Messages

791

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shuttle Express problem - help please

« on: December 13, 2009, 08:53:01 AM »

Ray, many thanks for the confirmation!  I will live with it (but maybe suggest it as an enhancement).

Thanks again, John.

792

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shuttle Express problem - help please

« on: December 12, 2009, 04:01:01 PM »

Well, I can report progress!  Today I downloaded the latest Mach3 lockdown version, uninstalled the pervious driver and deleted all the files having first taken a backup of the config xml.  Re-installed Mach3, now find the rather than having to load the Shuttle plug-in it is part of the release.  After carefully checking that the Shuttle Express works as intended following the instructions, I set it up and try it out.  Now works much better but I still find that the X direction it moves in response to the jog wheel is counter-intuitive: the crossfeed screw turns anticlockwise when I turn the jog wheel ckockwise and vice-versa!  Z feed works fine.  In the latest version the check-box option to reverse the feed has been removed as well!

So question: is there a way to fix this please or do I have to get used to it?

Thanks,

John.

793

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shuttle Express problem - help please

« on: December 11, 2009, 04:13:25 PM »

Aha!  Thanks Hood, I'll give it a whirl and try re-loading it.

Made my first part in anger the other evening, an item for the lathe to complete the conversion (mounting stud for the spindle sensor).  I was very impressed that Mach3 got it dead to size - better than I've ever done!

John.

794

General Mach Discussion / Re: Shuttle Express problem - help please

« on: December 11, 2009, 04:02:42 PM »

Please, please, has someone seen this problem before?  Any ideas on how to fix it?

Thanks,

john.

795

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: December 07, 2009, 05:03:47 PM »

Hello all.  I'm based in the UK and my job is as a telecoms engineer (well, more marketing these days).  I've been making chips for getting on for 20 years, having inherited the bug from my father.  In principle I'm making a steam launch engine (full size) and my own designed clocks, but in practice I spend more time making tooling (and chips).  I have a Myford Super 7 which is the first machine being CNC'd - now virtually complete but needs a spindle index and an estop switch, but it has cut metal!  This involved making a new X-slide feedscrew because the Myford one is rather expensive to mess around with.

Next will be a little X1 mill, which I chose because my bigger mill, a Myford VMB, I don't want to risk.

The forum has already been useful to me and I'm sure I'll be posting a lot more dumb questions, so please be patient.

John.

796

General Mach Discussion / Shuttle Express problem - help please

« on: December 06, 2009, 04:36:27 AM »

When I first set up Mach on my lathe and installed the Shuttle plug-in, the motor directions (for jog and G-Code directed moves) was wrong so I fixed that in the "ports and pins" dialogue.  However whilst the Z-Axis moves correctly under the Shuttle Express controls, the X-axis moves the wrong way at least with the jog wheels (both inner and outer).  Also the outer wheel (which produces continuous movement at a speed depending on how far the wheel is turned) only produces movement at small discrete positions rather than the speed changing reasonably smoothly depending on deflection.  Trying to fix this by selecting "reverse X" tick-box doesn't work.

Please could anyone suggest how to fix this problem?  One way I guess might be to re-install the plug-in, but I'm not sure how to de-install it first!

TIA for any help,

John.

797

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie problem with Mach3 Turn

« on: December 01, 2009, 05:01:04 PM »

Thanks for all the input.  Just for the record, tonight I did some testing with a DTI instead of the tool and a 3/4 test bar in the taper socket, so I could monitor the actual moves.  There was no sign of the problem, everything went as expected, actual tool moves made exactly as the on-screen monitor showed.  No sign of rigidity problems (this is a S7, and it cuts perfectly normally under manual control), backlash within expected limits.

This test was done with the spindle stationary; then I tried again with the motor running but clutch disengaged; and again with spindle rotating - everything still as expected. 

I decided to try again with a tool and cutting a bit of stock (not my test bar!).  One thing I did was to change from "Tool 0" to tool 1 - don't know if that's significant.  Anyway, this time it worked exactly as expected, no sign of the previous problem.  What was going on I don't know, but it seems to be fixed!

Thanks for the suggestions, sorry this was maybe a red herring, but they made me go back and check everything so for me it was useful.

So a milestone (for me) - lathe/computer combo has made its first unaided successful cut!

John.

798

General Mach Discussion / Re: Newbie problem with Mach3 Turn

« on: November 30, 2009, 05:41:17 PM »

Ah, sorry, I'm using the wizard - radiused shoulder (but with radius = 0).

John.

799

General Mach Discussion / Newbie problem with Mach3 Turn

« on: November 30, 2009, 05:30:20 PM »

Hi, I wonder if I could tap the collective wisdom on a problem I'm having?  I've got the mechanical conversion of my Super-7 done and built the electronics and everything seems to work fine in "manual" - it jogs properly and accurately and all seems OK.

Then I started to try actual CNC turning and have met a problem.  I started with a piece of 1" bar, to turn down to a shoulder a 10mm long spigot 20mm diameter.  I set the tool origin to Z=0 at the end face of the bar; and X=25.4 diameter on the diameter.  I set the rough cutting to 0.25mm depth and 15 mm speed; and the finish cut to 0.1mm and 5mm; clearance was set to 1mm.

When I set the spindle running and fire off the cycle, it takes the first cut fine; but when it gets to the end it feeds the tool firmly INTO the work and quickly returns the Z axis taking off some very thick swarf in the process!  At that point I pressed the estop in a panic.  It has happened a couple of times...

Could anyone give any pointers as to what I'm doing wrong please?

I should say that I've been really impressed by loading and setting up Mach3, it's a great piece of work and I can see that I'll be spending a lot of time re-learning the lathe!

Thanks, John.