Messages

51

General Mach Discussion / Re: Making a tapered thread. Please help

« on: December 22, 2010, 06:26:15 PM »

Thank you for looking into this, its been bugging me all day. What exactly do you mean by posting it as g32 from the wizard?

52

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

53

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

« on: December 03, 2010, 04:44:55 PM »

Hood, are you familiar at all with installing a c6 variable speed controller?

54

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

« on: November 30, 2010, 07:52:26 PM »

I will have to give it a try, basically the other day i had a hss cutter that i ground a small radius edge on it and cut a thread with .125 pitch. Came out lookin pretty cool , would be really nice for a handle for something. Then i got the idea to try it on a big taper.

55

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.

56

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

« on: November 28, 2010, 07:57:36 PM »

Thank you both for your help. Today i fixed my wiring and just like that i saw the spindle speed pop up on mach 3. Very happy. According to my machine i can go up to 2500 rpm max but when i turn it all the way up mach says its going 2770 rpm. Should i be worried? Is there a way to double check on what the true rpm really is? I quickly wrote a small program for a 1/2 13 thread and it seemed to work out really well. I am very impressed with everything. I just need to mess around with everything to get the hang of threading on mach.  I will keep you posted on how the progress goes on this. Once again thank you both for your time and help. 

 - Mike

57

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

« on: November 27, 2010, 11:10:58 PM »

your right hood. I reviewed the wiring diagram on my board and sure enough i have it hooked to an output. Tomorrow i will change it and keep you posted. As far as setting it up on mach 3 is that straight forward? Basically tell mach which pin its wired to and i would prob have to calibrate something right?

58

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 

59

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.

60

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

« on: September 18, 2010, 05:07:00 PM »

your a genius. Worked perfectly:) Are all cads the same? I tried drawing something earlier today and wanted to make a line with specific dimensions. Somehow a screen popped up that i was able to type in the data but it only happened a couple times. If i click the screen alot of times it will pop up once in a while. Is there a certain key? Sorry for asking but this software didn't come with a tutorial or even a help menu.