Messages

131

General Mach Discussion / Re: CNC screw cutting lathe advice

« on: June 30, 2009, 02:40:19 AM »

Brian, you are showing 12 mm stock but the Sherline spindle only has a 10 mm thru hole although I believe they will provide a larger bore on special request.

http://www.sherline.com/specs.htm

al

132

General Mach Discussion / Re: No motor movement. Need xml checked.

« on: June 22, 2009, 11:40:09 PM »

Does anyone have any idea why I can't get the motor tuning screen to open?
thanks

Check this post.
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mach1mach2cnc/message/109780
Al

133

General Mach Discussion / Re: XY zero

« on: June 07, 2009, 08:14:56 PM »

Adam, I too tend to be overwhelmed by Mach’s tool-length/offset/fixture features. There is also a simple way.

Touch off on the top surface and set the Z-DRO to zero as you describe. Now jog over to the mill table (or any other reference surface that can be used as a repeatable datum) and touch off. Write down this value.

Now when you install the ball cutter (or otherwise loose your Z reference), touch off on the spot that was used as a datum above. Set the Z-DRO to the recorded value and you are good to go.

Hope this helps,
Al

134

General Mach Discussion / Re: motor tuning

« on: May 20, 2009, 12:36:05 AM »

I restarted a few times, and shut down for a while and restart.
I did uninstall mach and reinstall.
Maybe I need to do as you say and rename the directory.
I plug the USB from smoothstepper in to a different laptop with XP, and everything run fine no problems at all.
Anyway  now I am trying to get XP put on my laptop. we will see if that works.

In my case, in addition to the motor tuning menu problem, the feed rate DRO consistently displayed 84% of the commanded federate. The actual movement was correct, just the display was in error. I never knew what caused the problem nor was ever able to correct it. Eventually conceded that I was in over my head and did a complete fresh download. Apparently Mach remembers your problem in spite of whatever you do?  If you find a more direct fix for this anomaly, please let us know?
Thanks
Al

135

General Mach Discussion / Re: motor tuning

« on: May 17, 2009, 11:12:34 PM »

I have reloaded Mach3 several times now and no motor tuning yet.

Had the same problem with the motor screen not opening. Reloading Mach into the same directory had no effect. The fix was to rename/delete the Mach3 directory and do a complete fresh download letting Mach create a new Mach3 directory.  Of course save your .xml, .set and macro files first.

136

General Mach Discussion / Re: Z axis 0

« on: May 02, 2009, 10:46:58 PM »

I looked but can't find this in the tutorials. When I set Z 0, the DRO flashes 0.375 then sets 0. If I only regen 1 time, the z axis cuts air. If I regen 3-4 times it works like it should. One thing I noticed is the DRO is not bold like the rest of them. I'm sure it's something simple, but I'm stumped.

Jim

Hi Jim,
The odd DRO display isn’t likely related to your problem. (I see one of the pros has offered to help you with that, take him up on it.)  That’s over my head, but I have dealt with the odd display issue.
The DRO font is determined by the height of the box. The font adjusts to fit the height and at certain breakpoints will go from regular to bold before jumping to the next larger size. On some machines, (mine included), if the height is set just on the verge of tripping over, some DRO’s in the set will show regular and the others bold even tho the heights are all the same. (Don’t know why, probably a characteristic of the graphics card?)
The fix is to use Screen4 to increase all the heights of that group by 1 or 2 pixels.
Al

137

General Mach Discussion / Rotation Diameter Problem?

« on: April 28, 2009, 02:28:25 AM »

I recently downloaded rev R3.042.020 and found that the ‘Rotation Diameter’ on the Settings page now wants a Radius (to set proper feed-rate) rather than a Diameter which my older version used. However, when the Z value changes, Mach still assumes that the Z is a diameter (not a radius) and consequently under-compensates the feed rate by 50%.

This is the check that I ran:
1.   Set ‘Rotation Diameter’ to 0.0001 (Let Mach use Z as diameter)
2.   G00 Z3.1831 A0 (Diameter of a 10 in circumference circle)
3.   G01 A360 F10 (Result: 60 sec travel time, OK)
4.   G00 Z 6.3662 (Dia of 20 in circumference)
5.   G01 A0 (120 sec OK)
This confirms that Mach is properly using Z as a diameter.

Now:
1.   Set ‘Rotation Diameter’ to 1.5915 (Radius of a 10 in circumference circle)
2.   G00 Z1.5915 A0
3.   G01 A360 F10 (Result: 60 sec, confirms that Mach is using ‘Rotation Diameter’ as a radius)
4.   G00 Z3.1831 (20 in circumference)
5.   G01 A0 (Result 90 sec, should be 120 sec)
This implies that Mach is mixing the ‘Z’ change as a diameter and the ‘Rotation Diameter’ as a Radius.

My apology if this has already been discussed or if I’m totally off base, (more often than I’d like to admit). I haven’t followed the forum for awhile, but did do a search and didn’t find any references.

Al Lenz