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Offline RICH

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Re: Still confuse about Mach3
« Reply #30 on: May 27, 2013, 06:17:22 AM »
How do you plan on holding down the rough stock?
That may determine your approach to machining the piece. You may also want change the stock so you can hold the piece for all operations.

One approach would be to cut the outside profile and then do the inside circle / profile and thus no pocketing is required. To each their owne, but if that were the case, then I would draw the outside and inside profiles on individual  layers and name / associate the layer to the machining task to be done.

To pocket there must be an inside and outside closed profile and the tool must have room to get inside. So if paocketing you can just draw an appropriate sized square on it's owne layer and so named.

Now if the stock were a little bigger so you could hold the piece, then i would machine the inside hole first and do the outside profile last.

Note that a radius should be drawn which the tool can machine for the outside profile. You can't machine a sharp corner with a round cutter.

Also note that you may want to draw the origin of the part differently. IE;  have the inner circle
center be 0,0,0. This way you can always use the center hole to reference the part, but , all depends on what is most important to you.

Just a few thoughts,

RICH





 

Offline JAC

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Re: Still confuse about Mach3
« Reply #31 on: May 27, 2013, 12:47:12 PM »
Hi RICH. The way I machine the pice by hand its:  like I told you before I predrill a 2-3/4" hole with a holesaw first, then I clamp the pice on the outside to machine the center to 2.970" with the rough end mill and finish it to 3.000" with regular end mll.
Then the outside: I clamp it from the inside of circle and I do the same, maching with rough end mill and finish with regular end mill.
Bucause I make 15-20 pices at the time  I do all the inside first then all the outsides. So I was thinking on doing the same but I can I do all the part at once that way I dont have to clamp them twice.
I do my cuts 1/2" deep (thickness of material) and .050" per pass.
So for what you said to make the pocket works I need to have enough material for endmill to cut around the part? If that the case,  can I make the draing with the material to be enough so I can the pocketting?
There is a setting on mach3 "BACKLASH". What is that for? its to compansate for backlash on screw?
I got my driver last Friday, I calibrate my steps and I was testing my machine with the sample drawing and Gcode. It runs ok I did a test run just doing the contour of my part . I have .007 Backlash on X axis and .005 on Y axis.


Thank you

Jaime

Offline RICH

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Re: Still confuse about Mach3
« Reply #32 on: May 27, 2013, 03:47:57 PM »
Backalash will take care of the non-movement of the screw when changing direction. Best to get rid of it but
you have what you have.

My suggested settings are the  50-50-50 rule which you may want to consider is as follows:

50% - The max velocity is 50% of where your steppers will start to skip
50% - Set the shuttle Wheel setting in configuration to .0050  to .050 ( .5 too slow )
50% - Backlash speed

The Shuttle Wheel Accel is in seconds. Observing the difference in how the motor reacts to different settings you will see that it affects the overall time it takes for Mach to take up the backlash and at say a value of 5 you will find that over five seconds the handwheel / shaft will turn rather slowly. At 0.005 sec its almost instantaneous. In the real slow setting, and say you jog a distance of .1"  you will find there seems to be almost 3 distinct motor responses in the cycle,....... a small rotation then deceleration...... then backlash taken up over a time...and then  accel and move to finish the distance.

So to get of flavor of it you need to start slow, observe, listen to see what is happening over an operating range.
Work your way up in settings.

RICH

Offline JAC

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Re: Still confuse about Mach3
« Reply #33 on: May 27, 2013, 04:22:18 PM »
Ok RICH, So on the backslash screen on the X axis I type the .007"  and on Y axis .005" then on backslash speed % I start with 10% then increase 5% at a time till I get correct reading. I'll try it  till Iget it right.
I tried to get all the backslash from the screws, but if I get them to be .001 backslah it get too tight  so thats the best I can get them, and for the parts Im making, it should be ok if I can get them to be .002".003"

Thank you

Jaime 

Offline JAC

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Re: Still confuse about Mach3
« Reply #34 on: May 29, 2013, 11:33:56 PM »
Hi RICH, Im still playing with LC, I understanding better every day but at same time Im running into new problems.
I havent get good enough to make the off set and posting them but Im lerning, for now I can make the basic part and post the Gcode to Mach3 (without the tool).
My new problem now its when I try to program a tool and psot it on Mach3.  It show the Gcode but it doesnt display the part on the table display and Im getting an error  "Nested comment found, Block=N50 M6 T1 (tool change 5/8" end mill).
Why its doing that? what do I need to change?

Thank you

Jaime

Offline RICH

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Re: Still confuse about Mach3
« Reply #35 on: May 30, 2013, 08:15:59 AM »
Are you using the pro version of LC?

RICH

Offline JAC

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Re: Still confuse about Mach3
« Reply #36 on: May 30, 2013, 10:31:09 AM »
Hi RICH, Im using the one it download with Mach3. LC version 3.00

thank you

Jaime

Offline RICH

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Re: Still confuse about Mach3
« Reply #37 on: May 30, 2013, 12:27:09 PM »
The free version dosen't do offsetting and pocketing.
You can get around the offsetting by just drawing a profile around the original with consideration for what tool you will use
amd post code for the offset profile only.

RICH

Offline JAC

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Re: Still confuse about Mach3
« Reply #38 on: May 30, 2013, 10:32:23 PM »
Hi RICH, what about the Mach3 demo version. Can I actually cut simple parts to make sure everything its ok  with machine and computer before buying it?. Can I write a program (Text) and then load it to Mach3 and cut my part?
I been thinking on how to do it without the offset and pocket and doing all without unclamping my part. Like you suggest I need to draw few profiles to cut before the finish part.
Can I write my progam to use the rough endmill first then stop to change it for the regular endmill?. Can I use the M1 Otional stop or M6 Tool change with Mach3 demo version?.

Thank you

Jaime
« Last Edit: May 30, 2013, 10:38:18 PM by JAC »

Offline RICH

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Re: Still confuse about Mach3
« Reply #39 on: May 31, 2013, 05:51:40 AM »
Jaime,
The free version of LC is restricted and as noted in the manual the Pro Version is required for advanced features
like offsetting and pocketing. I would suggest you have a look at some other software before buying the pro version
since advances have been made in the other software available and LC is not being developed.

Yes you can cut simple parts with the code generated from LC but note that the you define what and how a part is to be machined. The are wizards for doing text which are better than what LC will provide.

If you don't have automated tool changer nor homing swithces then best thing you can do is do is individual machining tasks.  You need to learn how to setup a job for machining, how to decide to machine the piece, learn basic functions of cnc, etc, etc and that is beyond the general support  I can provide you.

I would suggest that you purchase CNC Programming Handbook and study it.

RICH