Messages

51

General Mach Discussion / Re: 240v Router/Spindle

« on: April 09, 2008, 09:26:35 AM »

Very impressive O,

Now I am definitely keen.

Do you have a url for the "Wingspread Co" I have only tried Saka-cnc for information.
I googled windspread with no sucsess.
I will be posting some initial movies/still of my machine soon.

Bruce

52

General Mach Discussion / Re: 240v Router/Spindle

« on: April 09, 2008, 05:32:44 AM »

I have done a bit of web surfing, the above spindles they look very cost efective. As you say about $700-$800 for the spindle and drive.

How did you find the company to deal with. Any hassles? At that sort of money it is not much more that a quality hand held router. 240V operation is a bonus.
6mm collet size is a bit limiting, But for 99% of my machining its problably fine.

Bruce

53

General Mach Discussion / Re: 240v Router/Spindle

« on: April 08, 2008, 02:31:49 AM »

Sounds interesting oddaman,

I have sent an inquiry to the company re specs and prices.

What sort of cost is involved for a spindle, drive and collet system?

Bruce

54

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: text engraving

« on: April 06, 2008, 07:03:03 PM »

A way around this text pocketting problem is to use a CAD prog. to convert Text to Lines them export as DXF, then import DXF into Lazycam.  Pocketting works fine then.

55

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: text engraving

« on: April 06, 2008, 02:42:02 AM »

I also have been having no success with pocketing Text.

For example: when the letter "A" is dragged into a rectangle, and then pocketing is performed, the outer line of the "A" is left as an island but the inner part of the letter is also engraved. No matter how you try, the inner part cannot be separated (ungrouped?) from the outer part of the letter and pocketed on its own. The guys writing this program are doing a great job so maybe this bug can be fixed in a later revision of LC.

Bruce

56

General Mach Discussion / 240v Router/Spindle

« on: April 04, 2008, 12:24:16 AM »

I am investigating a suitable router or spindle for my new machine. Ideally it would be nice to have a "Proper Router Spindle" but finances dictate that I will maybe have to settle

for a quality router.

I would like something like a Portacable 7518 3 1/4HP but I am still trying to find out if or where I can find one of these brutes. (They may not import into Australia)

I know Festool, Makita, and Metabo all make plunge routers that are nearly as powerful but they are not so easy to mount

Can anyone point me to other alternatives?

I have built a very robust machine and it deserves a powerful spindle that won't brake the bank!

Bruce

57

General Mach Discussion / Re: Visualmill post proc. for Mach 3

« on: April 03, 2008, 09:01:12 AM »

Thanks Ian,
I have loaded the pp from K2cnc and all is OK. I also checked for a G43 in the .spm and there was none to be found.
They have fixed the problem already.
The next problem I came across - on completion of the run file my z home/limit tripped.
I traced this problem back to the Vismill pp "start/end" and amended the end target z to suit my home z.

Now all is onkydory!

Thank you and others for your help

Bruce

58

General Mach Discussion / Re: Visualmill post proc. for Mach 3

« on: April 02, 2008, 10:52:20 PM »

Just googled a search for Mach 3 post for visualmill and found :       http://www.k2cnc.com/Mach3/Mach3-MM.spm
I will try it out and "post" my findings in this thread

Bruce

59

General Mach Discussion / Re: Visualmill post proc. for Mach 3

« on: April 02, 2008, 06:19:02 PM »

Thanks Stirling,

I have not had any experience editing posts p's YET.  Could you offer any suggestions  as to what I should look for in the pp.
The symtoms are:
1. loads the g code OK
2. errors because of not accepting G43 (when I deleted that block the program will run)
3. even after referencing all axes.  axis "machine coord" DRO's read zero but program DRO's have an offset that CAN'T be cleared to zero
4. it is as though there is some corruption of mach 3 by the post p

Any clues would be appreciated.

Bruce
 

60

General Mach Discussion / Visualmill post proc. for Mach 3

« on: April 02, 2008, 07:45:18 AM »

Has anyone had any problems posting from Visual Mill into Mach3.  Is the post proc listed on the Vismill site ok. it seems to corrupt my xyz dro's

Bruce