Messages

181

General Mach Discussion / Re: Going back to Iraq, see ya fellas.......

« on: September 18, 2009, 09:38:20 AM »

Take care matey, come back safe.

182

FAQs / Re: My z plane isn't perfectly level

« on: September 10, 2009, 10:50:23 AM »

a little late perhaps, but how about a metal plate table? it would tend to sink heat out of the plastic. Also, do you have any cooling arrangements in place? Compressed air jets to the tool may help, or water vapour, depending on your electrical arrangements and sealing.

183

General Mach Discussion / Re: MACH 3 SUPPORT

« on: September 10, 2009, 09:55:46 AM »

it's a fair point. Mach3 has so many applications it's impossible to offer hardware support. I've seen it used for glue dispensers, mills, lathes, pipe benders, plasma cutters, routers and all sorts of uncommon applications.

184

General Mach Discussion / Re: Auto Router On With Cycle Start

« on: September 10, 2009, 07:41:06 AM »

Sounds like a good plan

If you want to dry-run a program you'll need a lockout of some kind to disable the feed hold though. Shouldn't be hard to do.

185

General Mach Discussion / Re: Auto Router On With Cycle Start

« on: September 09, 2009, 01:44:03 PM »

I've got a nice spindle safety circuit. It disables the spindle if it is switched off, but importantly it can't turn the spindle on if it is released onto an otherwise "started" spindle; ie it can't ever be used to activate the spindle. Only M3 can start it. if M3 is called when the safety is "safe" then after it is released M5 must be called, and m3 called to start rotation. I don't have a circuit diagram but you can make it with two relays and a 2-way switch. Let me know if you can't see how and I'll draw up a circuit for you.

I don't think I'd allow a spindle to start off anything other than M3 or M4, it's just asking for trouble tbh. Careful

186

General Mach Discussion / Re: Different use of Mach3 (dispensing)

« on: September 09, 2009, 09:54:44 AM »

One of these is the answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peristaltic_pump

just replace the hose when it is knackered. Not hard to build or buy.

187

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: My first project

« on: September 07, 2009, 06:33:36 PM »

 

Very nice! well done, that's some good careful work. Stick at the coding, it's the key to success in here. it's better than my first creation, it was a chunk of angle with a carbide cutter snapped off in the top. Didn't keep it, lol.

188

General Mach Discussion / limited lines query

« on: September 07, 2009, 06:29:07 PM »

Hi. Probably a short answer to this one. If a licensed copy of mach is limited to 10,000,000 lines, does this mean ten million lines of code as written or ten million lines of code as executed? If I set a subroutine of 10 lines to execute 1,000,000 times, would this crash it, or would it just see ten lines over and over again?

not that this is ever likely to bother me as I haven't written anything bigger than a Kilobyte

189

General Mach Discussion / Re: Different use of Mach3 (dispensing)

« on: September 07, 2009, 07:44:30 AM »

I'm sure we could dream up a couple of lines of code here, or write a quick macro. What level of complexity to you expect to need?

190

General Mach Discussion / Re: Different use of Mach3 (dispensing)

« on: September 07, 2009, 02:33:29 AM »

Similar train of thought - In this case using Z as the control for pumping, but you'd have to get the (fixed) Z value to translate to a continuous pumping motion. My reasoning for using the spindle control is that it's already set up to handle this sort of motion and can be easily ordered to spin (or pump) at a fixed or variable rate.