Topics

21

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / ORAC Spindle Swarf Blaster®

« on: January 11, 2015, 10:45:13 AM »

I did some small diameter (4.5mm) boring work recently using a 4mm carbide boring bar and the stringy swarf kept jamming up in the tiny hole & screwing up some of the parts. I stuck my air nozzle up the back end of the spindle & gave it a blast occasionally & it solved the problem. I got to thinking about it & whipped out this little adapter which works a lot better. The part that sticks in the spindle bore is acetal and seals up great with little friction.  It’s easily removable when long stock needs to go in the spindle.  The foot pedal allows the hands to be free for other things…like slapping the e-stop button.  A few taps of the toe blasts the swarf away instantly!  I’m looking around for an oiler I can plumb in to add some cutting oil mist to the blast as well.  I could also add an air solenoid & let Mach control it but I kinda like the toe-tappin’ thing.

22

General Mach Discussion / Copied/modified profile doesn't keep tool table?

« on: December 27, 2014, 12:01:26 PM »

As part of a workaround to the problem in my other post about reversed arcs/Dolphin I decided to make a renamed copy of my existing profile.  In it I unchecked the reversed arc box and expected to click on the "Dolphin" profile upon starting Mach and all things should  remain the same other than the one changed checkbox.  That way I wouldn't have to remember to change the config each time I use a Dolphin generated file.

It does exactly that other than the tooltable.  All of my carefully tweaked tool offsets are gone in the new profile!  Is there a way to transfer the tootable to the 2nd profile?

23

General Mach Discussion / Reversed Arcs in Front Post/G-code/Dolphin question

« on: December 26, 2014, 02:31:07 PM »

Been doing some Dolphin lathe CAM stuff lately and having trouble on internal turning cuts.  Here's the path I'm having trouble with as seen in Dolphin; it's a roughing cut:



Using the Mach3 diameter mode post, here's what I got at first:



After unchecking Reversed Arcs in Front Post, everything is perfect except the one little circle at the end of the 1st roughing pass that leaves a little gouge in the piece, line 270 I think.  Everything's fine after that.  Anybody have an idea why that happens?  I guess I can edit that line, change it to a G01 back out to the clearance point??  My G-code Kung-Fu is weak unfortunately.

24

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Z-axis opto probe for me Orac.

« on: December 13, 2014, 01:46:22 PM »

Most all my work is modifying or repairing existing parts that don’t get faced off and I’m always having to touch off the tool on the face or a feature of the part.  I’ve used all the methods including a USB microscope to set Z-zero but it’s a real pain to accurately do this on 15 or 20 parts in a row.  So, I decided to build this device.  It’s a Z-axis probe that’s semi permanently mounted to the back side of the carriage of my lathe.  It has a little opto sensor/board I got off ebay from Holland.  A spring loaded plunger with a flat dial indicator tip on it, some aluminum scraps & acetal bushing is all it needed to work very well.  It’s dead-nuts repeatable & accurate as I can measure with a tenths D.T.I.  I use the “Set Home Z” button on Tool 0 in the standard Mach3 Turn screenset.  I’m in the process now of setting up all of my tools’ Z-axis offsets in the tooltable.  Once that’s done, I should be able to home the Z to a feature of the part, slap on which ever tool is needed and cut away with confidence that it’ll come out on the money.







Here’s a pic of a typical setup

25

General Mach Discussion / Dolphin question for Hood please.

« on: October 06, 2014, 12:02:19 PM »

I’m setting up a job on the lathe that requires internal profiling with very little room for maneuvering the tool.  The beginning hole size is 4.5mm and my smallest boring tool is 4mm.  I remember you saying that v10 Dolphin has a problem with internal turning being reversed? 

Do you recall what the problem is?  Is it the simulation that’s reversed or the front/rear toolpost backward or just plain reversal of the code?  How should I get around it and do you have any suggestions or tips as to how to prevent crashing my expensive Micro 100 carbide boring tool?

I apologize in advance for not digging into this a bit deeper before asking questions but the weekend flew by doing other things and here I am again, back at work on a Monday & worrying about how to figure out shop things.

