Messages

231

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with Mach3 Lathe Toolpath display

« on: November 05, 2006, 01:39:28 PM »

My lathe is set in diameter mode, and the diameter always seems to display ok, or not wierd anyway, it seems to be when you have a more complex part it goes crazy. Simple shapes such as the wizards will machine usually display ok. Lee, you have diameter mode set up or radius?

232

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help with Mach3 Lathe Toolpath display

« on: November 04, 2006, 12:24:14 AM »

I'd have to admit that my lathe screen has toolpath display problems as well. Some programs show it clearly and all is as it should be, some are sort of messed up and I have to go back to my old Fanuc CNC lathe methods that had no real time toolpath display at all, and ignore it. It's sort of random, sometimes the display won't have any shading, but is ok in general, sometimes it will show odd stuff that is not meant to be there.
        Dave.

233

General Mach Discussion / Re: confused newbie

« on: November 01, 2006, 07:21:14 PM »

1265*25.4=32131. Sounds like you indeed have a metric to Imperial conversion problem. Put the steps back to 32000 and then play with the settings somehow?

234

General Mach Discussion / Re: check disk

« on: October 28, 2006, 06:19:58 PM »

I bought a new drive and case for the computer for my CNC lathe retrofit and couldn't fit the case in the enclosure for the lathe. So, I tried to just do a case with motherboard swap, swapped the drives essentially. Thing would go into a check disk and never really move past it. Turns out that you have to keep drives that have existing XP installs and their motherboard/ chipsets together. XP sets itself up with the chipset it finds and doesen't like to use a different chipset as you might use if you swap out to a different motherboard.

235

General Mach Discussion / Re: check disk

« on: October 28, 2006, 03:23:39 PM »

Hmm, hapened with me last time I tried it, and got the info about it from a reliable source, and it fixed mine. Guess you never know when it has to do with Microsoft.

236

General Mach Discussion / Re: check disk

« on: October 28, 2006, 12:07:28 PM »

XP will do that if you do a motherboard swap, existing drive with XP installed and you install into a new/ different computer. Have to keep motherboards and drives together unless you can reinstall XP.

237

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: G71, G70 roughing, finishing lathe

« on: October 22, 2006, 06:55:05 PM »

Yes, same here, never used G72 though, was always Z axis roughing it seemed like. I have tried the Mach3 DXF import with roughing lines drawn in and saved as the roughing layer, this sort of works but I'll have to refine it a bit more yet. Surfcam works fairly well for lathe, but is a bit confusing in this mode if you don't use it all the time, certain things you have to remember, etc. Seems like most of the development with Mach is for mills, which is understandable as that is probably 95% of the sales for the product I would imagine.

238

General Mach Discussion / Re: What is a good feed rate?

« on: October 22, 2006, 03:40:30 PM »

I buy .500" solid carbide ballnose mills, 2" LOC, 4" OAL, and use them as router bits. I see that Vortextool had this bit for $87, I get them from Wholesaletool.com for about $37. These will cut over 240 gallons of MDF wood chips and still be reasonably sharp.

239

General Mach Discussion / Re: Advice sought on importing Autocad DXFs into Mach3.

« on: October 18, 2006, 08:47:15 PM »

Try saving as R12 DXF.

240

General Mach Discussion / Re: What is the best Cad / Cam software?

« on: October 15, 2006, 11:08:40 PM »

Surfcam is nice, Mastercam is also nice, both are very similar, but either will cost you over $8,000 for the most basic version. Bobcad is good value for money, and there are a few cheaper ones out there as well, if you only need 2.5 axis stuff.