Messages

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

« on: January 02, 2009, 04:07:25 PM »

Photorealistic Miniatures Wargaming?

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Can Mach3 run under windows CE

« on: January 01, 2009, 11:26:35 PM »

...but a handheld Mach would be fun.

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

« on: December 31, 2008, 05:19:11 PM »

Impressive! 

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General Mach Discussion / Re: setting a permanent home point

« on: December 30, 2008, 06:26:51 PM »

Well, thanks for all of the suggestions.
I gotta say, though, I know how Machine coordinates work in the real world, most of my problem has been caused my my not reading Mach's instruction manual.
Clearly, 15 years worth of 'I know what I'm doing' isn't helping.

The other day I hit the 'GOTO Z' button accidentally, and the mill ran back to the home coodinates I'd set at the same time I'd set G54. Unfamiliar with Mach's single-DRO offset page, I've just been homing the machine AND setting a work offset at the same time.
Anyway, as the machine moved, I noticed that it positioned X and Y first, and then Z, which, for a homing function, would be backwards, and potentially disasterous.
Since then, I've learned that the GOTO Z is just heading to Work zero, and the positioning of Z last makes complete sense in THAT case.
Still, it's a button I'll remove when I start experimenting with VB.
Again, thanks to everyone for your help.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: setting a permanent home point

« on: December 30, 2008, 06:16:53 AM »

My opinion, home  (limit)  switch's are as important as an E-stop.

Thanks, that's my opinion too. Although, in this case, the disaster would be a small one, this is just a tiny little Sherline.
Still, I haven't really looked at Mach's homing setup yet, because I can't apply it to anything. I'll get to the switches this week.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: setting a permanent home point

« on: December 29, 2008, 10:13:18 PM »

Yeah, I don't know what Mach is doing with the offsets. Since they have no steady Machine Zero to reference from, I feel like I'm getting different results with the offset buttons every time I hit one.
My earlier problem was that I thought the button marked "GOTO Z" was trying to return the mill to Machine Home.

The 'Abnormal Condition' blinking light is annoying, the edgefinder diagram on the offsets page seems like a waste of space, as are the TWO Tool Offset buttons with 'Gauge Block Height' settings. Those last two features seem like they're aimed at non-machinists.
I'd rather have the Work Offset and Tool Offset lists onscreen.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: setting a permanent home point

« on: December 29, 2008, 06:50:38 PM »

I'm just used to having a tool offset page, and a work offset page, listing all of the offsets available and the distances from machine home for each of them.
I guess I'll figure out Mach eventually.

I don't know how to program in VB.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: setting a permanent home point

« on: December 29, 2008, 06:33:24 PM »

I guess I just need to stop trying to run this thing and get home switches installed in it.
I haven't really spent enough time learning Mach's oddities, I keep trying to get it to run like a Haas.
Nothing seems to work like I expect.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: setting a permanent home point

« on: December 29, 2008, 06:10:58 PM »

Ref All Home? It doesn't seem to do anything other than zero the DROs, and (I'll assume), set the machine's current position as Machine Home.

The 'GOTO Z' button causes strange jogging, I guess it's going back to Machine Home, but sometimes it just seems to head to a new location, and it NEVER moves Z first.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: setting a permanent home point

« on: December 28, 2008, 02:40:10 PM »

Can you set up Mach so it homes in a set order; Z axis first, and then X and Y, so hitting the Home button doesn't cause a high-speed dive through everything on the table?