Hello All,
I'm Tom, in Ottawa Canada, and new to CNC. I bought Dan Mauch's 3 axis stepper driver kit 25 years ago, and at the urging of a friend, we're finally getting around to thinking about a CNC router table. Yes 25 years. Moving at the speed of government.
I did get as far as bench testing the steppers and all circuitry, simulating cutting a circle using Mach3. Everything moved as hoped, albeit jittery at the quadrants of the circle. I will have to tune the motors and the acceleration.
A bigger issue is that Gcode is foreign to me. All of my machining on lathes and mills has been conventional, so I predict a learning curve in my future. The software to create Gcode from DXF files is also odd to me, based on how they appear to behave. I'm probably guilty of wanting to run, before I learn to walk, but the whole Gcode generation, and understanding is my weakest skill within CNC.
My background is 3D scanning, modeling, and printing, so I feel comfy with making models. 2D is no issue, and now retired at home I use Rhino 3D or even ancient Corel Draw to make simple 2D drawings, and export as DXF. I should say that I do not understand the differences in export settings of DXF files, as there are a few export choices that the user can make, both in Rhino and Corel. I did understand the difference in exporting .stl files for 3D printing. Basically achieving a desired surface resolution.
Can anyone steer toward the best course of action? Biting the bullet and learning Gcode? If needed, but I'd prefer to rely on a software like Lazycam, to convert DXF to Gcode if possible.
When I draw a simple ellipse in Rhino or Corel, then load that into Lazycam, it often appears as 1/4 or 1/8 of the full ellipse. Just a small curved segment of the whole ellipse. What the heck is that ?
So there it is. Thanks hugely to anyone who might dive and and give me some direction about generating reliable Gcodes.
Thank you., Tom Kay.
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