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Author Topic: Total Newbie biting off more than he can chew  (Read 15262 times)

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Total Newbie biting off more than he can chew
« on: November 08, 2016, 01:40:10 AM »
Hi
My machine is still in transit but I have been playing with the demo of Mach3 to try and familiarise myself with it.

I would like to use the machine to carve the logo for the motorcycle group I am in here in Western Australia.

The machine I have purchased is the  3 axis  3020 CNC Router engraver

I would like to ask is the attached file too difficult or complex, both for me and the machine?

I will attach the jpg along with the dxf file.

I know I will be learning a lot in a short time but if someone could advise if its too difficult a job and perhaps even translate it into gcode, ready to run in Mach3

I can hand carve this logo with a reasonable accuracy over a couple of days however it still looks amateurish.

Any help offered will be gratefully accepted

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Total Newbie biting off more than he can chew
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2016, 02:54:47 AM »
Hi Tony,

Unfortunately your .dxf was not uploaded correctly, perhaps you could try again.
The .jpg you have provided is not that good a quality for me to produce a reasonable  .dxf without an awful lot of correction work.

I don’t think the logo you have chosen is too complex but it may be wise for you to start out with something real simple until you get the hang of using your machine and all the software’s involved. Bear in mind that Mach3 has a 500 line Gcode limit when operating in Demo mode.
Once you get a good vector drawing (.dxf) then there are many software’s (some free, some paid-for) which will generate a Gcode engraving toolpath then away you go on the great CNC adventure.

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: Total Newbie biting off more than he can chew
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2016, 06:14:51 AM »
And what a life long adventure it will be!

DXF doesn't open here for me either.
We never have the time or money to do it right the first time, but we somehow manage to do it twice and then spend the money to get it right.
Re: Total Newbie biting off more than he can chew
« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2016, 07:15:34 PM »
Thanks guys. I will try again in Illustrator and see if I can improve
Re: Total Newbie biting off more than he can chew
« Reply #4 on: November 11, 2016, 02:22:39 AM »
Ok so I think I may have a file that looks ok but without a machine yet (December 3) I really cant have a go. Also, since I have the demo of Mach3 I cant run the full gcode. It seems to load in the preview window of Mach3 Mill however with the 500 line limit, I cant really do much. Willing to download a license if this will run. What I would like to do is get rid of the bounding box around the design. Just wondering if someone could take a look at it and see if it will run

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Total Newbie biting off more than he can chew
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2016, 03:19:48 AM »
Yes, your Gcode runs. It outlines the box in two passes. Then it moves to, presumably, the start position although it takes 24 lines of code to do what 1 line of code could do. Not sure why you have all the G40, G42 codes at the end when just one G40 would do. You need to finish your Gcode with a CR and the common way to do this is finish with the % character as the last line of code.

One additional comment…
There is no right or wrong way but it is usual to have X0, Y0 at the bottom left of the workpiece. It is also usual to have Z0 as the surface of the workpiece ( –Z moves the cutter into the work ).

Hope this helps,

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: Total Newbie biting off more than he can chew
« Reply #6 on: November 25, 2016, 02:16:51 AM »
Perhaps someone could do me a huge favour. Im still struggling with LazyCam because even when I ceate a dxf file I cant see it and it generates no gcode. I am wanting to do a project for an army mate. Its the rising sun bade worn by Australian soldiers and I wanted to carve it and present him with it for Christmas, however no matter how I go about it, I just cant seem to get it to write the gcode from LazyCam.

Could someone please take a look and post the gcode here for me as I am getting pretty frustrated. Im ok with Mach 3 and can navigate the machine part of things, I just cant seem to generate the .tap file needed.

The image can be found at

http://medalbox.com.au/images/bitmap%20in%20graphic1.bmp

If anyone could help I would really appreciate it

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Total Newbie biting off more than he can chew
« Reply #7 on: November 25, 2016, 03:39:16 AM »
If it’s any help to you I have converted your bitmap to a vector which can be loaded into LazyCam (It takes a while to load).

The LazyCam manual can be found here http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,12078.msg77415.html#msg77415

LazyCam is not the best of tools to be using but it works.


Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: Total Newbie biting off more than he can chew
« Reply #8 on: November 25, 2016, 04:23:17 AM »
Thanks Tweakie. When you say it takes a while to load, does it take minutes? I usually give up after 20-30 seconds of load time. Perhaps this is my problem. Will let it run for longer and see how it goes

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Total Newbie biting off more than he can chew
« Reply #9 on: November 25, 2016, 04:37:41 AM »
I suppose it depends on the PC processor speed but I have had files, in the past, which have taken best part of 1 minute or so to load.  :)

Tweakie.
PEACE