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Messages - Sam

321
General Mach Discussion / Re: motor settings
« on: September 10, 2010, 09:56:38 PM »
Jeff, Inivator made a reply to your post. He was NOT thanking you for your support. Rich (moderator) edited his post, and kindly told him to take his bad attitude elsewhere. Good job, Rich.

322
Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Dixie Duke - A machine in the making.
« on: September 07, 2010, 06:09:38 PM »
Still no chips yet, but more progress. Made the stand (well, part of it), and attached the spindle motor. The stand will house all the electrical, and coolant tank. Will probably have drawers or shelves too, for storage. There will be four more vertical post, (2 front, 2 rear) giving more support, and dividing the electrical, coolant, and storage compartments. I ran out of material, so it just didn't get done this time around. Took a short video of the roadrunner/coyote code running. I bumped the feed up 200 ipm. I tried it maxed out at 270ipm@45,000hz, with the acceleration maxed out, but the gecko's didn't like that. >:D With the acceleration tweaked, 300+ ipm would not be hard to achieve at all. That's about 200 ipm more than what I need, or want, and at the first sign not having enough torque, I'll be incorporating a drive reduction. The Z axis motor did not seem to show any weakness at all lifting the 130 pound head at 200 IPM. I was quiet shocked at that. Still gotta find me a good (cheap) source for some lead shot to make a counterbalance. All in due time, I suppose. http://www.hillbillyhilton.com/vid/DDvid.wmv

323
Tangent Corner / Re: Interesting discussion on Fine Woodworking.
« on: September 07, 2010, 05:01:03 PM »
I think change is always right around the corner. Thank goodness, or we would all still be living in caves. I never did understand the "die hard purist" peoples way of thinking. They use different tools and methods and have a different skill set than the people before them, so on and so forth generation after generation. I mean, if your gonna play the die hard card on me, then you better be doing everything 100% by hand, and I mean caveman style. No chisels, hammers, or any of those other newfangled gadgets. They really shouldn't have access the internet, either. Back in the day, people couldn't give out secrets of the trade, show different styles of work, or give advise and help out with a few keystrokes on a forum. What you learned, was all by experience, and the direct teachings of the fellow before you. I guess what really irritates me the most is, when some people try to make you feel like your "beneath" them by not doing things by hand. I think we all know how much time and effort is required to excel at what we do. The article did state a good point..."it ain't the tool, it's the person using it", and I was also relieved to see that 90%+  of the comments embraced the idea of using CNC. Technology is a truly wonderful thing. Embrace it, or get the hell outta the way, for the rest of societies sake. End of rant. :)

324
Tangent Corner / Interesting discussion on Fine Woodworking.
« on: September 07, 2010, 10:19:15 AM »
http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/30807/cnc-is-knocking-on-your-shop-door-will-you-answer
Ran across this and figured I'd share. The comments at the end are a good read, too.

325
General Mach Discussion / Re: Milling marks????????
« on: September 06, 2010, 10:30:04 PM »
Can you attach the code, or mastercam file?

326
Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.
« on: September 05, 2010, 10:00:09 AM »
Neat stuff you get yourself into, Tweakie. I wish I had some of your electronic know-how. How is this laser better than the one you currently have?

327
General Mach Discussion / Re: Milling marks????????
« on: September 02, 2010, 09:20:46 PM »
It could be any multitude of things. If you have cut other projects with the same parameters, (feedrate, stepover, etc..) and achieved good results, then that should rule out the machine. If you have a scrap of material, you could slow the machine way down and cut a few lines to see if it still digs in. It could be the way they went about making the file in solidworks. My first impression of the picture, was that something is either not set correctly in mastercam, or the surfaces are not of a high enough resolution. Have you tried different settings for the filters, gap settings, etc. in mastercam? How about additional toolpaths for cleanup such as restmill, pencil, or finish leftover? You might be able to zoom way in on the toolpath, inside mastercam while stepping through a backplot, to see if the gouges are actually in the toolpath. If I were you, I would post your problem at CNC Zone. I think Mike Mattera is one of the Mastercam fellows there that knows a thing or two. Sorry I can't be of any more help! Maybe someone else will chime in with some advise. Let us know what you find out, I'm rather curious myself. Good luck!

328
Mach3 and G-Rex / Re: inporting DXF files
« on: August 31, 2010, 12:24:32 AM »
What your doing now is engraving, or using an outline, or contour toolpath. What your wanting to do (if I understand correctly) is called pocketing. I am unaware of any method for doing this without the use of a cam software. Your next question will be "where do I get this cam software?" There may be some free software that somebody can hopefully point you in the right direction to. Vectric software is highly respected, not free, but very cheap (compared to others). It would also take you well beyond pocketing, as your abilities grow. http://www.vectric.com/
Be forewarned that battles have been won and lost, and many lives paid in the argument and pursuit of the "best" cam software. I would rank it right up there with religion and politics.  ;D
Best of luck!

329
General Mach Discussion / Re: Backlash comp help
« on: August 30, 2010, 11:45:46 PM »
Quote
Oh, BTW be sure the dial indicator is EXACTLY parallel to the direction of movement. If it isn't then it will not indicate the correct measurement.
Good  advise, Sage. That's one thing that is commonly overlooked. I've seen so called "professionals" make that rookie mistake. There's a video on Fine Woodworking about indicating a table saw blade parallel to the rip fence, and the instructors indicator is probably off 20-30 degrees from perpendicular. All I could do was sigh with disappointment.

dphens: I agree with the others. You are facing other issues that should take precedence over compensation. Getting a tighter machine movement will yield a better overall result than comp could ever achieve by 10 fold.

330
Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Dixie Duke - A machine in the making.
« on: August 30, 2010, 02:30:41 PM »
Yep, pretty much! It's been one billet machined after another. Finally got 2 motor mounts made this weekend. I'll be glad to see some movement soon... I hope. All this work being done, and it seems like there's no real progress. I need to see something function, #@&%$! Next up is making the mount for the spindle motor. Gonna hafta do some cad work before I can start on that, though. Fitting that large of a motor on such a small space is proving to be a challenge, to say the least.
More pics, but unfortunately no video yet.