Messages

531

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Just got a lathe to retrofit

« on: February 25, 2012, 09:23:19 AM »

Hood,

Nice turret. Wonder if he made the coupling as well.

Any good reason you'd want a curvic coupling dead accurate? Most probably you'll still need to adjust each tool's height so even if it weren't indexing accurately you'd still have all tools aligned in the end. Repeatability will still be there and I think that is what maters in the end.

Dan

532

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Just got a lathe to retrofit

« on: February 25, 2012, 02:02:29 AM »

Id like to scale this down but need an alternative to the curvic as I don't see them offered in a smaller size.
Maybe pins and bushings ?  Or keys and slots ?

Russ,

You need them tapered for it to work at all. Otherwise a small lash and vibrations are inevitable. If you have an accurate enough CNC mill I think it wouldn't be a problem making one. If your mill isn't accurate you should still get around if you have a rotary table which would index one tooth at a time and the mill would cut each tooth at the same location, thus repeatability is guaranteed.

Dan

533

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Arcs not cutting smoothly

« on: February 24, 2012, 02:08:01 AM »

It's different in this case, I am afraid, as he has arcs programmed in the Gcode and not segments.

Dan

534

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: February 22, 2012, 08:00:05 AM »

Sorry, Tweakie. Didn't mean to sound that way. Let's just consider the issue closed... till we know better anyway

Dan

535

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: February 22, 2012, 05:55:26 AM »

Hi Tweakie,

I agree again. I was just trying to say it was not theoretically correct a way of description. There will always be the slightest offset between the two dots. It might be small, but it's there. And without it you wouldn't again be able to produce shades of grey

Dan

536

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: February 22, 2012, 04:45:54 AM »

Hi Tweakie,

I agree with this. It's just that I think that using the word "power" to describe this process is misleading as the laser is being turned on to the same (predefined by some other means) power each time.

And to be more correct, I think that the laser never really does several pulses on top of one another (well if it's focused fine enough that is), as the axis is in a constant move. I think the correct way of thinking about it is the dots intensity. And the other thing to consider while at it is that the exposure time is determined by the axis feed rate.

Yes, I had read through your PDF and I must say you've done great job there!! Thanks for that!

Dan

537

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: February 20, 2012, 01:09:39 PM »

Well, I think the plugin doesn't control the laser power whatsoever. All it does is trigger it on and off.

Dan

538

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: February 20, 2012, 12:43:59 PM »

On it's own, the plugin will not always smooth a gradient of tone without producing 'steps' as can be seen in the background of this image which is a smooth transition from light to dark.

Tweakie, just out of curiosity I would try engraving the same image rotated by 90°.

John, I think the plugin outputs equal length pulses for each pixel. As far as I understand it's the spacing which creates the toning.

Dan

EDIT: Found original Art's description:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mach1mach2cnc/message/74912

539

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: February 20, 2012, 11:52:36 AM »

Hi Tweakie,

So how does it vary from the Impact plugin which still fires the laser at the same power each time? Roughly speaking, if I understand correctly the way the plugin works, it does internally the same thing as that program does, but following a different algorithm.

Dan

540

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: February 20, 2012, 09:20:27 AM »

Can you explain please, Tweakie? The power supply still operates in digital mode so how does the image conversion help?

In the image the program outputs, are all the dots equal in size?

Dan