Topics

11

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Need help wiring my cnc lathe please

« on: December 05, 2012, 09:09:35 PM »

I have a small homier 7x12 lathe which i converted a couple years back to a cnc. I purchased the stepper motors along with the break out board in a kit called FET-3 Dynamo from stepperworld.com The machine works great but over time i wanted to add a variable spindle speed board. So i purchased an index pulse card along with a C6 variable speed control board from cnc4pc.com The index card i wired up fine and that works without any problems, however I'm stumped on installing the C6 board. I've included the wiring schematic from cnc4pc.com website. I'm lost as to where i connect the relay from the C6 board to my lathe(fc250j) toggle switch . In their instructions they say that "The Direction Relay is added in series with the existing Direction Switch (SW3)." Anyone wire this before? I also included a schematic from my lathe that shows a more simple picture of the relay that's in the "forward/off/reverse switch". Also my other problem is do I have enough room to connect everything to my main board? What happens if I don't? I attached a picture of my main board maybe someone can point out where i can connect the c6 board to.

http://cnc4pc.com/Tech_Docs/C6toFC250_110V.pdf

http://littlemachineshop.com/reference/drawings/WiringDiagram2506.pdf

12

LazyCam (Beta) / "Text" drawn in Autocad is messed up in LC. Please help

« on: September 13, 2011, 09:29:55 PM »

Hello all. Im new to Lazy cam and just learning my way around it. Hopefully in the very soon future i'm looking to purchase a small cnc engraver/router. My goal is to do some small engraving work on sheet metal. So i went to autocad R14 and drew up a simple box with some words within it. I then saved and exported the file .dxf and opened up my Lazy Cam. When i opened the file, the box seems to be the correct size but the words are smaller and seem way off center. I tried re-exporting the file to R14,R13 and R12 .dxf with the same results. Anyone sure on what i did wrong?

13

LazyTurn / Making a finish pass on a radius?

« on: August 03, 2011, 04:41:18 PM »

I've been out of the loop for a couple months on machining. Last time i've used Lazy Turn to machine a part with a radius i was only able to make rough cuts with many little steps leaving me to file the part to get a smooth finish. I'm hoping by now maybe someone has updated the software so we can now do clean up passes. Any such luck? I've searched a little but with no luck 

14

General Mach Discussion / Making a tapered thread. Please help

« on: December 22, 2010, 04:29:03 PM »

Hello,
       Recently i've been messing around making threads since i just hooked up a pulse card. I wanted to move on and try my luck at a tapered thread but am having some trouble. When in the simple threading wizard, what does the taper value represent? Is it measuring an angle, depth, length? Here is my dilema. I found a piece of scrap that had a taper on it and i wanted to follow that taper with a 16tpi thread. I did some math and came up with a number i thought was right for the taper but obviously it wasn't cause it dug into the part. Plan b. I went ahead and rewrote a program for that exact taper so i was able to see what it looked like on mach 3. Then i wrote the threading part and kept messing around with the taper number till it looked like it matched the taper on the turn. My problem is what is the math formula to find that taper number instead of me guessing.

       The part measurements i have are  ... The taper starts from .310 and goes all the way up to .750 . The taper is 1.850 long and the wizard taper number i came up with that looked close was 21.50. Am i right? Try not to laugh as i am still only learning haha

15

General Mach Discussion / Long Taper groove (thread) Can it be done?

« on: November 29, 2010, 10:44:46 PM »

 I recently just installed a index pulse card and now im threading everything thats round. Just for fun i thought it would look cool to turn a round aluminum bar down to a taper say from .250 OD to .750 OD by 2" long, and on that taper i wanted to add a perfect groove much like a thread. Is that at all possible? I know that the threading wizard has a taper option but i'm not sure exactly how to use it.

16

General Mach Discussion / Installing my new c3 index pulse card but having trouble

« on: November 26, 2010, 09:42:47 PM »

 Hi my name is mike and i think i need some help. I own a mini lathe (homier speedway 7x12) which i converted to cnc. The main board is Fet-3 which i bought as a kit. I just purchased a c3 index pulse card from cnc4pc.com. Today i was bored and decided to try my luck on installing it. Note that i am not an electrician but am willing to learn as i go. I began with that index disc that mounts to the back of the spindle. Just randomly making it to fit my machine i now realize there iis a formula for the width of the slot. I will remake that over again. The wiring i hooked up as the following but am not sure if its correct. The +5v and ground were added from the main power supply box that came with the kit. The output i am not too sure on where that goes but hooked it up to one of the pins for the "Y" axis since i don't have that stepper motor even hooked up. The ground is just connected to the board. Is that correct? Turning the power on i noticed if i turn the spindle the light on the c3 board will turn off  when it hits the slot leading me to believe it is somewhat hooked up correctly. My main question is how to hook it up to mach 3? Or if i even have the output wire connected right. Someone please help, i am excited to make some threads 

17

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Vector Engineering Pro-Tools help

« on: September 21, 2010, 09:47:33 PM »

 I recently purchased this cad software but am having some trouble using the cad tools. Does anyone have a help tutorial or any information on this software? There is nothing on their website or from what i have searched on google.

18

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Please help a newbie with cad

« on: September 16, 2010, 05:14:43 PM »

         I own a small 7x14 metal lathe. A couple years ago i converted it to cnc and purchased Mach 3. ( very happy) Since then I've made some interesting parts. Recently a buddy of mine asked me to make him some hand grips for his motorcycle. He sent me a picture and i began to do some research. Since Mach 3 does have some wizards on metal removal, i tried to produce a program that can cut out the large radius in the center of the handgrip.( check out picture). Sad;y i couldn't get it to work. I reviewed some topics on this for and stumbled across the Lazy Turn Software. I did some reading about it and it says i need to start off with a .dxf file from a cad drawing. That is where i hit the brick wall. I know nothing about Cad or how to use it. I am very eager to learn and am determined to make these hand grips. My question to everyone is what kind of software can i download/buy/trial or even get for free that will make me sleep a little easier at night. It needs to be easy to use as I am a beginner. Any other suggestions with also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all,
Mike

19

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Having some trouble with programming, please help

« on: September 12, 2009, 06:11:28 PM »

 ive recently converted my mini lathe to a cnc using  a stepper motor kit from stepperworld.com . My main software is mach 3. Im used to programming with fanuc controls at my work and i wrote a simple turning canned cycle and mach 3 wont read it at all. Now i have used the wizards but they really dont seem to work that great as i thought. I would be able to do everything so much easier with the programming im used to. Anything i can do? Here is a sample program if that helps anyone,

G96 S500 M03 (TURN)
T101
G0 X1.0 Z.5
G71 U.010 R.02
G71 P300 Q400 U.008 W.005 F8.0
N300 G0 X0
X.875
G1 Z-.375
N400 X1.01
S800
G70 P300 Q400 F6.0 (FINISH CUT)
G0 X1.5 Z2.0

20

FAQs / Homing my lathe, please help

« on: August 23, 2009, 09:31:57 PM »

 I am a beginner with all this so sorry for basic questions. I just finished hooking up my stepper motors to my lathe along with installing mach 3. The kit i bought with the steppers showed me how to set up the pins and ports on mach 3 with my setup. My question is how do i home my machine out? I have no limit switchs so i would imagine i need like a soft limit or something but i really dont know where to even start. Another question would be how do i jog using mach 3, i dont have and controllers.

Thanks
Mike