Topics

41

Tangent Corner / Does CNC Zone really exist?

« on: November 29, 2009, 10:13:04 AM »

Apparently I must have pissed off someone there as they wont send me an activation letter. I have tried thru all 3 of my email addresses and nobody ever reponds. I did get a username and password, both of which are recognized but wont let me post. The site always refers to an activation letter that is never sent. I am not the only 1 with the problem judging from the fact that they have at least 1 thread stickied to the top of the forum about how to enter. I never have problems on the other sites, everyone elses activation letters got/get thru fine. Are any of you active there?

42

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Shuttle Pro 2 is excellent

« on: November 22, 2009, 09:16:41 PM »

I had a joystick that I was trying to use and though it was ok, but that is about it. I do think my joystick was defective as it would not be very strong/fast on 1 axis and lose movement momentarily. I never liked the look of the shuttle pro but I bought 1 today  and all I can say is WOW! Easy to set up, plenty of options for the hobbyist at least and gives me the ability to jog as fast or slow up to the part with incredible precision. Program a button for the jog cycle increments and you can theoretically control down to .0001 with the inner dial. I get set up almost fast now of course I still screw up and throw the part out but that is a different set of problems. Get the probing plugin fixed and I will really be in heaven! BTW I am able to control 4 axis now (and that is all I have) and maybe up to five? Not 2 as with the joystick.

43

General Mach Discussion / S word?

« on: November 21, 2009, 06:43:13 PM »

I drew a piece in BobCad got the toolpath, loaded it into Mach and it wont run due to no S word on line #etc. It is a turning specific nc code I think. I am tired of the wizards, it is time for more. Help

44

General Mach Discussion / Probing plugin not wizard?

« on: November 11, 2009, 05:07:28 PM »

Where is it? I updated Mach to the latest rev .032 and expected to see the plugin on the top of the mach screen but it isnt there. The probing wizard by Art is there. Is the plug in still available? It had features like center finding. I am not sure if it all worked as I do remember a dialog box that would never close "prev seq not complete etc. Anyone famiiar with it?

45

General Mach Discussion / Sherline cnc rotary table

« on: November 10, 2009, 08:14:00 PM »

After much playing around and reading about how to configure the rotary table
stepper combo nothing was really clear. My experiences with the 23-305-DS8A and
a Sherline cnc ready rotary table with a 72:1 ratio are as follows. Steps per ?
I wanted per degree so after 400 steps per rev X 72 rpms of the rotary's shaft =
28800/360= 80 steps per degree. I see no difference whether dia. is checked or
not. Velocity is at 806.4 and accleration is at 407.8125. All is spinning anyway
at a speed faster than I can really use while cutting. If I hit G0 A90 she does
90 degrees. I cant figure feedrates yet as this must be dependent on diameter of
the part I am cutting, right? Anyway any tips would be greatly appreciated. BTW
I could never get my vref over .21 (should be .294vdc I think @70% of .42 volts)
on the a axis? Seems to work well though. Does this sound like the right way to go?

46

General Mach Discussion / Nested comments?

« on: November 01, 2009, 05:09:35 PM »

I drew a part on bobcad, assigned and verified the tool path there and all looked correct. Then when I try to run it on Mach it stops and says "Nested comment found line 9". Isnt line 9 specified as N09? If so all I can see that it says is "N09 Z.1. I cant seem to get it to run from any line. Trying to simulate it on the screen before I turn on the controller.

47

General Mach Discussion / Kirans Wizard

« on: October 23, 2009, 12:58:59 PM »

Last night after finding out my NFS wizards were unlicensed. I tried Kirans cicle cutting wizard. Everthing was going as planned (.250 2f.e.m., circle diameter 2.255, and .43 depth from Z0). I watched for many passes and then for no reason, machine was untouched, I had restarted mach fresh and only configured this wizard once for this hole/circle, and the cutter starts going across the inside of the circle (a previously uncut area). Is this normal? I checked my cv, it was on. It is abs in mode not inc. I noticed prior to this if I played with wizards a few times and loaded and removed gcodes without starting mach fresh, it seemed to have random  things happen, unexplained. This was all with air cuts. I thought I had associated it with not reopening mach fresh as that had corrected the cuts prior to this. Any ideas?

