Hi All...

I'm new to Mach and to CNC machining, I have a K2 3925G and intend to use it for making parts in wood, MachII came with the machine. I followed their setup and then printed out the MachII manual, dropped it in a binder and am on my third pass through the manual, there are so many options it's a little daunting. To learn without destroying my machine or my tools I created a little pen holder and have been playing with the software and machine. To that end I have a number of questions that for some reason my brain has not wrapped itself around yet 

1. What are the main differences from MachII to MachIII, I have found that the .bmp importer in MachII will deadlock my machine and the one on MachIII works perfectly. Just curious before I upgrade and if I have to re-learn a bunch of stuff.

2. The machine has three home switches and no limit switches so I want to set the soft limits, where do these apply in MachII, are they active in all the different screens??

3. I was looking for a good explanation of what effect the scales had on the axis controls, if I set x and y to 10% do all movements in those axis's increase by 10%?

4. Can I configure the positions for the Goto Toolchange option?

5. What is the Goto Safe Z button supposed to do?

6. There is also a Goto Z's option I didn't see in the manual (I probably missed it)...

I've been able to process a number of files and have gotten a number of images and drawings to work, but until I feel comfortable I'm going to just be using the pen 

Cheers

-Paul-

WELCOME Paul !
All I can tell you is that Mach2 is not that great and Mach3 has a ton more goodies! There are many video's on line that will help you set up mach3 and they are all free.. So please upgrade now and we will all help you get  up and running.


Thanks
Brian

Brian we placed the order this morning , I still have some work that needs to be done so I have a more general question that I need some help on.

Do the tool change parameters in the settings screen work off of the offset or the machine coords? The reason I ask is that I ran into the following:

1. In diagnostics I set my X,Y to 0 on the home switches and the Z to about 3" above the table and set that to 0.

2. In the settings page I cange my Z for the Tool Change position to 1 to pull it 1" above zero.

Then I set my touches as normal..

But when I hit the goto tool change, the z climbs up and smacks the limit... I cannot figure out why in the hell it's doing it, it's the only thing I need to get addressed and I can cut some parts for holders.. What I don't get is that even if it's using the offsets I can do a g0 z1 and it goes to the right place, something else is effecting that position and I can't figure it out...

Thanks

-Paul-

I take that back, I've got the licence key in my hot little hands right now ), so I'm downloading the R1.84 version and working on getting it installed and setup for my machine. Can convert my settings from MachII over to MachIII or do I have to start from scratch??

Thanks

-Paul-

You can take a note if the settings in Mach2 and write them down the open Mach3 and configure it. Mach3 is set out a bit differently but you should be able to follow, especially if you have looked at the videos.
 You said you only have three home switches but no limits. If the Home switches are at the extremes of the axis you can use them as limits also. When Mach is asked to reference (home) it will use the switches  for this, then it will use them after you are referenced as limits. It is also a good idea to set up the soft limits as well, they will stop you hitting the physical limits if you jog a bit too far and will save you having to re-reference the machine.
Hood
Hood

Also have a look through this thread
http://machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=999.0
Think it is the same machine as yours.

Hood

Also have a look through this thread
http://machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=999.0
Think it is the same machine as yours.

Hood

It's the same, I had mine upgraded with better ballscrews to limit backlash. I actually have it running pretty weill in MachII so getting it up and running in MachIII should not be all that hard. The only things I'm struggling with are some of the things like the tool change parameters.

I'm printing out the MachIII manual right now and heading out to the shop to get cracking

Thanks

-Paul-

Hope you have a fast printer

Hood

Toolchange position is machine coordinates so on your machine  Z will always be a negative number (or 0)
Same goes for the safe Z height position, I have mine -5mm.

Hood

Toolchange position is machine coordinates so on your machine Z will always be a negative number (or 0)
Same goes for the safe Z height position, I have mine -5mm.

Hood

Wait.... aren't negative numbers supposed to be below your work plane??

Hmmmmmm....

So let me see if I understand this:

I zero out Z at the home limit, every machine setting (safez, tool change etc) is a negative number just below that (like -0.500), then I set my offset 0 to the plane of my workpiece and the negative numbers are now correct...

That makes sense now...

The little light just came on.. hahahaha

Thanks

-Paul-