Messages

121

General Mach Discussion / Re: Renishaw tool setter, Macros and other probing questions

« on: April 21, 2009, 10:37:37 PM »

I'll snap a few pic tommorow and post

122

General Mach Discussion / Renishaw tool setter, Macros and probing questions :) ADDED PICS

« on: April 17, 2009, 12:52:34 PM »

I have been using my big lathe for a few months now on a pretty regular basis with Mach3 . I am controlling the 30hp spindle motor thru a VFD from AD, With much help from HOOD the 12 station tool changer is working perfectly with a PLC from AD communicating with MODBUS . I am having no problems with 800IPM rapids with 2kw brushless servos and thanks to the smooth stepper (and chaoticone) I finaly have threading all ironed out .

Since the machine has been running perfectly for months I feel its time to screw things up again by tackling the project of getting the tool setting probe working and at some point getting the work setting probe up and running.

The tool setting probe is from Renishaw, which as complicated as it appears to be with tons of wire and control box just has two out put wires to signal when the connection in the switch in the probe is broken . What appears needs to happen is an air cylinder needs to be activated by energizingthe coil in the soleniod which will open a door above the chuck and send the probe out to a fixed, known position .

At that point I am guessing a tool will be called out and a routine needs to be run where the tool will slowly approch the end of probe until contact is made , the offset for that direction needs to be entered in the tool library , then it should back off and slowly aproach the side of the probe and the offset for that direction entered in the tool library  

any thoghts , help or guidance greatly appreciated

123

General Mach Discussion / Re: Auto oiler

« on: January 08, 2009, 10:26:54 PM »

I am using the brain downloaded from the first page of this thread, I printed poppabears post and will  go back over it all in the morning, I have fiddled with it enough that I may have un checked  cummulative or changed the delay to some other value. What ever is going on it energizes my relay activating the oiler everytime the spindle is started , even if its stopped and started multiple times in a few minute period, it activates each time. Thanks for the help I will read and re-read all this again tommorow while standing at the machine and I am sure what ever I have changed or screwed up will leap out at me

124

General Mach Discussion / Re: Auto oiler

« on: January 08, 2009, 08:19:13 PM »

the relay is a solid state 20 amp being switched on by pin one port two , every time the spindle is switched on it switches the relay on  for a few seconds , it then cycles agin in 20 minutes . It also triggers the relay everytime the spindle is switched on , I will look thru my wiring tommorow , any thoughts on what I might be looking for ?  Thanks

125

General Mach Discussion / Re: My next retrofit more pic added

« on: January 08, 2009, 06:45:15 PM »

with the help of hood and chaoticone I got this machine all finished up . Runs like a top

126

General Mach Discussion / Re: Auto oiler

« on: January 08, 2009, 04:55:07 PM »

I have another question about the "oiler Brain"  I have been using it for a few months now and it works great but I am having a little problem.  It sends the signal to my oiler for a preset length of time every 20 minutes of spindle runtime but the problem is it resets the 20 min timer each time the spindle is turned on . If I have a part in which it turns the spindle on and off three times , it gives a shot of oil each time the spindle starts  even if they are only 1 min apart , so on parts with small run time I am wasting a ton of oil. How can I modify the brain so it oils every 20 minutes of spindle run time and doesnt reset each time the spindle is stopped and restarted?

127

General Mach Discussion / Re: speeding up my 4th axis rotary table?

« on: October 09, 2008, 02:02:57 AM »

I am running a huge servo motor on an 8" rotary table, its cabaple pf spinning the table at quite a high rate of speed. I have the max IPM on the x and y axis set somewhere around 150 IPM on a bridge port and the rotary at 2000 degrees per minute(rotary is capable of over 40K DPM).

I think my problem may be the software I am using to generate the gcode, its set for 6IPM which is correct for the engraving tool I am using to engrave 4140 steel tubing, but when its moving the rotary axis its also only moving it at 6 degrees per minute which is painfully slow

128

General Mach Discussion / Re: Forth axis

« on: October 08, 2008, 09:37:02 PM »

here is a pretty good tutorial

http://deskcnc.com/Rotary_Tutorial.html

129

General Mach Discussion / speeding up my 4th axis rotary table?

« on: October 08, 2008, 09:33:03 PM »

I need a little help getting my rotary table , Axis A , up to speed .

I when I am using it to cut flutes in bbls etc it pretty easy to enter speeds of f200 and it takes a little over 1.5 minutes to make a full 360 degree revolution .

When I generate my etext engraving files  I need the x axis to move at aprox 6 IPM but when cutting in the A or a combination of X and A I would like to move at speeds of 200 or a little better.

any thoughts

130

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: October 07, 2008, 10:20:41 PM »

Hi My name is Richard , I am a recovering CNC-Aholic , started playing with Kcam  on a 5'x10' router table a little over 10 years ago and master5 soon after, tryed just about every free or shareware cnc software, very happy with Mach . Have been a machiniist for over 20 years .  Currently run a small CNC machine shop(2 mills, 4 lathes, 1 plasma table) mainly work in the firearm industry . Very much enjoy the forum and love the fact that I can get a quick accurate answer to my questions. The support avail for this software makes it a great product. Thanks