Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / CAM Webinar Wednesday 21st

« on: July 20, 2010, 02:27:28 PM »

I'm giving a free webinar using RHino 3d. T-Splines, and Mach3 to make a part.
Feel free to sign up here:
http://tinyurl.com/2abvkua

Maybe you have never seen Rhino, T_Splines, or RhinoCam. Then this gives a nice overview.
I promise it will be faster paced than a family slideshow from last years beach vacation...

Cheers
Lemo

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: G54 problem....

« on: July 01, 2010, 08:59:52 PM »

I think you will find that G54 IS the default Offset and THAT is what mach uses for the positional values unless you select another fixture offset.

That does not answer the question on how to reset the G54 table permanently without toggling back and forth with the DRO values.
Please elaborate on that. We're a bit stuck here...
Lemo

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: G54 problem....

« on: July 01, 2010, 08:58:18 PM »

ref all home and then zero the DRO's.

When I would attempt that the machine wants to move below the floor.
The problem is that I am unable to reset the work offset tables and the DRO to zero.
It simply toggles. IMHO it is broken in the release we are using.

I need to know how to reset Mach3 so I have zero on the DRO's and ZERO on all work offset tables.
The problem occured after we tried out sharpcam. The generated G-Code set up the system in a strange and wonderous way.
Garbage software... We tried to model the same part with vectric and it generated god code.
Right now we put 99999999 into all work offset tables which seems to make Mach3 ignore the settings and we can work for now.
Lemo

4

General Mach Discussion / G54 problem....

« on: July 01, 2010, 11:18:10 AM »

I cannot get rid of the work offset definition. It drives me batty right now.

I cleared the table and all offsets are zero. The way I want it.
Now X,Y,Z are having values in them. 5,4,3 inches.. whatever.
Now... if I set those to Zero. The selected work offset table has those values.

When I rebuild the toolpath it shows that the machine would move through the wall to get there.

I clear the table again. The values are back in the x y z dro fields.
I exit. Do not, or do, save fixtures. Come back, and the same game starts all over again.

Al I want is to have all tables ZERO and the DRO values ZERO.

How can I do this? I feel I miss some setting, have to disable a function???

Can't mill right now. So ideas, swift kicks into the right direction, would be highly appreciated.

Cheers
Lemo

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 4.0 Rev Update

« on: March 22, 2010, 08:30:53 AM »

I had a chat with Brian at the Cabin Fever Show and he mentioned that testing will start this summer.
He's working on it and I do not expect any news before the end of the summer or fall.
It's a heck of a complex system and unlike other programs early public beta testing cannot really have any value.
It works... or it will be torn to pieces . We have to give him time to make it perfect.
Till then we have something which works rather well.
Cheers
Rainer

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Fine Saw dust

« on: February 04, 2010, 04:23:08 PM »

I always got the ultra fine dust into the cabinet. I did not have a problem with that. But cleaning is risky. Static can ruin things, and a blow with the vacuum nozzle can knock out little cable.
I ended up buying a $90 AC from home depot, closed it completely, and mounted that to the back of my cabinet. Cold inside and no way for dust to get in.

Commercial systems have commercial AC units which do not look as ghetto as my attachment. But they do the same thing and I bet they got the same inards as well.
One day I make a sheet metal enclosure of the AC unit in the bacl. So it looks expensive... haha
Lemo

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 4.0 Rev Update

« on: January 08, 2010, 04:36:35 PM »

Some ruff update info?

Happy New Year!
Rainer

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: router tips burning

« on: December 07, 2009, 09:33:32 AM »

I don't think you will be lucky with that setup. All you can do is what was mentioned before. But if you lower the rpm the Dremmel will have not enough torque and will stall and if you speed up the motors do not have enough torque. Only suggestion I have is to run as fast as you can with the Dremmel set as fast as possible and then take shallow passes.
Dremmel and it's bit's are garbage for cnc application. You will always end up with a compromise and once you have a setup you like you will figure that it's time to buy the next Dremmel as the bearings have gone to cheap china crap bearing heaven. Get at least a proxon or a rotozip. Not ideal either but leading to results. I bought a small water cooled spindle from ebay and together with a PC cooling radiator and a cheap VFD I paid less than $500. THAT rocks. As small as a Dremmel and 1HP at 24K RPM. Neat, and almost no noise. Scary little bugger. Again... with the Dremmel as spindle you will not go anywhere soon while having a lot of pain trying. The Dremmel is cheap hand tool for 'fudging' things. 10 dead Dremmels equal 1 correct setup. My dremmels when I was in my 'cheap out' phase lasted about a week till total and utter failure.
Best of luck!
Lemo

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: cutting corners off while plasma cutting cv?

« on: November 21, 2009, 12:04:14 PM »

Set the feed speed the way you need it, enable CV, look at the overshoot. If it's to large, tighten the acceleration till you can live with the rounding.
There is no generally acceptable acceleration as it solely depends on the mechanical setup. It's all in the inertia. If you need high cutting speed and it still takes your machine apart... then the concept in generally is flawed and you would need a plasma cutting table made in a parallel dimension where other physics are valid. Thinking about that... I think Oprah is from that dimension as well.
Lemo

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: cutting corners off while plasma cutting cv?

« on: November 20, 2009, 03:53:22 PM »

Sounds like it's "banging"... which means you are a tick to rough on it... but if you need the speed then that's what the setup has to live with. Physics is a bitch. No way to overcome inertia but to kick stuff around. Screw those 'gotta have 45 degree...." advice. You have to adjust to what the setup demands. The shape of the curve is a secondary and totally unrelated result of your adjustments. You do not adjust the TV set to the Oprah show, you adjust it to the reception signal strength. If you receive Oprah... then that's a side effect of proper adjustment.  I pray for you that you will not receive the Opra show with your Plasma Cutter....
Happy adjusting!
Lemo


PS:Watch that you are not loosing steps. And yes.... you have to be in plasma mode. And check your gcode that CV is not switched off by the gcode even if you have it on in the system settings. I think G61 and 64 are responsible... but please, check that. If it slows down... you are not running cv mode. It's supposed to zip around the corners with the same speed but more or less overshoot depending on the tuning (the higher the accelartion is set the more it can 'pull' the corners tight). Till your hardware flies off.... Like a car loosing traction. So.... if part of the machine fly into the office in the shop the acceleration was to hot! If the things sits there and grumbles and just vibrates.... the acceleration was WAY to hot to even start moving.