[max90272]

HI guys,
I have been building a homemade mill and it is going well. I have been testing with MACH3 and loving it. I do have a question though:

How do I make sure that my axis travel the distance that the DRO says? In other words, when my DRO travels 2 inches even, the axis actually travels like 1" 7/8.... I have been trying to play with the settings in "motor tuning" where you can tell MACH3 the distance that the axis travel with 1 revolution of the motor...problem is... it's practically impossible to tell precisely when the motor finishes its revolution. Of course I can eyeball it but it won't be accurate. Is there a way to make the motor rotate a precise 360 degrees so I can calculate the distance the axis travels? Or, perhaps there is another accurate way to dial that in .. Any thoughts?

thank you

MAX

[LeeWay]

What type motors, screws and drives do you have? What is your step count now?

I used a dial indicator to get mine just right. Both my X and Y were perfect to start with being direct drive, but I added a timing belt drive to my Z axis. This should have made the steps exactly double, but I had to add like another 130 steps to get it to move precisely or at least within .0008".
We can get you closer than an eight for sure I would think.

[TOTALLYRC]

HI guys,
I have been building a homemade mill and it is going well. I have been testing with MACH3 and loving it. I do have a question though:

How do I make sure that my axis travel the distance that the DRO says? In other words, when my DRO travels 2 inches even, the axis actually travels like 1" 7/8.... I have been trying to play with the settings in "motor tuning" where you can tell MACH3 the distance that the axis travel with 1 revolution of the motor...problem is... it's practically impossible to tell precisely when the motor finishes its revolution. Of course I can eyeball it but it won't be accurate. Is there a way to make the motor rotate a precise 360 degrees so I can calculate the distance the axis travels? Or, perhaps there is another accurate way to dial that in .. Any thoughts?

thank you

MAX

If you look, there is a nice little utility that tells you to make a move and measure it. You then put in the actual distance moved and it makes a change and then you try again untill the distance moved is the distance you told it to move. Go to the settings tab on the main screen Alt6. Which means hold the alt key down and then hit the #6 key. It will change pages. On the bottom left, just above the reset button, it says, "set steps per unit". Follow the instrucions. Easy as pie but it took me a few minutes to find since I haven't done it in awhile.

Mike

[max90272]

HI Mike,,
That utility sounds like exactly what I need. Would you mind telling me where i can find that utility in MACH 3. Perhaps i need to download it as a plug in, in which case I was hoping you could direct me to it.

THANK YOU
Max

[max90272]

HI MIKE,

NEVERMIND I FOUND IT. Sorry.. I was looking in the menues (clearly not paying attention to your direction!!!!!). THX
Max

[TOTALLYRC]

Hi Max, I see it took you 4 whole minutes to find it. It normally takes me an hour to reread the directions.


I think that there is hope for us both.

Mike

[max90272]

Mike,
that was funny.... yeah, i think there is hope for us!

[TOTALLYRC]

Now that there is hope for both of us, how is the machine working.
Mike