48

General Mach Discussion / Licensing issues

« on: October 23, 2009, 12:42:02 PM »

 
I cant figure it out. Last week I crash my computer in my garage ( the one that runs my baby mill and lathe). I purchase and install xp pro and reconfigure and reinstall the license from Mach rebuld xml's that I hadnt backed up etc. Everything is fine. Last night I try to run a NFS wizard, says I am unlicensed. I swear I had used that wizard before. I purchase license ( I cant find any record of an earlier purchase, not trying to dispute purchase either) and try to install the license. I have to load it onto a thumb drive for transfer. I simply copy it and paste it into my thumb drive. If I look at this file in my vista machine it shows as a DAT file (well it did before I? More on that in a minute). In my Xp machine it shows it as a media file? SO, I try to change what it opens with. I look at properties of the license while it is on my Vista machine and it says it opens with "Windows Shell Comm" and that is all I can read. Of course if I select "browse" to try to select something else or to identify the full name of what it opens with, Adobe 8.1 is highlighted (though it isnt what is used, I dont think). Somehow while trying to find what it opens with I have reselected what all of my mach related licenses open with. Now instead of saying DAT file if I scroll over the folder it shows adobe! All I really want to do is cut metal! Not F&*^ with bs computer stuff. Thanks for any tips, as long as it doesnt suggest a new hobby. Right when I am making progress on the machining computer issues move in. Obama promised change, is that what he meant?

49

General Mach Discussion / Where did I go wrong?

« on: October 21, 2009, 11:43:32 PM »

M3
G0 Z1
G0 X0 Y0
M98 P0001 L86
G1 X0 Y-1.4480 F5
G1 Z0 F5
G1 X7.4155 F5
G1 Y-4.537 F5
M30
O0001
G0 Z#100 F5
#100=[#100+.005]
G1 Z#100 F5
G1 X0 Y-1.453 F5
G1 X7.4405 F5
G1 Y-4.537 F5
M99
M30
%

I ran this code (something I have been screwing up). It did everything according to the plan until the 42nd time around and the z didnt lift when it was returning to its start point. I think it was going to start a finish pass sequence but I am not sure. I then wrote another program that worked well except I thought it was only cycling 41 times but apparently I am looking at the wrong thing?

%
M3
G0 Z1
G0 X9 Y-3.05
M98 P0001 L41     ( I thought this L41 meant 41 loops does it not?)
G1 X9 y-3 F16
G1 X7.625 F16
G1 Y-1.10 F16
G1 X0 F16
M30
o00001
G0 Z1
G0 X9 Y-3.05
G0 Z#100 F16
#100=[#100-.01]
G1 Z#100 F16
G1 X7.625
G1 Y-1.10
G1 X0
M99
M30
%

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I am getting closer!

50

General Mach Discussion / Gcode questions pt2

« on: October 16, 2009, 08:57:38 AM »

I have a small aluminum L shaped piece. Imagine a capital L.
The longest side is 8.75"
The bottom is 4.25"
The inside cut of the upright is 7.5"
The upper side of the bottom is 2.75"
I would only like to cut the X sides 7.5" length in incremements of say .005 (it is a Sherline, I need to be cautious)
I would also like to cut the Y sides 2.75" the same amount til a 1/4" is removed, 50 passes?
Can both sides be cut in 1 pass? I do this thru the MDI with a calculator, its tedious and there has got to be a better way. I have never written anything but single lines.
So if I started the part cutting on x0 y0 with the z side milling only
Surface of part is z-3 as z home is at top of mill column.
Part is 1/2" thick
%
G00 X0 Y0 Z-2.95
G01 Z-3.30 F5
G17 X7.5 Y2.8 ? How do I get incrememntal cuts M98? P? L50? I would love to see a few steps done automatically. Thanks
Nobody has any advice?