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Mach 3 and Mach 4 Questions
« on: June 29, 2013, 09:40:57 AM »
Hi All. New member long time user of Mach 3. I run 2 Denford Triac VMC's on Mach 3 and a Denford Cyclone on Mach 3 Turn. ATC's on all machines with dedicated macros.

I guess I have 2 questions which may become 2 topics:


1. Will the turn software be revamped in Mach 4? Are there any screen pics as yet?


2. How is the constant surface speed programmed in Mach. I use BobCAM for SolidWorks to create my programs. It outputs as follows

M3 S5000
G96 S2000

However the machine errors out with the G Code?

Thanks in advance.  

Offline Hood

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Re: Mach 3 and Mach 4 Questions
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2013, 02:24:52 PM »
Yes Mach4 is all new and Turn will be done at some point in time, I am not holding my breath though ;)

CSS doesnt work correctly in Mach, it sort of works but will not keep a constant feed per rev but rather keeps a contsatnt feed per min.
Regarding your code G96 S2000 would mean 2000 m/min or Feet per min depending on whether you are using metric or imperial units, either way 2000 would be quite a lot, for example on 20mm dia that would equate to 31,837rpm or if imperial units then 9,704rpm.
So possibly that is your problem?

Hood
Re: Mach 3 and Mach 4 Questions
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2013, 02:53:33 PM »
Thanks for the reply. The bobcam post processor outputs like this:

(TOOL #3 80 DEG. 1/64 ROUGH TURNING )
N02 G00 G54 G97 S5000 M03
N03 T0303 M06
N04 G50 S5000
N05 G96 S2250

Offline Hood

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Re: Mach 3 and Mach 4 Questions
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2013, 02:59:38 PM »
Do you get an error message?
How fast is your spindle and what dia are you turning? I see 1/64 so presume you are using imperial units but even still G96 S2250 is a fast surface speed and I still think that is your issue.
Hood
Re: Mach 3 and Mach 4 Questions
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2013, 06:08:52 PM »
I can help a bit here Hood, he's running 5000rpm max and metric units, not sure on the dia though

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Re: Mach 3 and Mach 4 Questions
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2013, 07:44:34 PM »
Ok well any smaller dia than 143.28mm then with a surface speed of 2250 m/min he would be over his max spindle speed, for example at 100mm dia rpm would be 7,163, at 50mm dia it would be 14,237rpm, 20mm it would be 35,817rpm.
So what is the error message or how does it error out.
As said though I think its because of the huge surface speed being called, 250m/min would be more like it.

Hood
Re: Mach 3 and Mach 4 Questions
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2013, 08:30:32 PM »
if I remember i'm pretty sure it's a parting off operation, and probably about 25 - 30mm diameter

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Re: Mach 3 and Mach 4 Questions
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2013, 03:42:48 AM »
So really need to know what the error actually is but S2250 is way way too fast anyway. Also you should really have a G48S**** or whatever after the G96 so you can limit the max RPM. If 5000 rpm is not a problem then its not needed but say for example you were turning a large heavy piece that would be unsafe to spin at more than 2000rpm then you would put the G48S2000 in and Mach would limit the spindle speed to that as the dia decreases.
Hood
Re: Mach 3 and Mach 4 Questions
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2013, 05:44:06 AM »
I see. So it should be more like

G96 S.25
G46 S3000

The max spindle speed for the lathe is 5000rpm and I only turn aluminium pcs. Could you add a section of code as an example?

Also the imperial turning tool call outs are from bobcam. We run in metric for dimensions. I just haven's gotten round to creating a metric tool table in bobcam as we have only started using it in the last few months.

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Re: Mach 3 and Mach 4 Questions
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2013, 06:49:43 AM »
Code to start CSS would be
G96 S250    'that would mean 250 m/min surface speed
G48 S3000   ' that would limit the max rpm to 3000

To see what the RPM for a given diameter would be then I have attached a xls file that you can input the surface speed and dia to get the rpm.
As the X moves in it will speed up and that is often why having a G48S**** is wise as often you do not want the spindle to speed up to the max of your machine due to having a large part in the chuck.

Also as mentioned CSS doesnt work correctly  anyway so might not be worth using it, I find its not worth it.
It will supposedly work correctly in Mach4 but when that will be available is any ones guess and as far as I am aware it is not possible to fix it in Mach3 due to the way Mach3 is written.


Hood