Topics

1

General Mach Discussion / Needing Help!

« on: June 21, 2014, 12:12:54 AM »

I just finished building a new CNC Router and have everything running on Mach 3 with no problems. I'm looking to add a plug-in device to my machine so that I can control movement in all directions in .001 increments for final set-ups.

What are people using to accomplish this task?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreicated.

Chuck

2

General Mach Discussion / CNC Router Down!! Need Help!!

« on: January 29, 2010, 07:51:22 PM »

  Hey Guys,

Well I finally found out what the "Stalling/Jerking" was on my "Y" axis stepper motors.  I went out to the shop this afternoon to start running some parts.  I ran the gantry back and forth on the Y axis to see if it would stall/jerk and of course about 3 feet into the move and it jerked.  I continued to run it and I noticed a noise coming from the stepper motor above my control box on the left side.  The cover just happened to be off and I noticed something on the large nylon gear that mates with the stepper motor.

There are teeth missing and other teeth worn down in some areas.  You can see that the stepper motor was installed at a slight angle and caused the nylon gear to ware.  I took everything apart and I have the gear off.

I've e-mailed and phoned the factory, but no response yet.  Where can I find replacement parts if the factory doesn't help?  I will take some pictures and attach them a little later.

Chuck

3

General Mach Discussion / Stepper Motor Question

« on: January 25, 2010, 08:39:42 PM »

  Do stepper motors react to different temperature changes?

I have a Vortech Router with a 5'x 10' table and a 6hp motor.  The X & Y axis are controlled by stepper motors that run on rack and pinion. The Z axis is controlled with a stepper motor on a ballscrew.  Mach 3 controls the machine and I use V-Carve software for creating my G-codes.

Currently my machine is set-up in my garage awaiting the new shop to be completed.  I am heating the garage with a space heater (50 to 60 degrees) so that the water cooled spindle does not freeze.  The stepper motors on the Y axis seem to stall and lose their postion.  I have already lowered the acceleration/velocity as suggested by a friend who has the same machine.  This seemed to work fine for a while.

Then the other night I cut out some parts for a hobby cradle I designed.  Everything was going fine then it did it again.  3/4 the way through the program the Y axis stalled for a split second and ruined 3 of my parts.  When the program ended it returned to home, but of course the Y axis was out of position.

I'm not sure what is happening.  Can anyone help.

Thank Chuck  

4

General Mach Discussion / New Problem, Machine Not Cutting Square

« on: March 29, 2009, 08:27:55 PM »

 ???Hey Guys,

Everything has been going well until the other day.  I was cutting curved stair tread parts for a friend from a set of CAD drawings he imported to me.  The machine ran great and the parts came out OK.  Then I cut a 12” circle out of solid Walnut, again everything seemed to be OK.

A little later he brought the 12” circle back with one he had cut on another machine.  Everything matched perfectly except a portion that was about 1/32 larger.  Then we rechecked the curved stair tread parts.  They also measured about 1/32 longer then the dimensions from the CAD drawing and that was on a 9’ part.

I decided to cut out some 4” squares to see what was happening.  The first couple of squares showed the “X” axis as cutting bigger then the “Y”.  I adjusted the motor tuning a little for the “X” and cut some more blocks.  The blocks are now cutting within .001 to .002 from side to side which I consider every good and within the manufacturers specifications, but the problem comes when I check the block for squareness.   The block measures 5.639 in one direction and 5.659 in the other direction.  That’s a total of .020 or .010 out of square.

I’m not sure what to do now.  I haven’t cut anymore parts yet or any parts larger then 4” to see if this problem grows bigger with bigger parts or stays like it is.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Chuck
Coeur d’ Alene Cabinetry

5

General Mach Discussion / Need Help with Machine Jumping

« on: January 22, 2009, 08:57:51 PM »

 :-\Need some Help here Guys,

I'm trying to cut my first sign using VCarve Pro design software. I spent most of the day cutting parts and decided to make a sign.  I can load the program into Mach3 with no problems.

The problem comes when I press the start button.  The machine starts running per the program, but instead of running smoothly, it jumps.  As it runs the status block reads,"Too Fast for Pulley, Using Max.".  I'm not sure what this means, because I can adjust the feed rate and nothing changes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Chuck

6

General Mach Discussion / New to Site with Machine Questions

« on: January 06, 2009, 01:57:27 PM »

 :)Hi, my name is Chuck and I'm the owner of Coeur d'Alene Cabinetry in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho.  To enhance my business I purchased a 5'x 10' Vortech Router about 4 months ago.  I'm currently going back through the Mach3 software documentation to make sure I have everything set up correctly.  The original set-up information just doesn't seam right compared to what I'm reading and watching in the tutorials.  I have several years of experience in CNC machines, I spent 18 years in the Navy Nuclear industry as a machinist, tool designer, and supervisor.

I have a few questions about settings:
1st, How can I assign Motor Outputs for the spindle control if they were not supplied by the original vendor?
2nd, I programed a layout for a series of counter sunk holes to hold down my spoil board to the hold down table. I did a test run and everytime the "Z" axis went up and down it actually kept going deeper and deeper in depth.  Fortunately, I caught the problem and stopped it before it went through the entire table. I posted this question on the Vectic Software site and a gentleman from England suggested I decrease the acceleration speed, but the whole Motor tuning thing is confusing.  It took me over 3 hours the other day to calibrate the correct "Step per" calculation to get the "X" and "Y" to move the proper distance.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Chuck