Messages

1

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / MAch3 Add-on 'WRITE'

« on: June 20, 2016, 09:56:26 PM »

Does anyone know how to 1) center the text's words length-wise in WRITE (since only the letter's height is given)
2) tool assignment is 0,1,2,3...etc. How does one assign a tools diameter to these numbers?-Keith

2

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Pecking

« on: January 14, 2015, 08:46:17 AM »

Thanks, that 'puts a face on' what I was missing. I'll experiment with these ideas.-Keith

3

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Pecking

« on: January 13, 2015, 08:59:39 PM »

I was going quite slowly because I thought a high speed would melt the polycarbonate. So then what about a 'feed' on this; fast as well?

4

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Pecking

« on: January 13, 2015, 05:56:06 PM »

I'm having a bit of a problem peck milling. I've had recent success with some relatively larger hole. This time around, I'm drilling down .375" into a .0555 diameter piece of polycarbonate with a .031" drill (of high quality). I'm using the longer retract method. The hole comes through okay (the fixturing is a bear) but the inside walls seem to have a spiral cut into them looking a lot like the spiral of the drill bit (but probably just an artifact of whatever is not right).
Any suggestions are appreciated. I read some where this might be an anomaly of not enough dwell at the end of a peck and then rapid-ing above the last height.-Keith

5

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Partial Circular Pocket

« on: October 25, 2014, 01:33:06 PM »

Yeah John, I agree I should buy those wizards. Just seems each week I'm buying something new in milling or electronics (just updated my compiler for $75).

I wound up drawing it in Rhino and used CamBam to generate the code. Came out pretty nicely and for it's size and function, may have been unnecessary but I learned something.

Interestingly, CamBam has something called 'Island Detection' in pocketing which I assume is what I wanted to do/use. Haven't figured out how that works yet but looks interesting.-Keith

6

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Partial Circular Pocket

« on: October 24, 2014, 08:04:22 AM »

Thanks John but I don't have a license for the New Fangled Wizards, just the wizards that came with Mach3 and the circle cut in the regular wizards just allows for the .000 place.
I might be able to draw it as a .dxf file but LazyCam crashes my machine; have never found a solution to that.-Keith

7

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Partial Circular Pocket

« on: October 23, 2014, 08:38:21 AM »

Need some help writing some g-code. Want to do an abbreviated circular pocket. This is to say, the center of the pocket is a circular cut leaving material within the center. Cutting outwards from this area is a spiral cut that forms the pocket.
My center is X.7376", Y is -.9757". The Z I may have only one depth because it is quite small.
Center circular material's diameter that is left after cut, is .0394
Final circular pocket diameter around the center material is .4743"
I could do it with concentric cuts but prefer the finish of the spiral cut.
I would like the two types of cuts to be one fluid motion (coming off the center circle and continuing into the spiral).
Something like the attached drawing.-Keith

8

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Arc Wizard

« on: September 29, 2014, 05:47:51 PM »

Can anyone explain the arc wizard by Brian Barker to me. I've attached a .dxf file (and yes, I know I could use that to do the cut but since lazy cam freezes my machine...) and the arcs I want to make are in 'red'. If you could use these arcs and apply it to the qualities needed to be filled in on the arc wizard window, I think I can then make sense of it.

The cut is centered between two other arcs (in black) and I'll be using a .0625" mill end which will cut past those black arcs outside the red ones.
Thanks, Keith

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is it Backlash...still?

« on: September 21, 2014, 09:18:10 AM »

Okay, this is embarassing. Spindle was fine. But I watched the cut carefully this time and when it got to the spot in question, it was a very apparent 'leap' (at least to my eye). Too weird to even be backlash (although it technically was a form in effect). Then it hit me; during the period that the mill was really funky (particularly the X axis) I had to seriously do some work on a part and I was trying everything to compensate for the mill's problems. I wound up using 'backlash compensation' in Mach 3 and forgot to turn it off. The X axis had a relatively high number in there to do the correction.
So I turned off backlash and have a very nice circle without the artifacts. I must say though that Mach's backlash compensation does work very well and did what it was told.
Thanks again for looking at my problem.-Keith

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Is it Backlash...still?

« on: September 21, 2014, 08:01:35 AM »

Thanks Jim. I hadn't thought about the spindle but there is certainly a possibility of this since earlier on, I had taken it apart and possibly hadn't put enough pre-load on the bearings. I'll put the indicator on it today and report back.-Keith