Messages

431

SmoothStepper USB / Re: USB to Ethernet adapter for ESS Smoothstepper?

« on: March 18, 2015, 07:20:14 PM »

Ethernet is limited to 100M between devices unless you are using fiber.  Had a customer string together five switches to get from their office to a waste treatment plant.  One lightning strike cleared the whole lot!

432

General Mach Discussion / Re: Need help setting up tools for first time

« on: March 18, 2015, 12:59:35 PM »

I like using the edge finder that is permanently installed in a holder to pick up Z0. That means one tool gets all your references. I also like to use a round pin of .500" diameter to touch off. No edges, you roll it back and forth under the tool and never jog up or down with it between the tool and the part. That is very safe.

433

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: recently putchased bobcad post help please

« on: March 13, 2015, 06:50:19 PM »

Amazes me that after more than 20 years of people complaining about their high pressure sales tactics that they still do it! Slow learners I am guessing.

434

General Mach Discussion / Re: Using Drawings and Cam programs on a computer running Mach 3

« on: March 11, 2015, 08:03:16 PM »

I run CamBam at the same time as Mach3 with no problem, BUT I do have a motion card driving the motors and I think that would be the difference. It is really really nice to have the Cam program and Alt Tab away from the CNC and you can make a change and repost in a few seconds.  Mach3 remembers the last file you loaded from too.

435

General Mach Discussion / Re: cam programs

« on: March 07, 2015, 08:48:01 PM »

CamBam too

436

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: My Shizouka AN-S

« on: March 04, 2015, 10:20:40 PM »

I may be able to get you a part manual. When I got the machine I had all the manuals because it came from a fortune 500 company. I still know the guy who has it now. I'll try to find out in a couple of days.

437

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: My Shizouka AN-S

« on: March 02, 2015, 09:19:11 AM »

I owned one of those a few years back. That tool changer is called a Quick Draw and if you watch it work it looks like a gunslinger flipping his gun back in its holster. That is actually the first product sold by Fadal! It has its own electronics which can be flukey.

I saw recently that Primopal is offering a 4300 in/oz nema 42 stepper motor with a Leadshine digital drive the runs off 120-240 vac for about $400 an axis. I think that would be a great setup for this size machine.  I'd put an axis on the knee too. Changing tools and getting a set of short tooling to work with a quill Z axis is a real pain.

438

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Wizzards not working out as planned

« on: February 21, 2015, 11:17:22 AM »

Peter,
Much as I like Mach 3 as a controller and worked for several years writing G code I think that manual programming is a thing of the past. I got CamBam and in a short time I got to where I import or draw a little, select some operations and enter some data, view the toolpaths and cut metal. Most of the time I don't even dry run. I also then have a file I can run again, and can change tool sizes and such with a simple toolpath regeneration. I have CamBam on the same computer as Mach3.

439

General Mach Discussion / Re: Machining metal problem - Have I missed a setting in Mach?

« on: February 13, 2015, 04:34:37 PM »

The rating of stepper motors for torque is essentially at 0 speed. The actual torque you get at higher speeds is very dependent on the voltage rating and inductance of the motor and the voltage rating of the drive and power supply. A high voltage motor with high inductance on a low voltage drive and power supply will be gutless at higher speeds.

440

General Mach Discussion / Re: Maximum processing speed?

« on: February 11, 2015, 07:55:16 PM »

There is the possibility that speed is being reduced by processing overhead.  On a Fadal 4020 I was programming for we got some very slight hesitations in the cutting motion produced by a program that was running a macro that calculated the tool path.  I made a change to the program that made all the calculations happen while the machine was rapiding and not cutting and the hesitations went away.