Messages

621

VB and the development of wizards / Re: CNC Grinder Wizard /Screenset

« on: June 28, 2012, 09:22:49 AM »

BR,

Are you programming for a client or is this your own conversion? If the latter, how are you driving the table? I will be building a surface grinder hopefully sometime later this year and would appreciate any tips and tricks.

It appears you have a feed rate of 10. Just from observation, it seems to me the automatic surface grinders move a lot faster than that. Again IF you did this conversion, what was your max table speed target?

622

VB and the development of wizards / Re: PeriodicScripts - - - do these work? No luck here.

« on: June 28, 2012, 09:06:01 AM »

BR,

THANKS very much!  You are most helpful and right on the money . . as usual.

Additional detail; the calling macro still has to be with it's buddies in macro land.  I had already tried a qualified name a couple of different ways and that is still not working. That was obviously the problem because when I put the script under \Mach3 all is well.     I'm on Win7 64bit so that may be a factor.

For inquiring minds, the application here is to monitor Mach for any A axis moves and take action if the 4th axis is either disabled or not in index mode. If there is no program running, the operator just gest a warning. If there is a program running, it is stopped and the operator then gets a message. Working nicely now and after it is debugged and reliable, I will expand it to cover the servo controlled spindle as well.

623

VB and the development of wizards / PeriodicScripts - - - do these work? No luck here.

« on: June 27, 2012, 05:32:44 PM »

Title says it all. Programmers manual shows start, stop and Is. Nothing seems to work for me.

624

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Success! Mini Machining Center under Mach3 control - Video link

« on: June 23, 2012, 05:12:29 AM »

HARD TAPPING!!    Finally, I got some time together and added the last few parts to convert the mill spindle to full servo power. this opens up a lot of possibilities, but for now, I am basking in the hard tapping capability. I despise tapping. I have TapMatic heads, and Custom made floating tap holders and a reversing manual speed control on the mill spindle . .  which makes thing go faster and with a lot less effort, but it still requires an operator full time to . . operate.

No more . . .    This video is a 'by request' to overview the concept of parametrics, but the new servo driven spindle is the perfect vehicle to demonstrate some basic functions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu61oBY5-rw

625

General Mach Discussion / Re: IF you could add new Gcode functions to Mach3 what would you want?

« on: June 21, 2012, 10:46:14 PM »

g0 x1 y0
g83 z-1 q1 r1
This does not *always* do the same thing as
g0 x1 y0
g83 x1 y0 z-1 q1 r1
That is, omitting the X & Y in the g83 sometimes gets Mach 3 very confused, and the holes are put in different places.

That is good info to have since I do this all the time . . if I am using G83 at all. To comment on your earlier observation, note that modal means 'on till turned off' so inserting another 'G' command (G0 in this case) within a modal frame is probably asking for trouble. Try the code that you said you have never tried as that should work fine for you.

Another option is to not use G83 at all and instead substitute a parametric macro. It may seem odd to replace what is essentially a macro (G83) with another macro, but you can do a lot more with it.

I have been asked about parametric programming a lot and I finally posted a video on that topic and it happens to use G83 as the 'whipping boy'. The video contains links to the actual parametric macros and the G-code that calls them so that interested persons can noodle over them and figure out what is actually going on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu61oBY5-rw

626

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Success! Mini Machining Center under Mach3 control - Video link

« on: June 21, 2012, 10:31:38 PM »

I *think* you are talking about the sensor?

If so, then I think a description of how it works is better than a simple 'hook wire A to terminal B' type of answer.

These type of sensors are quite simple. They work by shining a light at a photosensitive 'receiver', which is just a switch that turns on when you shine a light on it.  Note that the light is in a range not visible to humans.

The light source is on one side and the 'switch' on the other side. Between those goes your shutter wheel, a tab on your mill table. etc. This breaks the bean and turns off the switch. When you remove the obstruction, be it a tab attached to your table or a hole or slot in a shutter wheel, then the light reaches the switch and it turns on. That's all there is to it.

So you have a power and ground on the light source side (sometimes, but not always red and black). You have to obey the rules on this as you would with any other LED. You MUST restrict the current to a level that is tollerated by the LED or you will burn it out. In the case of the referenced sensor, if you feed it with 5V, then you need between 100 and 150 ohms resistor in the wire to 'slow down' the juice to a level that keeps the LED healthy. This resistor can be anywhere  in either the positive or negative wire and the value is not super critical.