26

General Mach Discussion / Step jog wierdness.

« on: May 27, 2014, 09:51:59 PM »

I use Mill infrequently and freely admit the problem is surely self induced.  I use Turn a lot more often & have fewer problems with it.

I frequently use Jog in the step mode, holding down the ctrl key to invoke it.  It'll work as normal for a while but for some unknown reason, I'll press ctrl + an up/down arrow or pg up/pg down key & nothing happens.  Once this occurs, regular jog won't work either unless I press the esc key and then it starts working again but as soon as I press ctrl for a step jog it quits.  The only way to get it going again is to close/re-open Mach.  Also, whenever it's in the ignore mode, MDI commands don't work either.  I can type in a command but nothing happens when I press enter.

Another clue is I found is that if I load a program or run a wizard that generates a  standard beginning line of code, normal operation returns for a while until whatever I do that pi$$es it off happens.  Any ideas?

27

General Mach Discussion / Is G53 really needed in the Simple Threading Wizard?

« on: December 07, 2013, 08:28:57 AM »

I had a huge problem with the lathe crashing itself during the initial usage of the threading wizard.  During the preparatory moves, the machine would rapid to a coordinate that wasn't listed in the generated code.  The only way to stop it was to edit out the G53.  I read the explanation of G53 but must admit my lack of understanding of proper G53 usage.  I forgot to edit it out last time I used it and killed a brand new threading tool (and a pair of not-so-new skivvies.)  Up 'til now my life has been just fine without G53 so I plan to edit the wizard to prevent it killing more tools or worse.

Having said all that, it must be there for a reason so can someone edumacate me as to why it's there and if it's needed to properly cut threads?  I'm getting decent results without it and I think the strange cutting characteristics I'm seeing are due to flex in the machine but I could be very wrong.

28

General Mach Discussion / Looking for an experienced threading (G76) user's input.

« on: December 01, 2013, 09:09:48 AM »

I'm doing some threading lately and the G76 wizard does strange things at times.  I'm pretty sure it's me but was hoping someone that has used it often would share their settings with me.

Do the settings on this screen make any difference at all since they're all input in the wizard except for the cut & infeed types?  Do the different infeed types actually work?





Do these settings look reasonable?  I later found the chamfer settings are in degrees of rotation, not angle, correct?  Do the # of spring passes come at the end of the complete run or after each new cutting depth?





Does the minimum pass depth mean diameter when in the diameter mode or strictly radius in both modes?





Thanks for any any input anyone may have.  If putting on a head-dress, rattling bones, chanting & sprinkling white powder on the lathe will help; I'm OK with that too!

29

General Mach Discussion / Another Turn Tool Table question

« on: November 20, 2013, 02:25:11 PM »

I have my tool table set up pretty well now and the diameters I ask Mach to give me come out pretty close as I change amongst the various tools.  For whatever reason; metal type, me, the machine, alignment of the planets, etc. the work will occasionally come out under or oversize more than I'd like.

If the work comes out oversize by say .004", and Mach is set up in the Diameter mode, do I change the X Offset by .004" or .002" in the Tool Table Editor?  Subtract the correct value or add it?

30

General Mach Discussion / Easy way to add a "Safety" to the Spindle button on the standard lathe screen?

« on: October 13, 2013, 10:06:45 AM »

I've had a few near misses using the lathe lately when turning the spindle on/off via the button on the standard lathe screen with a mouse.  I'm out of inputs and can't add a manual button 'til I figure out what new hardware phase 2 of the conversion will have.

I'd like to make the spindle button function only when the Shift or Ctrl button is pressed along with the mouse click.  I guess this will require using a screen designer program?

There are times when I've clicked the spindle on when deburring or polishing manually, clicked the spindle off and forgot to move the cursor off the Spindle button.  A few minutes later I've dropped something onto or bumped the mouse accidentally and ZING, off goes the spindle and any thing in it.  Not cool.  So far no chuck keys, hands or eyes have been damaged but I know my time's a'comin' if I don't do something now.

I've looked in Config but the only thing I saw was "Use Key Clicks."  What does that do?