Messages

91

General Mach Discussion / Re: Show us yor control panels

« on: November 25, 2012, 02:53:53 PM »

I thought all the boards you had were storm. Who is the maker of the other ones you have?

92

General Mach Discussion / Re: Show us yor control panels

« on: November 25, 2012, 01:28:52 AM »

These particular ones have no F-Keys or number pads, but still a good deal if you don't need those keys.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/STORM-2210-22NS03-04-01-USB-KEYBOARD-2200-SERIES-/330834684777?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item4d0748ab69
http://www.ebay.com/itm/STORM-2210-22NS03-0401-STORM-USB-KEYBOARD-2200-SERIES-/130704338995?pt=Mice&hash=item1e6e95f033

I have 4 or 5 Storm branded keyboards, and they are top notch. Never heard of any complaints from any of the other folks that use them, either. "storm" should be one of the keywords for the ebay searches, or you could be searching within a billion useless results.

93

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Nardini Fasttrace 220 goes from Fanuc to Mach3

« on: November 25, 2012, 12:52:24 AM »

Been using a Fast Trace for over a decade. Never had one problem from it (so far). Did it not run in its current state? I do find the conversational programming capabilities extremely lacking, to say the least, but I don't think I would go so far as to completely change everything out, in fear of a costly repair that may never happen. As far as steppers or servos, I would go with servos 100%.

94

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: First Litho LED Frame

« on: November 20, 2012, 12:39:48 PM »

That's pretty awesome, Dave!

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Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Isolation Routing PCB's and Local System Rotate.

« on: November 15, 2012, 12:06:53 AM »

Pretty cool, Tweaks. Looks like you've got it figured out pretty good. Amazes me how you are able to do all the things you do. I can't even get the necessities done! "Limit switches you say? Pfffffttt... it can wait." I read about this in the digital sample issue of Digital Machinist. They have a really nice writeup on Mach 3 "How Mach 3 Continues To Amaze Me". It's a really good read, very informative. Even gives ya the VB code for several routines.
http://digital.turn-page.com/issue/17465 If your interested.

96

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: I'm in Hog Heaven

« on: November 12, 2012, 01:08:09 PM »

Cleveland is a pretty nice place. Loudon is not that bad either. Loudon is much smaller than Cleveland, but fairly close to Knoxville. Cleveland is close to Chattanooga, but Cleveland is most likely large enough that you would never have to go to Chattanooga. If I had the option of picking a city to move to in Tennessee, Chattanooga would be darn near the bottom of the list. That is just my opinion. I have lived in TN for over 30 years, and just cringe when I have to go to Chattanooga. There ARE nice places surrounding Chattanooga, and most of those areas bring a premium price, but I believe the Knoxville area to be a far superior place to live. Better roads, easier travel, better laid out, nicer surroundings, better neighborhoods, better shopping, etc. Plenty of places to drop a lure, too! I work next door to a small iron casting facility. Got a couple houses to choose from too. Couldn't interest you in an all brick, large yard, in-ground pool with surrounding concrete patio, small bar, hot tub, small pool house, concrete drive, 2 car attached garage, nice neighborhood, right outside city limits of Athens, could I?  How bout a VERY nice, newly restored, two story turn of the century house. **end of sales pitch**

Not trying to steer you away from Chatt, because it does have allot to offer some people. Some people would live no where else. Just figured I would give my opinion, even though you didn't ask.

97

Tangent Corner / Re: Flatbed scanner that doesn't stretch or skew?

« on: November 05, 2012, 01:26:02 PM »

Here are a few scans, just to have a rough visualization. You might be needing something way higher quality. I've never had one that was not a "fill-in-the-blank", so to speak. I always just figured if this wasn't good enough, it was time for a probe.

98

Tangent Corner / Re: Flatbed scanner that doesn't stretch or skew?

« on: November 05, 2012, 12:57:43 PM »

I've scanned a few objects over the years, with different scanners. Never had a problem with any of them, really. 0.01 is pretty close though. It may be the method your using to do the scan, rather than the scanner. I've had the best results with the higher scan resolutions, and tweaked some of the other settings that I have to re-learn every time I need a scan (I'm not the best at writing stuff down, or remembering). I do remember that color was no good, so it was either black/white or gray-scale, and then some advanced options tweaking after that. Also, I never crop the scan. I always scan the entire page size, so when I import the pic into the drawing program, everything is correctly proportioned. If your not doing this, it may be where you getting your stretching or skewing. After I get it scanned, and the pic re-sized (proportionally) to a workable size, and import into the drawing program, I will find as many details on the physical part that can be measured precisely, so I can draw them manually, and match them up to the scanned image. This will let you know if everything is working as intended. If the manual drawing matches up with the scan, then it's usually good to go with the other features. Apologies if I went into needless, off-topic detail.

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Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: I'm in Hog Heaven

« on: November 05, 2012, 12:16:13 PM »

That's around my neck of the woods. Lil further south, but close. Definitely a growing city. Lots of industry moving there.

100

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 and Tapmatic Tapping Head

« on: November 04, 2012, 05:40:48 PM »

If it were me, I would go with a thread forming tap. Stronger threads, stronger tap, and best of all, no chips. Keep in mind they require a different size hole than cutting taps. M2's and 3's are pretty small taps to start out with, on an inexperienced method. Again, if it were me, I would use a larger, more forgiving tap, until I got the hang of it and learned a few "in's and out's" of the tapping head. Might save some money both on taps, and anger management classes.