Messages

21

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Single block mode

« on: March 09, 2017, 06:11:32 PM »

Thanks Tom for helping.  With the previous info it was very easy.
It was my first edit of the Mac4 screens.  I have modified the Mach3 before but I am just getting Mach$ up and running now.
I also changed the DRO decimals since I am using metric and I do not need 0.0000.
Thanks again,
Bertho

22

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Single block mode

« on: March 09, 2017, 05:08:49 PM »

I have the single block mode problem not working too.  Interestingly, on the Mach3 forum several people responded it was working fine.
I have not tried to edit the screen so I did not change anything.  As was said, it ought to work correctly to start with.
Bertho

23

General Mach Discussion / Re: Digitizing

« on: July 13, 2013, 08:41:38 PM »

A rod touching two balls forms an electrical contact from one ball to the other.  The same is true for the other two rods.   
If the probe tip is pushed, one or more rods will lift and the electrical contact will be broken.

24

General Mach Discussion / 3D Printer: Extruder

« on: January 26, 2010, 06:22:31 AM »

I am very interested in building an extruder type 3D printer using my existing CNC mill. There are basically only two items missing:
1: A heater with temperature control.  The heater is typically controlled to hold the temperature around 240C.  Either one of the available extruder head controller boards can be used or an off the shelf PID heater controller (about $30 on eBay).  It might also be directly controlled by the pulse width function similarly to how laser cutters are controlled.  It would be very simple to have a temperature feedback using a voltage to frequency converter that produces “index” pulses to show temperature: 240RPM= 240C temperature.

2: A motor to feed the filament into the heater.  I think the head can be greatly simplified by using a simple machined bracket and a very small stepper motor.  In our case the stepper could be directly driven by existing electronics and the A axis function in Mach3.

Here are examples of the extruder heads.  They are all open source with full documentation.  Typically the mechanics are unnecessarily big or too many pieces since they are usually designed to be easily duplicated by hobbyists with limited tooling.

http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Mendel_extruder

http://store.makerbot.com/toolheads/plastruder-kit-mk3.html

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1332

http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70:v3-extruder-info&catid=22:version-3-rapman-build-info
It is a big PDF file.

It should be very easy for us in this group to do it. Typically we have the CNC experience and we have good equipment to make any custom required parts.
The typical 3D printer hobbyist does not have the mechanical equipment or CNC experience. Most of them are starting from scratch.

Here is some info on conversions done with EMC instead of Mach3:
http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/EMCRepStrap

Is there any information on a conversion like that using Mach3? I do not want to start from scratch if not needed.
Bertho

25

General Mach Discussion / Re: ZOOM LIMITED IN MACH TURN SCREEN

« on: November 18, 2009, 04:51:03 AM »

I understand and agree that we should not bother Brian.  Is there not a test version of the new tool path viewer released?  I think I saw some post about that.  Maybe that was only for the mill??

Any suggestions for a temporary gcode lathe viewer in the meantime while waiting for Rev 4?
Bertho

26

General Mach Discussion / Re: ZOOM LIMITED IN MACH TURN SCREEN

« on: November 18, 2009, 04:19:46 AM »

Apparently I am not doing something wrong then.
If just the zoom in limit was removed it would be very useful as it is.
Bertho

27

General Mach Discussion / Re: ZOOM LIMITED IN MACH TURN SCREEN

« on: November 18, 2009, 01:00:38 AM »

The Mach3 lathe tool path window apparently limits how far I can zoom in by the largest moves present or something like that.

I have both front and rear tool posts so the Z movement is larger than normal and the resulting important tool path is too small to see what is
happening. How can I override the zoom limit and zoom in further?

Why is there even a limit on zoom in the first place?  I understand that the default setting is required but otherwise let the user zoom away.
I am using the latest version (3.042.032).
TIA
Bertho

28

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: LazyCAM Turn: Arcs are "backwards"

« on: November 15, 2009, 04:36:40 PM »

Thanks Rich for a fast reply.
I have already downloaded, printed & bound all the documentation.  They are very nicely done!
Obviously I still missed some feature and I will look at the suggested reading materiel.

I manually calculated the arcs the first time which worked but then I tried the finishing pass in LazyCAM turn and ran into the problems.
Bertho

29

LazyCam (Beta) / LazyCAM Turn: Arcs are "backwards"

« on: November 15, 2009, 09:44:26 AM »

I created a profile with several arcs joining lines like a rounded corner.
The program generated the lines OK but all the arcs are the opposite of what they are supposed to be.
For example, the arc joining the two 90 degree angled lines is supposed to be a short outside convex segment of 90 degrees but it became a 270 degree inside concave segment.
Presumably I am missing something very obvious.
What am I doing wrong?

I am getting tired of hand calculating all the arcs and I am waiting for LazyTurn with the finish path option.
Thanks in advance,
Bertho

30

LazyTurn / Tool Path Up-Down

« on: November 14, 2009, 07:22:21 PM »

In Mach3 Lathe the tool path (profile) is shown as looking down on a regular lathe with the tool bit in a normal position and it makes sense to me from a practical viewpoint and it is easy to visualize.

LazyCAM Turn flips the profile so it is the backside that is displayed.

LazyTurn manual does it both ways.  

Is there any good reason for all the confusion?

Hopefully LazyTurn will standardize to match Mach3 Lathe.
Happy Machining and have a great weekend!
Bertho