Messages

491

General Mach Discussion / Probing speed

« on: November 14, 2018, 04:16:16 AM »

I am involved in developing a new probing technology for CNC machines for tool setting.  It will work with both lathe and mill, and for example in the lathe can be used to calibrate tool offsets very quickly, and routinely to set the Z reference to the end of a bar in the chuck.  At the moment it is limited to rather slow axis movements but we are working on an improvement that should make it considerably faster.

So to my question for those of you who use probes: what axis speed to you feed at when moving the probe towards the material, whether using touch-trigger style probes or other sorts?

Thanks in advance for your input!

John.

492

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 2-sided pcb milling. Centering with Y-axis width from G-code pattern.

« on: August 13, 2018, 01:21:13 PM »

I haven't used PCB-GCODE but I have used LineGrinder, and that relies on alignment pins to relocate the PCB when it's flipped over.  It worked perfectly.  LG is free, but bit of a steep learning curve.

493

General Mach Discussion / Re: Start Up and Shut Down Procedure of Machine with regards to Homing

« on: June 28, 2018, 01:35:01 PM »

Just out of interest, why do you want to home the machine?  In operation, you need to reference the tool to the workpiece, and that probably isn't located accurately relatively to Home.

494

General Mach Discussion / Re: Pulse per turn

« on: June 28, 2018, 01:32:42 PM »

I believe that there is a Mach 3 function to measure the pulses per feed unit, can't remember where to find it.

495

Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: mach 3 control app acting wierd on my s7

« on: June 28, 2018, 03:29:12 AM »

Hmmm.!

496

Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: mach 3 control app acting wierd on my s7

« on: June 27, 2018, 12:26:28 PM »

Um, what does your phone have to with it?

497

General Mach Discussion / Re: FEED ADJUST MACH 3 LATHE

« on: June 24, 2018, 06:22:12 AM »

It certainly does work in Mill.  Quite often I find that I've underestimated the usable feed rate and use the adjust buttons to up it, by up to 300%, during program execution.  But it doesn't work in Turn for some reason.

498

General Mach Discussion / Re: FEED ADJUST MACH 3 LATHE

« on: June 24, 2018, 05:32:40 AM »

Aha!  I think I see what you are asking now, and the answer I think is in Turn you can't - I have seen the same thing.

499

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe Spindle Synchronisation

« on: June 24, 2018, 02:53:33 AM »

It is more accurate to say that Mach3 synchronises the feed to the spindle.  Given that you replaced the h/s servo motor with a 1.5 hp induction motor I don't think you will see much variation of speed with lightish cuts.  My Super 7 has half that power in a single phase induction motor and I don't get any threading problems due to the spindle slowing down.

As Joe indicates, Mach3 uses the spindle index pulse both to measure the spindle RPM, which it uses to calculate the Z feed rate for the pitch you want; and also to synchronize the Z feed, starting it at the same relative position for each pass.  To a limited extent I think it can adapt to small changes in speed caused by cutting force, but with only one sample per rev it can't do a wonderful job.

I think one can obsess about Mach3 threading - given a reasonable amount of motor power and if you don't take aggressive cuts, it WORKS.

500

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Mach 3 with 'Xbox One' Controller

« on: June 23, 2018, 04:05:00 AM »

I have the wireless Xbox controller, and you need to go into config plugins somewhere in the menus to select what the controls do and which are active.