, or light-duty work.  I was doing low-volume production work, so needed to be aggressive to get reasonable throughput - my typical roughing pass is up to 1/2" deep with a 1/2" endmill, so keeping the tool where it belongs is pretty important....

Regards,
Ray L.

580

General Mach Discussion / Re: G31 does nothing???????

« on: May 31, 2011, 12:30:28 AM »

Get a copy of the MachStdMill screen set (http://www.calypsoventures.com/machstdmill/overview.html).   It has every probing operation you'll ever need built in.

Regards,
Ray L.