Messages

21

General Mach Discussion / Re: What kind of bit/end mill should I be using?

« on: August 20, 2018, 05:25:42 AM »

Worth noting that if you're cutting grotty metal like odd castings and steel with mill scale on it, conventional milling saves the edges of the bit to an extent. if the cut starts in the meaty bit of the metal it doesn't impact on the scale or the casting's crusty shell. Climb milling has the teeth of the bit cutting through the nasty bits every time and it fouls it up quite fast.

@joe Chinese steel has this sometimes including structural sections, big pockets of carbon or slag, horrible stuff.

22

General Mach Discussion / Re: What kind of bit/end mill should I be using?

« on: August 10, 2018, 07:08:46 AM »

^ very interesting about the coating valency and its relevance to materials cutting. I'll bear that in mind.
I've had some pretty good carbide tools from AliExpress, the Chinese suppliers seem good at making these. Their HSS tools are a bit 3rd world but their carbide ones are well worth it and certainly a lot less intimidating cost-wise for a new guy.

23

General Mach Discussion / Re: Time for a rip-out

« on: July 19, 2018, 05:23:22 AM »

So, I have the UC300ETH on my desk waiting for a build ... Looking through my box of industrial lego I have a lot of the parts I need to do it, so watch this space 

24

General Mach Discussion / Re: Customisation of E-Stop / Reset button actions (Spindle Relays)

« on: July 12, 2018, 08:11:17 AM »

I'd go down the foolproofed route with M3 and M4 controlling each side of a properly interlocked motor reversing contactor. That way the problem you describe is impossible - You can have either or neither, never both. pop this between the drive and the motor and you should be good.

I much prefer hardware solutions. They're easy to troubleshoot and they rarely if ever crap themselves and go mad.

25

General Mach Discussion / Re: Set Output when homing

« on: July 11, 2018, 06:54:35 AM »

I had a similar question which could have a similar answer - I need an output to come on when the "Start cycle" LED is on, so that the output is high while a program is running, it's for a slideway oiler.

26

General Mach Discussion / Re: Time for a rip-out

« on: June 28, 2018, 11:24:22 AM »

Aha. Lightbulb moment

Thanks.

27

General Mach Discussion / Re: Time for a rip-out

« on: June 28, 2018, 11:08:41 AM »

Just one more thing - Looking at Mach3 and the UC300ETH, I can't see a way of getting mach3 to see more than two ports. Can it be configured to take advantage of all the available I/O in a UC300?

28

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: PoKEYs 57e, joystick axis want stop moving in MACH 4 unless you move it again

« on: June 27, 2018, 12:57:37 PM »

if it's anything like Mach3's command set you'll have a couple of possible jog commands; one starts the axis running and lets it run until it is stopped, one is a jog-while-held command. You had the wrong one?

29

General Mach Discussion / Re: Re: accuracy is off

« on: June 12, 2018, 02:11:45 PM »

To tell you the truth, I'd be much happier programming a simple part like that by hand. I bet you could do it in under 30 lines including the comments and you'd have a much nicer time de-bugging it.

30

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: GUN SIGHT TOOL

« on: June 12, 2018, 06:00:26 AM »

Straightforward, strong and reliable - just the job.