Messages

21

Competitions / Re: ******Guess and win a G100 Grex******

« on: May 22, 2007, 09:19:18 PM »

Hey,
2,222,222
GreG

22

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

« on: March 03, 2007, 10:25:30 AM »

Hi,
My name is Greg and I live in Alberta Canada, I have been a running CNC machines for 12 years now, and I'm a Interprovincial Certified General Machinist.  We moved from Ontario to Alberta a year ago, I did my apprenticeship in Ontario and most of my experience is in the tool and die/mold industry making tools for the auto industry now in Alberta, I am making parts for the oil industry.

I own a K2 CNC router Kt-2514 and I have plans on making a large router in the next while and would like to add a 4th axis to my router I am currently using. I have a small business that I am trying to run, maybe one day I can do it full time.

I know many different CNC languages Fanuc, Heidenhein, Fidia, and a few others also many CAM softwares such as Powermill, Work NC, Prospector, Lemoine and Mastercam. When I first came to Alberta I started working for a company that fixed CNC machines but there was too much travel involved so I didn't stay with that company. Now I am in a shop running a DaeWoo Ace H100 boring mill using Mastercam it seems like a good place to work they have very good tooling. 

I enjoy drawing, woodcarving, snowboarding and mountain biking. I love CNC and I have benefited greatly from this site and all the people here.

Greg

23

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help! Please! this Chaos has to stop!

« on: January 21, 2007, 10:53:24 PM »

Hey!!!
I am back, and I think I figured this problem out.  I think I am setting the cutterpath tolerance too high, so the machine is trying to hit all those points at a high feed rate and the motors can't keep it up and looses it's position.

The way I figured it out (at least I think I figured it out) is that I tried another CAM software and the default tolerance was .002 and I made a bunch of parts at a decent feed rate with out it screwing up.  The default for my original CAM software was .00001 way to tight for my machine and I don't even need it to be that tight.  I feel like a bone head that I didn't see it earlier, but I guess when you take a break and come back with a clear head you can end up seeing things you didn't see before.

Just as a survey who ever reads this post please tell me what you set your tolerance for contouring.  I am not 100% sure that this is the whole problem I still might need a larger power supply for the feeds that I would like to see the machine run at.

Please let me know what you think,

Greg

24

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help! Please! this Chaos has to stop!

« on: December 18, 2006, 10:19:53 PM »

Hi,
Slowing down my acceleration/velocity helps the problem or at least it doesn't happen as often. I slowed down my rates so much that when I put my feed at 80ipm the max my machine would do is 30ipm.

My top speed is around 130ipm but I am running my Velocity at 3.5, my acceleration rate is .7 that puts my top feed at 60ipm and my average speed that I was trying to cut at is 80-100ipm.

I have run some programs at 80-100ipm but only a few of them made it all the way through, I seem to have sucess around 60ipm but eventually it will screw up too.  Also it seems the larger the program the more often it will screw up.

The video I have posted in another post shows it screwing up just when I am moving my machine in handle, it always messes up if I run a drill program. It doesn't like to switch between G0 and G1.

I have a time when the machine didn't screw up even from the first day I had it. They told me that I could cut around 100-120 ipm when I bought it.
Thanks,
Greg

25

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help! Please! this Chaos has to stop!

« on: December 18, 2006, 02:48:18 PM »

Hi,
I hooked up the 5 volt wire from the computers power supply, and I ran the program and it messed up.  So that wasn't the problem.  The problem with slowing down the Acceleration and Velocity is that it will take forever to run a program, and that's not an option.  Will increasing the power supply fix the problem. Also I have a weird looking breakout board, what do you think of it? Do I need to replace it?  You can see it on a another topic started by me. Can you send me some links for a good place to buy a power supply and breakout boards? I just want to get this machine fixed I don't care if I have to replace parts.
Thanks,
Greg

26

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems with movement with Large program loaded

« on: December 18, 2006, 02:36:42 PM »

Hi,
Thanks for the Help, I guess I should have looked harder if it was anymore out in the open it would have fell in my lap.
Brian, check out my other post on "Help this chaos has to stop". Let me know what you have to think.
Greg

27

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems with movement with Large program loaded

« on: December 16, 2006, 09:32:39 PM »

Hi,
I have 768Mb of RAM, Is there a setting that will devote more of my computers resources to the type of applications that Mach uses? 

How do I turn off the toolpath, will that make a differences?

Thanks,
Greg

28

General Mach Discussion / Problems with movement with Large program loaded

« on: December 16, 2006, 01:01:24 PM »

Hi,
I loaded a large cutterpath into Mach2 and when I move the machine it keeps moving after I release the button. It moved fine before and then after I closed the program it would move just fine, but while the program loaded into Mach it had problems.  For example, before the I load the program when I would tap the Page up button it would move about .03, but when the program was loaded, I would tap the Page up button and it would move up 1.43 with just one tap of the button!

Any Ideas whats going on? I can get you the cutterpath if you want but its 78Mb.
Thanks,
Greg

29

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help! Please! this Chaos has to stop!

« on: December 13, 2006, 11:49:13 PM »

Hi,
I couldn't find a 5volt power supply with the proper Ma, but I did find a 4.5 volt 500 Ma adapter. Is that good enough? I find the hot wire and run it to the same place that the USB wire ran to and then run the other wire to ground?
Thanks,
Greg

30

General Mach Discussion / Re: Help! Please! this Chaos has to stop!

« on: December 12, 2006, 09:26:42 PM »

Hi,
When I put my multimeter on the USB connection it gets 1.28 volts, it should get 5 volts what should I do? It's AC right? If I wanted to buy a 5 volt power supply what should I buy? What would be the value of the Amps or Milliamps?
Greg