Messages

171

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: New toy - DM3000 lathe

« on: May 08, 2013, 01:03:53 AM »

The first order of business will be to modify the base that came with it to do a better job of clearing the stupid drain spigot on the bottom of the machine. For some reason the drain fitting hangs down almost 1.5" below the bottom of the machine. I also want to add castors to the base. BTW, I finally found where the weight was listed in the users manual; it weighs 550 pounds.

If you guys ever need to move this type of machine jack up each end and bolt on a 2x4, this will let you slide it around and clear that stupid spigot.

172

General Mach Discussion / Re: can mach3 run my cnc cold saw?

« on: May 07, 2013, 10:05:44 AM »

Plasma Cutting machines, which uses a high energy laser to cut with,

Not to take this off topic but....a plasma cutting machine does not use a laser. Plasma is a state of matter, basically very hot ionized gas. The plasma stream is used as a conductor to heat the metal with electricity, the gas stream also serves to blow away the molten metal. A laser uses light, very strong, coherent light beams to melt the metal and cut it.

On to the subject the OP asked about. At a basic level Mach3 has no clue what type of machine it is running. Mach3 interprets Gcode and tells the motors to move. What those motors actually do is up to you. Running a different type of machine will require a custom screen set as a standard mill, lathe type interface won't make any sense. Do some searching as Terry suggest and you will find Mach has been used for all sorts of things.

173

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: New toy - DM3000 lathe

« on: May 06, 2013, 10:27:43 PM »

The DM3000 is not a converted Chinese lathe. Dyna Mechtronics designed and built these back in the late 1980s. It is built like a tank, I'm guessing it weights about 500 pounds. Dyna still has some parts on the selves for the older machines but not a lot. Mechanically they are very robust but the 25 year old controls and electronics seem silly by todays standards.

The first machine I converted for use with Mach years ago was a DM2400 mill. It is about the size of a Taig but again, built like a tank.

174

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / New toy - DM3000 lathe

« on: May 06, 2013, 08:29:21 PM »

I was able to pick this up from a local school auction. It has not had a lot of use but has been sitting for years. It is going to get a good cleaning and conversion to Mach3.

175

SmoothStepper USB / Re: cycle stop in middle of axis move

« on: May 06, 2013, 03:00:57 PM »

Please use mach3 version .062 instead. There have been a LOT of problems reported to .066 so I do not recommend it. You can get it from the Mach FTP site (see resources link at top of every page) or from my website here: http://www.soigeneris.com/documentation-content.aspx .

176

SmoothStepper USB / Re: cycle stop in middle of axis move

« on: May 05, 2013, 09:30:41 PM »

In Mach3 go to Help-> About to get Mach version, then go to the SmoothStepper configuration to get plugin version.

177

SmoothStepper USB / Re: cycle stop in middle of axis move

« on: May 05, 2013, 07:29:21 PM »

I missed the part where you mentioned Mach was hanging up, that it not normal. What version of Mach and the SmoothStepper plugin are you using? There have been numerous reports of problems with .066. I have been suggesting .062 as it seems to be the most stable.

I was just out in the shop running some sample parts for a customer and used both Feed Hold and Stop several times without any problems so I'm sure we can get your machine working fine.

178

SmoothStepper USB / Re: cycle stop in middle of axis move

« on: May 05, 2013, 12:34:29 PM »

That is EXACTLY what 'Feed Hold' does. The 'stop' button is for when you need things to stop now no matters what. Because of the way Mach works you may see a bit of a delay with a Feed Hold, if you are in a subroutine or a custom M code it will finish those things, generally, before coming to a halt. The SmoothStepper plugin can take over the feed hold if you tell it to. The SmoothStepper just slows down how fast it consumes data from Mach and brings the machine to a controlled halt.

The Mach manual does a great job of explaining how Mach works, it is essential that you understand how it works before you try to go about changing things. It will save you much time and frustration to have a peek at the manual.

179

SmoothStepper USB / Re: cycle stop in middle of axis move

« on: May 05, 2013, 10:44:01 AM »

How 'Feed Hold' and 'Cycle Stop' work is a function of Mach3. It works the same no matter what motion device you are using. It is also described very clearly on the Mach3 manual. Please take a look at the Mach3 manual and read how these functions work.

180

SmoothStepper USB / Re: cycle stop in middle of axis move

« on: May 04, 2013, 09:27:32 AM »

"Cycle stop" tells Mach to cease all stepper outputs immediately. There is no deceleration so if the machine is moving you will loose your position. If you need to stop the machine while running the best thing to do is press 'feed hold' wait until the machine stops then press 'cycle stop'. The ESS has an option in its configuration screen that will let the SmoothStepper handle feed holds so you will get faster response.