Messages

101

Share Your GCode / Re: Suppressor Designs?

« on: May 02, 2011, 02:34:11 PM »

Well, a popular choice for (improvised) .22lr silencers was 6mm penny washers as baffles and a big O-ring as a spacer - repeat a few dozen times inside a tube. The ones I've seen have used that were made commercially have either a perforated tube passing through an expansion chamber, or a series of stacked baffles inside a chamber with a partially conical section pounting towards the shooter. One i saw seemed to have a series of spinnings that formed a rather beautiful series of nautilus-like sections between the baffles. I think you could spend a lot of time experimenting with this stuff.

102

General Mach Discussion / Re: What drawing program is this? (Electrical schematics drawing)

« on: April 29, 2011, 02:21:56 PM »

Could have been any number of CAD programs.

for preference these days I'm using Qcad. You can also do similar things (as well as PCB layouts) using OpenOffice Draw. Qcad is more capable and will export DXFs; Draw is easy to use and fine for simple, non-CAD stuff. Take your pick.

Anyone else using Qcad? I'm going to buy CamExpert at some point soon as it allows very clean Gcode export from DXF files.

103

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hood.....where is he?

« on: April 29, 2011, 12:12:52 PM »

Glad to hear you're on the mend. Gall bladders going wrong are incredibly painful but I'm told the operation is pretty routine. Hang in there and get better soon.

104

General Mach Discussion / Re: tool offsets when writing your own gcode

« on: April 27, 2011, 04:09:31 PM »

I thought it was g40 for tool radius offset cancellation and g49 to cancel the length offset. Or have I been wasting ink?

105

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle On Off Setup No 5VDC at relay.

« on: April 27, 2011, 01:01:18 PM »

Could be you need a smaller relay, any idea what the BOB's rated output current is?

Try some other loads on it like an LED/resistor, filament bulb, etc and see if it fires them up ok. also, does the relay work with a plain 5v supply to it?

I used some darlington pair optoisolators on my machine, these provide 5kv isolation and will drive a small relay very well. Worth considering. A phone charger makes a lovely packaged 5v supply.

Edit: is it one of these? http://www.mdfly.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=87

If so you will have only the power available from the parallel board to drive your relay, and it probably won't be enough. most parallel boards only really supply logic level currents.

http://campbelldesigns.net/Combo-board.php - This sort of thing may be more to the point since it is designed to drive relays. Plenty of options avalable, and most of them feature optoisolators which will stop your computer going to glory in the case of your wiring having a fry-up.

106

General Mach Discussion / Re: Hood.....where is he?

« on: April 27, 2011, 12:54:25 PM »

bad news Hood, my wife had a similar thing and it was very painful Indeed (for her at least). Hope it settles down soon and you can go back to life as you'd prefer it to be.

107

General Mach Discussion / Re: Grease pump

« on: February 20, 2011, 05:48:01 PM »

Given the complexity of the task, and the relatively low cost of grease, I would be tempted to impliment a simpler solution - Pump once on startup, and once more for every 5 minutes of spindle running time (or however long usually approximates to 50 metres of slide travel. Is this worth considering?

108

General Mach Discussion / Re: tool offsets questions - G41/G42 and G43 behaviour

« on: February 07, 2011, 11:37:58 AM »

hi there

post the code you're trying to run and I'll have a look.

109

General Mach Discussion / Re: tool offsets questions - G41/G42 and G43 behaviour

« on: February 07, 2011, 11:36:06 AM »

bit of an old one to dig up, but here goes. Have you programmed your tool diameter and length in the tool table and told the machine which tool to use?

should go something like

g40 g49 (cancels radius and length offsets)

M6 T7 (calls a toolchange to tool 7 in the table. may pause here if you have told it to, or call a macro, or just charge through - your settings)

g43 h7 (activates a length (H for Height) offset based on the dimensions of tool 7

g41 or G40 (activates radius offset right or left, based on tool 7's dimensions.

Quick introductory move and you're there I'd be surprised if you're not.

the tool change is the surest way to make sure your program knows what tool it's using. Pop it in there and it's done, no messing about in future.

110

General Mach Discussion / Re: limits triggered randomly no display

« on: January 18, 2011, 07:15:23 AM »

This is probably a more elegant way of doing it than mine, which was to use a series loop with limit switches in series with a relay coil and a 12v power supply, and the relay contacts (NO) across the pins, safely inside an enclosure. Leakage current dragging the pin voltage down is the problem, caused by damp, coolant and age, and either way will solve it. HK's solution is very quick though and should do the trick with least effort and expense

Edit: I had this problem, and loads of other people have had it too, perhaps the installation guide should address it from the start? It would only take a few lines.