Messages

51

General Mach Discussion / Re: Probe Wizard

« on: August 08, 2009, 12:21:05 PM »

Okay. All is good and working. Thanks for all your help. I notice that the wizard does not 'save' the parameters once you exit. Each time I go back to the page, there is a group of 'default'(numbers, in the boxes. I also evry once in a while get an error where the script page comes up and the error is always the last line: 'Call load teach file ( )'.
I am now going to try the 'probe plug-in'. I will start another thread for this since the plug-in loads, but I understand you need to enable it and in config, I have no line for 'enable plug-ins' which I see in the manual. -Keith

52

General Mach Discussion / Probe Wizard

« on: August 07, 2009, 02:23:24 PM »

I have finally gotten around to experimenting with a digitizing probe. I have it set up on my machine as I type this. I thought I'd start with the digitizing wizard. Pulled that up and put in some rather small numbers,just to see what I'd get in code. I must say I am a little shaky about how this works but this is what I'm assuming: if I put in a higher 'travel height' and a zero height for 'probe depth' I figure I should be pretty safe from crashing the tip of the probe, or at least that's the way I see it (height would be the highest it goes and depth would be at zero). So anyway, I put in a very small height of .5 as I did on the x and y area (.5 as well) and a larger stepover for x and y (.01).
So when I look at the code, I'm getting numbers like Z-6.**. Any suggestions. I'm not turning it on for real until I'm pretty sure I have this so I don't kill the probe. Thanks,Keith

53

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Deconstructing Machs Wizards

« on: June 03, 2009, 11:06:39 AM »

Hi, I often use the wizards in Mach3 to arrive at a group of final cuts that assemble to be the object I'm attempting to accomplish. Sometimes I take the rectangular ,pocket cutting wizard by Kiran and Brian and eliminate all cuts but the last (or a few of the last,when I'm trying to eliminate a radius) to create an 'outside' cut, single rectangle. It saves me a lot of time calculating the moves and typing in the code. I have tried to do this and continue the rectangle outwardly to create an area of a rectangle uncut with and outside to this rectangle  that is a continuation to a larger rectangle that is cut. In other words,I am attempting to predict this outside cut rectangle of a desired size to a  desired sized rectangle of a larger size than the outside of the first outer cut. I've tried to calculate this for odd sized X and Y rectangles and I can never come up with exact numbers. Any ideas on this short-cut I'm attempting?
I'd love to be able to do this with circular pockets as well and could start the origin of the outside cut with a plain old circle (since beginning a normal circular pocket contains a spiral move). Thanks for any help,Keith

54

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: I guess this is somewhat of a general milling question

« on: May 19, 2008, 06:37:31 PM »

Nice. Thanks Rich!

55

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: I guess this is somewhat of a general milling question

« on: May 19, 2008, 06:05:38 PM »

Thanks Rich. Yes,that's it. I just wanted to be able to derive that .0183" in the case of the .125" cutter for different size cutters,using an equation,since I come across this a lot.-Keith

56

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / I guess this is somewhat of a general milling question

« on: May 19, 2008, 03:08:03 PM »

I hope this won't be taken as too far off forum/topic but I was wondering if someone could tell me how to calculate a radius in a rectangle's corner to accommodate the true .assigned,rectangles corner.(e.g.-you've got a 3"X4" rectangular pocket that you want to fit something 3"X4" in. You use a 1/8" cutter which creates a radius. How much extra,(understanding there will be some slop in the actual length and width of the desired rectangle)compensation of the width and length necessary to get the corners of the rectangle to fit in this pocket as closely as possible. Thanks,Keith

57

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: PCB's with Mach

« on: January 30, 2008, 06:44:53 PM »

The line width is on the order of .01(which is around the size of the reciever and tssop micro's leads) since I can't exactly control the results given a little slop in my Z.
I make a pocket in some expanded PVC to the exact dimensions of the board and then flip. I usually do my drilling on the first side and it lines up pretty darn close to where it's suppose to be on the other side

58

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: PCB's with Mach

« on: January 30, 2008, 04:57:38 PM »

How small can it go!!! Yup,that's a dime in the photo.I used a Sherline and pcb-gcode and Mach3 and built this tiny bluetooth type transmitter/receiver pair. Cutter was 45 degree,conical. Some of that soldering was hairy. Just showing that we can make anything and encouraging pcb'ers to go crazy! Check out the surface mount antenna.

59

Competitions / Re: ******Guess and win a G100 Grex******

« on: May 22, 2007, 08:53:27 AM »

That's easy; exactly 2,500,000 chips. How do I know,well I wrote a little macro and I no longer designate a design for a part,I just designate how many chips I want. So I kept adding chips starting at '1' chip(I should have known there was more than one) and all of a sudden I was up to 2.5 million and the part looked exactly like the one in the photo.So,I'm right.-Keith

60

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

« on: January 12, 2007, 03:56:00 PM »

The old 'return' after the last line,gets me one more time. Thanks,that works.-Keith