Messages

6111

General Mach Discussion / Re: Work coordinates

« on: October 31, 2017, 10:02:54 PM »

Hi,
so does the machine drive of its own accord to the home location?

When the Ref All is complete and the machine co-ordinates are zeroed does the border of the <zero (axis)> go green?

Craig

6112

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Happy with my ess

« on: October 31, 2017, 07:39:26 PM »

Hi,
yes. The plugin is still developing, it has probing and in the last few days Beta of bcaklash compensation was released.
THC and lathe threading are yet to come although substantial chunks of code to enact both is already written.

In all other respects the ESS is Mach4 ready. I've been using it with Mach4 for nearly a year.

Craig

6113

General Mach Discussion / Re: Feed Rate All Over the Board Question

« on: October 31, 2017, 05:31:35 PM »

Hi Billy,
i suspect you are right near the strength limit of the tool. 0.01 inch chip / 0.01 inch diameter means 100% chip load.
Given that it has a single edge means it probably stronger than my two flute endmills say. More cutting edges means
lower chip loads for a given feed and speed.

Craig

6114

General Mach Discussion / Re: Feed Rate All Over the Board Question

« on: October 31, 2017, 03:26:37 PM »

Hi Billy,
what is the chip load at those settings?

Craig

6115

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: October 31, 2017, 02:05:53 PM »

Hi,
welcome. That's a pretty broad complaint. Why don't you post on the main Mach3 Discussion Board and with some more specifics we may be able
to help.

Craig

6116

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to rotate local coordinates system by edge finder?

« on: October 31, 2017, 02:02:38 PM »

Hi,
this is called CNC and inside the PC it is ALL MATH. Is it realistic that you are going to be able to avoid it altogether?

The Touch Module in Mach4 has a feature which allows a part to be logically rotated on the basis of two measurement points, the calculation is programmed,
you don't have to do it yourself.

Craig

6117

General Mach Discussion / Re: Feed Rate All Over the Board Question

« on: October 31, 2017, 01:57:06 PM »

Hi,
there is no one set of magic numbers, especially for these small tools and particularly engraving tools when its hard to define a diameter.

My experience suggests that chip load is the most significant number. It really is an estimate of the strength of the tool. 2% of diameter per cutting tooth
per revolution is a good place to start.

Craig

6118

General Mach Discussion / Re: Stepper motors slow

« on: October 31, 2017, 01:45:34 PM »

Hi,
on the Config/General Config page there is an area 'Initialisation String'. It is a small group of Gcodes that Mach runs when it starts. If you wish your machine to
be in inch mode as default when you start up code G20 in that string.

Your CAM program and Post Processor should put a G20 or G21 at the start of your code automatically.  Is there any documentation about your CAM program?
and have you read it?

Craig

6119

General Mach Discussion / Re: Work coordinates

« on: October 31, 2017, 01:21:01 PM »

Hi,

I home the machine by hitting Ref All.

Does the machine drive to its Home location?

I then use my handheld controller to jog to a work and setup the XYZ coordinates.

So you manually jog to the desired location.
Do you hit <zero X>, <zero Y>, <zero Z>? If you do it forces the work offsets to be such that the current position co-ords are zero, ergo the offsets
will be equal and opposite the machine co-ords. You don't need to transfer anything.

The machine co-ords are important to your machine and Mach will track them but you don't need to see them. You reference once. Manually jog to where
you want to  call 0,0,0 in your work cords for this session and hit <zero x>,<zero y>,<zero z>. You can now run your program. Each and every time you
hit the <zero> buttons the local 0,0,0 changes, so if you put a new piece in your vice jog to the corner, touch the tool on the surface, hit <zero> buttons
and the machine is ready to run the code.

Do you have separate limit switches? How are they wired?
What type of controller are you using?

Craig

6120

General Mach Discussion / Re: Work coordinates

« on: October 31, 2017, 05:22:27 AM »

Hi,
so are they limit switches (at the ends of the axes) or home switches or do they do double duty and do both?

When you hit <ref all> does the machine drive to some location?

What sort of controller are you using? There is a reason I'm asking...its because I want to know if its going to be feasible to get you to fit three dedicated
home switches each with its own input. This may strike you as over the top...its not. It reduces confusion and because you use decent microswitches
way more accurate and repeatable.

When you say that all axis DROs are reading zero now go to the diagnostics page. Each axis has a current position which is calculated from the machine
position and the prevailing work co-ord for that axis. Note you cannot change the machine co-ordinates EXCEPT by shifting the axes by jogging, MDIing
or running Gcode OR referencing (homing). Mach is quite happy and extremely good at maintaining a true and correct set of machine coordinates BUT it
needs to know where to start to keep its record, hence the home switches. It common to have the switches at or near the end of each axis but it doesn't have to be.
My home switches are set up to trigger about 10mm short of the end of the axis (where the limit switches are). The important point is that everytime you turn
Mach on that you reference to the exact same place, or as near exact as you can then softlimits make sense and so do work co-ordinates saved from a previous
session.

Craig