Messages

211

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: wizard nesting

« on: November 26, 2013, 06:40:05 AM »

An old thread but as I struggled with the Nesting Wizard until I worked out that you have to hit "ENTER" after clicking in a box and entering a parameter in order for it to save I thought I'd reply to this rather than starting a new thread!
I just naturally assumed, as you could click in a box and type a parameter, that clicking or tabbing to the next box should save the entered data - it don't 
What a brilliant Wizard, I must now look at the rest and see what they might do for me, Wizard is right ! They're Magic!

 - Nick

212

General Mach Discussion / Re: HELP ON SPINDEL SETUP

« on: November 26, 2013, 06:24:10 AM »

Here's a link to a Fu Ling Inverter Manual,

http://www.scribd.com/doc/84435382/Fuling-Inverter-User-Manual

with any luck some or all will be relevant.
I'm using a mix of Hitachi, Siemens, Omron and ABB drives in my workshop, they are more expensive than the Chinese equivalents but the manuals are written in english, which for me makes them worth the extra as my Chinglish isn't very good ;-)
Regards,
Nick

213

General Mach Discussion / Re: Engine Cam Grinding

« on: November 19, 2013, 04:25:16 AM »

I was interested by the issues raised in this thread so I've had a quick play in BobCad/Cam 4 Axis Standard using an elipse as a test shape and it appears possible to calculate the required path by defining a ball (lollipop) cutter of the required diameter, (I tested with 500mm) and selecting a small enough slice of the work to create just one path around it.
There are no X or Y moves in the generated code, just A and Z.



Initially somewhat counter-intuitive to see a non-eliptical path generating an eliptical workpiece!
Presumably most 4 Axis Cam software will allow something similar provided ball end cutters of a large enough diameter are supported,
Regards,
Nick

214

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help!

« on: November 09, 2013, 06:52:07 PM »

Wise words Rich,
I was touching wood and stroking a black cat the right way as I made my post ;-)
I have a later PC and an additional parallel port to implement which may leave me feeling a little more loved?

Nick

215

General Mach Discussion / Help!

« on: November 09, 2013, 12:09:40 PM »

I feel left out!
Mach3 is working perfectly!
My mill and controller have had a variety of issues but even when I accidentally use the default BobCad 4 Axis Post I still get entirely useable code that makes nice parts, is there something I can do to remedy this lamentable situation?
TIA,
Nick 

216

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Frame

« on: November 08, 2013, 06:19:53 AM »

Thanks John,
The machine envelope being 164mm x 94mm x194mm made for interesting fixturing and work flow!

217

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Frame

« on: November 08, 2013, 04:58:28 AM »

I used to make this 102mm x 102mm x 270mm frame at the bench with a drill, drill bits, hole saws, an air saw, grinder and files. The results were functional but a lot of tidying up was required to make it look halfway pretty 
It struck me last week that although my CNC mill didn't have the envelope for all of it, with the right fixturing I could do half a face at a time, this is how the prototype came out -   



I wish I'd started learning with CNC years ago!

218

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Pyrography Stamp With BobCad V-Carve Feature

« on: October 29, 2013, 12:41:51 PM »

The engraving cutters I'm using aren't robust enough for roughing passes in 316 Stainless, I'm investigating inserted tooling for roughing but until then I'm stuck with a maximum of .5mm depth of cut at 28 000rpm and with really, really, really slow feed. Finishing was with two passes at +.1mm depth, each using cutters with smaller tip size to get into the fine detail.
I discovered too late for this job that keeping the work clear with compressed air significantly prolongs the life of the engraving cutters, I've now built a dedicated air supply using a large fridge compressor with the receiver and control gear from a portable compressor that burned out last year (I knew that would come in handy ;-) )

219

General Mach Discussion / Re: MPGs . . . Questions, Questions

« on: October 23, 2013, 09:27:39 AM »

The first one has arrived!
It looks good and feels very nice, I just need to implement that upgrade PC to be able to test it!!

220

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Which OS to go with?

« on: October 23, 2013, 09:21:52 AM »

The only real reason to go for newer oprating systems is if the older one won't cope.
Given that a PC running Mach doesn't need internet access, and so only needs text files transferring to it, and thus doesn't need exposing to/protecting from security threats (if you do things sensibly) just run what works best for you.
I'm running XP on an 8 year old HP desktop (about to upgrade to XP on a 5 year old HP desktop with dual parallel) and don't have any issues with running a 4-Axis machine,
Regards,
Nick