Messages

11

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to get hold of anyone at Newfangled solutions ? ? ?

« on: September 25, 2012, 10:55:13 AM »

If you go to the main page of the forum there is a catagory way down at the bottom entitiled "phone support". Also on the Yahoo forum I saw Brian Barker posting that he has been having some trouble connecting but that he was ready to assist via PM or other offline contact/e-mail. Not sure this forum could assist you but there's some really smart players here always willing to try. Lay it down amigo.

Robert

12

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cutting Fluid for Aluminum

« on: September 24, 2012, 02:20:22 PM »

The only downside/s to a vegatable product might be its cooling properties/ its capacity to carry heat away, its ability to reduce friction and the need for a biocide so you don't get growth. Other than that I think it would work OK. Not a big investment so give it a test. Your machine might smell like fry fries however, lol.

Robert

13

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cutting Fluid for Aluminum

« on: September 24, 2012, 10:42:32 AM »

Not sure this one is placed right but a good discussion topic just the same. I think 10 guys will give you 10 differeent answers as this is generally a trial and error process that you can take some suggestions and come to your own conclusions once you play around with some products.

First ask yourself do I want to squirt (bottle method), flood (pump) or mist (air & coolant mixed) the coolant onto the tool. The fact that you know your cutting aluminum helps narrow things down a bit. I have been partial to the Tap Magic products for the squirt method. They have different fluids for different metals. Do some searches here, the "CNC Zone" and some vendors like Enco and MSC. You find plenty of info to guide you along. One thing I noticed with a flood, snythetic water soluable from Enco is that it worked fine but its kind of sticky. When then machine sat afterward I had to oil things up a bit. Corrosion resistance was fine I was alittle put off by the sticky property. Maybe my ratio of water to fluid was off. Its a blue looking liquid. May do better with a water/oil mix.

Robert

14

Tangent Corner / A call to all "San Mach Diegans"

« on: September 23, 2012, 11:01:23 AM »

Wondering who else is in the San Diego, Orange County, Tijuana or even LA area that plays with Mach or any aspects of DIY CNC machines. The forum is awsome, able to reach our and touch somebody half way around the world but it would be nice to interface with some local gear heads that are into this stuff. Anyone ineterested hit my PM box or e-mail which is listed in my profile. Maybe we could sample some suds after working off course. Safety third.

Regards,
Robert

15

Tangent Corner / Re: F1gur471v3ly 5p34k1ng?

« on: September 22, 2012, 01:26:05 PM »

When I first saw the title I thoughTweak had missed his meds. Then when I realized I could read it, it reminded me to go take my blood pressure pill.

Strange but fun,
Robert

16

General Mach Discussion / Re: Totally lost

« on: September 22, 2012, 12:46:17 PM »

That is strange. I had a program loaded in lathe that refused to see the last line with M30. When I opened the editor (notepad) the M30 was scripted but when I hit save changes the Gcode display on the Mach screen in lathe did not show the line at all...basically not showing??? Could only get back to top of program by hitting rewind. Can you do a "start from here" if you move to another line or is it just stuck until you reload/re-start from scratch?

Seems like the second time you advised me to hit return...I must be alittle slow on that concept lol. Tanks

You must hit RETURN after the M30 while in the editor.
Many folks put a % on the following line to be assured.

17

General Mach Discussion / Re: burned a servo

« on: September 22, 2012, 12:38:11 PM »

FIXED!

I reversed polarity on servo motor... go figure

Good job, I am happy for you. You did admit in the beginning that you were electrically challenged, lol.

The manual tells no lies brother:

6) The motor is wired backwards, is broken or disconnected. It's new but could plus be reversed with minus on motor end?

Rob

18

General Mach Discussion / Re: Totally lost

« on: September 21, 2012, 05:54:23 PM »

That is strange. I had a program loaded in lathe that refused to see the last line with M30. When I opened the editor (notepad) the M30 was scripted but when I hit save changes the Gcode display on the Mach screen in lathe did not show the line at all...basically not showing??? Could only get back to top of program by hitting rewind. Can you do a "start from here" if you move to another line or is it just stuck until you reload/re-start from scratch?

19

General Mach Discussion / Re: burned a servo

« on: September 20, 2012, 05:00:17 PM »

there's a limit pot that you turn on the Gecko drive. The Gecko isn't allowing me to turn up this pot switch enough to allow the servo to move the Z axis, the limit controls the voltage and or amps going to the servo. Even at rest if I turn the pot switch up past about 30% A fault light comes on the Gecko.

Not changing any settings in Mach at all.

Stupid question...but you first turn the unit on it's stable then you increase the current limit to ~ 30% and fault comes on right? What happens if you leave the pot lower than 30%? Will the motor turn in jog? According to the manual (item # 4) the fault should light with too low of a pot setting... not higher. It sounds like its working backwards. It's like you should have the pot set up higher before you power up. Reaching a bit but a thought to consider.

20

General Mach Discussion / Re: burned a servo

« on: September 20, 2012, 11:09:28 AM »

I would take Hood's advice. It's just one more step in the elimination process, it might lead you to solve the problem. He has an end game...your checking pins from X versus Z I take it.

Otherwise go back to the manual and the conditions for a fault:

Are you exceeding 20 amps, basic overcurrent? You'll need to measure somehow.

Is POSITION ERROR exceeding +/- 128 counts causing a break of the servo-lock. If so;

Conditions 1-3 are generally during a run so disregard for now

4) The current LIMIT is set too low. Not sure where your at with this?

5) The power supply current is insufficient for the demand. Don't think so your not moving yet but only drawing holding current

6) The motor is wired backwards, is broken or disconnected. It's new but could plus be reversed with minus on motor end?

7) Encoder failure. Most proable but you say you eliminated this with replacement known to be good?

The troubling part is that the fault should only come on for one of the above conditions so you have to figure out which one it is. If you lift the encoder wires power off does the fualt stay on?