Messages

5191

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: tooltable trouble

« on: September 14, 2011, 11:01:38 PM »

RIley is it that you cannot pull up the tool table OR is it that you cannot make the selection from it? I just tried it here and it worked fine.

What version of windows are you running on?

(;-) TP

5192

General Mach Discussion / Re: Work offsets

« on: September 14, 2011, 10:46:29 PM »

HIYA Riley, You were close(;-) Change the G41 to a G42. Also set your tool# 12 to about 0.050"diam to make SURE it clears that tight radius.

After changing those points it runs fine here.

(;-) TP

5193

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: trouble with running g code

« on: September 14, 2011, 06:20:27 PM »

The post processor you used is for an ALLEN BRADELY controller pick one for MACH and it will run ok.

(;-) TP

5194

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Serial data out by Gcode

« on: September 13, 2011, 06:44:49 PM »

OK I see your subject tile does not match your question(;-)

I was going to suggest aserial or USB port(;-)

You could use the Step pin and calibrate the Phantom axis to 100 steps per unit then program by the unit%    G1 B.5 F60  would send 50 pulses in 1 sec.

Just a thought 

(;-) TP

5195

General Mach Discussion / Re: Drives falut out

« on: September 13, 2011, 05:34:39 PM »

Just a note, running the motors at 1/2 voltage will reduce the overall torque somewhat. I would bump the voltage up to just below the Gecko max leave a small bit for safety reasons. Volt x amps = watts = HP usually the more the better(;-)

Also Hood is correct it sounds like sticktion I would change the way oil to a less viscous oil.

On the Point of Origin WorkZero When I set up the material for the part and have established 0,0 I woul d move over to a known point on the table that is NOT going to be machined and record the position of that known point. It can be a square edge a hole or a simple centerpunch mark , just something you can rereference back to. Write it down.

 Say it was X-2.000 Y-1.000

If you have to restart simply move back to the known postion and reset the axis dros to that location X-2.000 Y-1.000. NOW  0,0 will be exactly where it was before you started machining.

I normally use a Probe to probe a circle BUT any method of accurately finding the ref point will do fine.

In my opinion low end switches are NOT accurate enough to do accurate refhome repeatably.  

NOW for the record I am ALL for doing it by the book BUT not to a fault(;-).

Just a thought, (;-) TP

5196

General Mach Discussion / Re: Drives falut out

« on: September 13, 2011, 02:35:12 PM »

Hood You still have to TOUCHOFF to accurately set the X0Y0Z0 to the material or fixture or vise,etc

(;-)TP

5197

General Mach Discussion / Re: Drives falut out

« on: September 13, 2011, 10:25:07 AM »

With Mach3 it sets itself up in machine coord everytime you startup. It is not required that you refhome to do work.  Just clamp a pierce of material to the table. BUT then you must set the point of origin for the part to be machined. So you touch off the material and zero the table X0 Y0. You have just set G54 as your fixture offset.

You never machine in machine coords so really it does not matter where they are to mach it is just a reference base.

So lets say you crash mach and need to resetup to begin again.Simple just go back and touchoff on the material set XY to zero and off you go again.

SO unless you program your part origin based on the machine zero you still have to set the work offset to verify it is correct so WHY double your work.

Many Low End machines today do not even HAVE a homing system they run in User co0rds(work offsets) just like in Mach's case.

I have USED both types of systems and I do not see any difference in crash recovery except the Refhome method takes longer on startup and crash recovery.  The machine accuracy level is exactly the same.

NOW IF you have a dedicated table full of fixturing and have setup Fixture offsets for all the fixtures THEN refhome makes sense as then you only have to set the MachineZero to establish the POO for ALL the fixtures at once. BUT you can still do that manually in mach you do NOT have to have switches  or wiring to do so.

Just a thought, (;-)TP

5198

General Mach Discussion / Re: Drives falut out

« on: September 12, 2011, 10:47:32 PM »

You would still have to "accurately" reset the point of origin X0Y0(workhome) to be able to restart. Unless you programmed everthing based off of Machine Zero(refHome) OR have Fixture offsets preset to the part. SO really Refhome does not gain you much.

Irregardless IF you loose a drive(fault) you have to reset everything anyway, there is NO going back from that point.

Just a thought(;-) TP

5199

General Mach Discussion / Running G28.1 while in G68 Rotated coord base

« on: September 12, 2011, 02:49:36 PM »

HEY Andrew could you ask Brian if he could fix the G28.1 Z   so we could run it while in G68 Coord rotation. We only need the Z to be able to refhome in plasma NOT the X/Y. I understand the important of not being able to refHome X/Y while the G68 is rotated BUT that shold not effect the Z axis in any way.

It would be a great time saver for the plasma group IF they could use the g68 and still use the G28.1 Z.

Note: you can use the G68 IF you are using the G31 method of TOM.   Most use the G28.1 method(more dependable).

Just a thought, (;-) TP

5200

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing Macro?

« on: September 12, 2011, 11:29:25 AM »

HIYA Fastest, You are doing it by the book. Certainly NOTHING wrong wiith that(;-).  But as with all things there are MANY ways to do the same job. As you gain more experiance you too will learn the OTHER ways.

Just a note(;-): Your little machine moves exactly the same way the big boys do. SO YES you are a CNC machinist. Never discount the fact that you are working in the small end of the world. Some of the HARDEST machine work to do IS the micro machining world(;-)

Good Job Keep slinging chips, (;-) TP