The receiver side has sometimes (but not always) a green and a white wire. Since the device burried in the sensor and attached to these wires is just a switch, you don't need to be so careful. If you are only feedijg a pin on a BOB, just do not exceed the sensor's volatge spec and you are pretty much golden. The switch does have polarity, meaning that the power will only flow in one direction, so if you get it hooked up backwards, it won't work. Good news is it probably won't be damaged so just reverse the wires.

TIP: with the light side powered up and no obstruction, the switch should be ON. You can check this with an ohmmeter, continuty tester, etc. Put the probes on each way and you will get continuity  in one direction and not the other so you will be able to see which way to hook it up. A catalog cut (spec sheet, data sheet, etc) also will define which wires are for what purpose.

Hope this helps.

627

General Mach Discussion / Re: A Power Drawbar Like No Other....

« on: May 18, 2012, 11:09:06 AM »

Nice job on your PDB, Ray. Will have my furnace next week. Need to do more homework to decide between ball type catch or the 'finger' collet to grab that little BT30. Not looking forward to cutting tool steel again.

Total agreement here with both Himmy and BR assessments of TTS.

Since full agreement does not make for a particularly intersting discussion, I'll go earn a living now.

Nice chatting with all of you again.

- Steve

628

General Mach Discussion / Re: A Power Drawbar Like No Other....

« on: May 18, 2012, 09:41:13 AM »

ON the important stuf you preset the bolt with a torque wrench to a low point just to take up the slack. Then rotate the bolts a set DEG of rotation until you have turn the bolt the Prescribed amount. Rods Mains Heads are the important stuf(;-)

That is a great technique to use if you have the stretch spec and do not have access to both ends of the bolt.

YES friction is what holds the R8 holder in place.

It's biggest drawback, methinks. Same goes for Tormach's setup. They are short and ATC-able, the newer ones have a groove for holding on to them, but still rely on friction . . . and are even worse in that regard than R8. . . . . probably going to hear from Ray on that comment 

629

General Mach Discussion / Re: A Power Drawbar Like No Other....

« on: May 18, 2012, 09:08:27 AM »

Steve here is the original You TUbe that started it all(;-). Dave Dec is a sharp cookie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2PWuqgviS8&feature=relmfu

He went on to produce his OWN new version of a scratch built Mini CNC machine center the UMC10

Thanks for that link!  As soon as he said the word 'prototype' I understood why modify the holders instead of the spindle. I will check out his other vids when I get a chance.

Very nice machine, I must say. Of the pieces of the puzzle, I have the BT30 spindle, the multi piston Pneumatic cylinder, The wrong Bellevilles (they are sized for R8 . .  way too big), and most importantly, as repeated numerous times by Dave, indexing on the spindle.

My spindle is a big DC servo motor and I have on my desk the newest member of Copley's AccelNet drive series. Jumping up from a 10A PWM to this 30A servo drive will be quite a nice change. Hard tapping, here I come!

Now for the problem child; the drawbar collet . . .  last night I purchased a furnace to do my own heat treating again. Lots of new possibilities open up . . . including making my own 4th axis spindles . . 

The last piece of the puzzle will be the hardest one to find . . . .time. 

630

General Mach Discussion / Re: A Power Drawbar Like No Other....

« on: May 18, 2012, 08:50:23 AM »

"Torque is not an accurate way to determene the amount of stretch. Yes it acan get you into the ballpark(;-)"

We don't agree completely on how to get here, but in this statement, we agree completely. In my youth, I raced. Part of racing is building motors. Rod bolts are arguably THE most critical fastener on the motor and while most people (as well as all OEM) are satisfied with using a torque wrench, they do not work well with UBER strength bolts form ARP or equiv (if I remeber that brand correctly). We used a stretch gage to measure the actual stretch on the bolt. Still using a torque wrench (the old beam type), to turn the nuts, you could still see the torque being applied when you reached the correct stretch. THat will make a beliver out of the worst skeptic (usually I fill that role :-)) However, a lot of rods used cap screws, so it was back to the trusty torque wrench for that. 

OK, enough remenising, back to the debate; I get the part about holding on to a cutter with a collet vs holder, but you ahve not addresssed my comment on transferring the torque from the spindle to the taper, which is done by friction alone on R8 . .  as to the pin? Don't even go there. Many people remove it.

One more comment and I'll leave you alone. It seems curious that one would re-grind every CAT holder instead of regrinding the spindle? Perhaps that will come clear when I get the link. I reground my R8 spindle to BT30 no sweat . .  in fact it is due for a touch up.