Messages

31

General Mach Discussion / Re: making parts to size on customer prints

« on: November 29, 2008, 11:01:56 PM »

i have to run a few sample part by the end of the week so i will see how close i can get to the prints with the tolerances and the current mach setup. 

32

General Mach Discussion / Re: m6 tool change issues and button script issue (rewind button)

« on: November 29, 2008, 05:11:03 PM »

i thought about doing that.  i ultimately thought that the safe z position should be in m6 start. and then everything else in m6 end.   correct me if i'm wrong but i'm not familiar with how mach uses m6 start and m6 end.

33

General Mach Discussion / Re: m6 tool change issues and button script issue (rewind button)

« on: November 26, 2008, 01:49:23 PM »

ok after trying and trying i can get it to work.  btw it is a g43 not a g44.  for some reason after the tool change which is m6 start. sometimes it still wants to go down and sometimes it will want to go up.  so i think the issue lies in M6 end.  i know there is something called safe z in m6 end.  i don't know what this is and i don't know what it thinks is safe z.  on my professional cncs i can set a safe z. plane.  i would really like to understand what is happening here.  also is there a way for it to rapid back to the start poiint of the tool change? 

34

General Mach Discussion / Re: m6 tool change issues and button script issue (rewind button)

« on: November 26, 2008, 09:25:31 AM »

the problem comes in when the program gets stuck on line 2 which is the T1 M6 command.  its not even reading G43 yet. 

35

General Mach Discussion / Re: m6 tool change issues and button script issue (rewind button)

« on: November 26, 2008, 06:30:26 AM »

the offset for T1 is -14.653" i have about 16" travel and my home switch as at the top of the axis.  yes my next line calls up g43 H1 but it never gets there it gets stuck on T1 M6

36

General Mach Discussion / m6 tool change issues and button script issue (rewind button)

« on: November 25, 2008, 09:16:37 PM »

i seem to be having trouble using the tool change option.  when i first load Mach 3 and home the machine everything seems fine.  then i load my program and go to touch off tool 1 using just a peice of .003 shim stock.  after doing this do i need to rehome the machine?  i already have my offsets set i'm using g55.  when i go to run the program my third line is T01 M6 and it seems that mach gets stuck here and moves the z axis for some reason.  sometimes it wants to go up and most of the time it wants to go down and plow through the table.  when i hit stop and then rewind the z offset changes from the tool offset to what i assume is back to tool zero.  but when i go to run the program again it again does the same thing and hangs up on line 3 T01 M6. 

i haven't modified the standard m6 start and m6 end macros.  and i have the box checked under the config for stop spindle wait for cycle start which is what i want.  any ideas here would be great.

thanks

37

General Mach Discussion / Re: making parts to size on customer prints

« on: November 24, 2008, 11:08:04 PM »

I may have been a little to hasty...  i sat down and looked through my programs, it looks like mach is trying to compensate, but i can't tell without actually running a part.  i will try draw some tool paths tomorrow using cutter comp with different sized tools as per the tool table.  i am also under the impression that the wear offsets don't work.  is this correct?  ultimately i'm not that worried about it, but its just good to know.

thanks

Jerry

38

General Mach Discussion / Re: making parts to size on customer prints

« on: November 24, 2008, 03:12:04 PM »

i agree this is a serious problem with Mach 3.  i am having doubts of running customer parts on what i have to believe to be hobby equipment now.  even with tool paths generated in a cam program, how does it offset correctly?  what if your using reground end mills?  what if your end mills aren't spot on the diameter?  how can you compensate for this?  i've run a few jobs on this setup and basically all of them i had to rewrite the path when i swapped end mills.  this really should not be the case. 

39

General Mach Discussion / Re: making parts to size on customer prints

« on: November 24, 2008, 07:46:59 AM »

ok a little back ground on me... i have run mills in the past so i'm familiar with lead ins for cutter comp.  i guess what i'm really after is the limitations of the software.  i have an IH mill and with that i have cut plenty of circles using the wizards and they were right on within .0005 of the actual diameter.  the current print i'm working at needs me to put an arc at the base of the part.  basically i need to remove about .100 of material and then throw an arc profile on the part so it can be welded onto a tube. 

in mach when starting cutter comp is it necessary to have both an x and y move?  or will just one of them suffice set cutter comp? 

40

General Mach Discussion / making parts to size on customer prints

« on: November 23, 2008, 11:17:31 PM »

i am new to using mach 3 and was playing around with cutter comp on my cnc mill.  i am currently trying to cut an arc with cutter comp and it doesn't seem to be working.  i would hope that i could ultimately use cutter comp to be able to run the job with multiple different sized endmills.   so far though i haven't had any luck and i've had to go back and manually fix the parts because the cutter just wouldn't take enough material.  i guess is was lucky that it was not enough and not too much.  i'm just wondering how good of luck people are having making parts to print?