Messages

631

General Mach Discussion / Re: Reprap 3D printing machines

« on: April 28, 2011, 08:18:05 AM »

You make it all sound so easy, go on and build one - after all, how hard can it be ?

Tweakie.

Not very hard at all it appears. It only took 3-4 engineering students at USC! :-)

632

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: April 26, 2011, 12:31:32 PM »

So is this laser cutting a negative and positive and you are switching the cutouts? I am not sure of what I am seeing and havent really followed the thread.

633

General Mach Discussion / Re: Reprap 3D printing machines

« on: April 26, 2011, 12:23:09 PM »

My intelligence level gets in the way. There is not enough of it! Next time I go to the robotics meeting where the printers are, I will have to talk the people who are already experienced. the gcode is the same just some temperature settings and dwells.

634

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Re: Probing license available in the personal edition?

« on: April 18, 2011, 09:59:07 PM »

No issues on price just curious of personals content.

635

General Mach Discussion / Re: Reprap 3D printing machines

« on: April 18, 2011, 05:42:28 PM »

I just dont see what the difficulty in the interfacing can be. I have seen the repraps, darwins, mendels and makerbots. What makes them so capable that any sherline, 80/20, taig cant do? Primitive by my standards. Do I have to be first? I want to modify my A2ZCNC, it would probably be best as an extruder anyway

636

CVI MachStdMill (MSM) / Probing license available in the personal edition?

« on: April 18, 2011, 05:37:24 PM »

Does the probing work in personal? I have not been playing with MSM or my mill for a while. I get a scrolling marquee claiming "probing unlicensed". I am just reloading computers getting ready for the resurrection of 1 of my mills. Btw I did purchase the personal license I am not still running a beta.

637

General Mach Discussion / Re: 3D Printer: Extruder

« on: April 11, 2011, 03:50:52 PM »

I know this is an old thread but dont be put off by first or second impressions. I have been fortunate to have gone to an open house here in Houston of a robotics/electronics/chemistry/experimenters group. To say that the extrusions are crude is too general. I have seen both extremes and in fact I was astonished at how fast things were being produced in relation to my perception thru YouTube videos. I watched 1 individual extrude a 2 piece plastic case that let him combine his key and alarm into 1 unit (for a Lotus Elise) took maybe 5-8 minutes. I dont now how long he had in the drawing or CAD end but it was his first printing after about 6-8 months of research and study. He was not a machinist or had he any experience in CAD. I do believe he was very computer literate. Then I watched a person create an encoder housing for a robotic arm that was broken, again in minutes. I dont see why this cant be adapted to a Sherline or similar. The group is called TX/RX Labs. Here is a link to their group http://www.txrxlabs.org/2011/02/11/march-hack-b-q-series/
This was the video I took while visiting of that key fob. Thanks to the Iphone.http://youtu.be/tbuqvR0bMbk

638

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper Speed Factors?

« on: February 11, 2011, 11:10:06 AM »

I run a G540 so in my understanding, I am 10X microstepping. I agree with your comment about resolution however I am constantly corrected in regards to the G540 and its morphing. I had thought about changing to a direct drive and I have seen it done on this machine quite nicely. But after all is said and done, I still only get a 5"x5" envelope. I might just settle for optimizing this machine with its present running gear and build a G0704 or RF45. Everything is always up in the air in these regards. The machine is beautiful and so well thought out and executed. Hard (read impossible) to find in a hobby class. This machine was built for the educational field in my estimation and they had and endless stream of money. The retail on my little mill was over 15,000.00 in the late 80's, thanks to ebay my cost was very good! It originally came with auto oiling on all axis', limit switches, auto backlash measurements on each axis upon initializing, probes and quick change tooling based on an ER16 spindle nose.[

The biggest limitation on you speed with that machine is caused by the gearing. The ration is so high that you are spinning the motors somewhere near their max RPM If you want highewr rappid moves you could change teh gearing to a lower ratio and gain speed for rapid moves. There would be some loss of torque, but at the ratio you are using that probably not be a problem.

Another question - Are you Microstepping? At the number of stepps you are currently running you could turn off microstepping, change teh number of stepps per unit to match the new setting and use that to  run at a higher speed.

at 100,000 steps+ per unit you have a lot of resolution that you probably can't use.

639

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper Speed Factors?

« on: February 10, 2011, 11:54:50 AM »

I appreciate everyones responses. I am not looking for really increasing the speeds to anything unreasonable just at times it would nice to bump it more than 10% of its feedrate. In aluminum I seem to be able to pocket at .05 doc with a .250 4 fem at 12ipm, I believe there are conditions that would allow a higher feedrate, I could go for a deeper doc and leave the feedrate as is possibly. Just looking at any kind of gains as always. Thanks

640

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper Speed Factors?

« on: February 09, 2011, 11:26:15 AM »

Does a smooth stepper some how work around this? Or is there something else at play?