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Messages - joeaverage

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2631
General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Turn?
« on: April 15, 2019, 05:05:45 PM »
Hi,
I think Mach3 is like Mach4 in that it has one spindle only. Thus if you have a free running mill spindle the you can't
have a lathe spindle as well without getting creative.

I've never used it but I believe Mach3 has a 'swap axis' command such that you could have two spindles say, provided
you use only one at a time.

I have upgraded to Mach4 and am more familiar with those arrangements. Mach4 introduces Out-of-Band (OB) axes, up to six
of them in addition to X, Y, Z, A, B and C axes. One, and only one, OB axis may be a spindle with all the usual spindle commands
and interpretations, things like PMW, spindle PID or alternately free running step/direction. The other five remaining OB axes
can be jogged only. Thus if you wanted to turn your turning axis 60 degrees to mill a flat when making a nut say you would
jog that axis 60 degrees using an API command. It is also possible to jog continuously. Lets say you jogged the OB axis
for a move of 108,000,000 degrees or 300,000 revolutions. Its a bit of a cheat, its not a genuinely free rotating spindle
but surely you can complete your lathe turning op in 300,000 revs!

Note that the OB axes are NOT coordinated with X,Y,Z,A,B,C axes. Thus if you started a 108,000,000 degree jog as I explained
above you can now still execute coordinated moves while the jog is running. This gives you the means of 'creating' MillTurn
behavior.

Note also that Mach4 has the possibility, not yet implemented but hinted at by Smurph, that would allow two machines
to operate at once on the same PC, using multiple instances of Mach4. There is supposed to be a common interface
between the two instances that allow genuine MillTurn behavior. Looking forward to that, and incidentally a third order
motion planner.

Craig

2632
Hi,
yep.  :D

Craig

2633
General Mach Discussion / Re: Mill or Turn?
« on: April 15, 2019, 04:27:53 PM »
Hi,
if the turning spindle is free running in the manner of a lathe spindle then you would be advised to use a lathe
profile and consider the mill spindle as an add on to the lathe.

If however you want the turning spindle to be indexed then use a mill profile and consider the turning axis to be
a C axis, ie coordinated with you regular linear axes.

Craig

2634
Hi,
its just a shame that Mach (Mach3 and Mach4) always interprets angles as degrees, I would prefer radians, but
neither version of Mach support that.

It would be so much more convenient for 4 and 5 axis machines when trying to match angular and linear axis velocity.

Craig

2635
Hi,

Quote
..but you don't have to do anything else even if your mach is set to inches??
sounds like voodoo magic...

Mach is a computer program....it has no bias. By issuing a G20/G21 Mach applies a numerical procedure to all
measurements...pretty simple.

Craig

2636
Hi,
quite commonly the first line of code at the top of a Gcode job will have a long string of codes, something like:
G15 G17 G40 G90 G94 G54 G49 G99 G64........to which you can append a G20 for inch unit Gcode or G21 fro mm unit
Gcode. You could just as easily code it on its own line right at the top of the file.

I'll leave you to work out what all and each of those codes are but they set the machine up, G17 for instance declares
the XY plane with Z vertical, ie a VMC. You could use G18 which declares XZ plane with Y as spindle axis, ie a horizontal
milling machine.

The codes are all 'modal', that is that once set they stay in force until they are changed or overwritten by a new code.
Thus when you have finished the metric Gcode job you need to switch it back to inch units with a G20, otherwise you will
get a surprise the next time you use the machine.

It is common for CAD/CAM programs to include a G20/G21 command at the beginning of the file so that the machine
correctly interprets the units that the CAD/CAM package used.

Try and find a copy of:

'CNC Programming  Hanbook', any edition, by Peter Smid. Its considered the bible of CNC Gcode.

Craig

2637
Hi,
you could do that but there is a much better way.

If you put a line of Gcode at the top of the new file:
G21

Thereafter Mach will interpret all axis positions and feed rates as mm. If you code:
G20

Mach will interpret all measurements as inch units.

Craig

2638
General Mach Discussion / Re: Mirror probing
« on: April 15, 2019, 01:24:12 AM »
Hi Don,
thinking a little more about your situation. I suspect that learning to use a CAD/CAM may be a hurdle.
Evidently you are quite capable of conversational programming and manual programming.

I myself use MillWizard from NFS ($75), it adds what amounts to conversational programming. There is one feature of
that program that may appeal to you. Its the 'Polyline' feature. You program a series of points with either lines or
arcs between each point and MillWizard will generate the Gcode.

I have attached a couple of pics that might explain it a little better. The first pic is where I have programmed a number (5)
points (X, Y coordinates) with a straight line in between each. The second pic is the toolpath that MillWizard generates.
There are other options as well, tool offsets, direction of cut etc. While it is tedious to program in the points its perfectly
doable and in fact very simple.

Such a method would not be practical if you had a point cloud of a thousand points but probably useful up to 100 points.

Download a copy and try it. As a demo you can't save the Gcode but is in all other ways fully functional. The advantage of
MillWizard is that you can be producing Mach compliant code within 1/2 an hour.....its so straight forward.

Craig

2639
Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 cnc program min/max values
« on: April 15, 2019, 12:47:51 AM »
Hi Bob,
kool.

By far and away the greatest strength of Mach4 is its ability to be customized. This is a fairly simple example of that strength.
I get a personal sense of satisfaction about programming some new behavior that suits my work flow and that satisfaction
is the best incentive to learn new stuff to extend the boundaries.

Craig

2640
General Mach Discussion / Re: Mirror probing
« on: April 14, 2019, 07:26:52 PM »
Hi,
CAD/CAM is not absolutely essential to making a probe point cloud work it certainly helps. It may well be that the effort
required to master one of the programs out there is a greater effort than casting the part as you have done before.

Fusion360 is a very capable CAD/CAM program available free from Autodesk. If you have a 64 bit PC and OS download it
and try it out. I suspect it will do as you require. The only question is whether you are prepared to stump up the time
to learn it?

Craig

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