I have read a bit about Cam software.
Where to start and what to do with it, then there is the price of the software.
Reading in the forms I down loaded the trial for CamBam and as programs go and lack of knowledge present's it'self, I set about making a simple manifold flange. Following through the tutorials and moving back and forth to my project manifold flange I finally came up with a finished project and created a G code file and watched the tool path in Mach3. 750 lines of code.
The intent of all of this is to look for problems and of course I found them.
The ultimate test would be a flange in steel or stainless steel so the cut is only .015" per pass. The test metal is aluminium, dry cut, feed rate is at 30" per minute and the rapids about 45" per min.
Although CamBam suggests to set the rapid speed at the beginning of the drawing and at a faster feed rate, this proved to be too much for my machine mass and the servos installed. The Zero was lost several times once on each axis at a different time and each time during a rapid. In the end I slowed the feed down to 10" a minute.
One of the other parameters in the set up for a new drawing with CamBam is setting of the machining stock. Using 3/8" stock only allows milling to 3/8" which now requires that the stock be perfectly set up in the mill to mill through the 3/8" blank. I should have set the stock limit for .400" to over come this. Learning is the solution to all of this and that too takes time.
The video is a bit long, over 10 minutes. Spindle feed on the .250" 2 flute cutter is 1000 rpm. A few times I have zoomed in too close for my camera to focus and that is out a bit as well.
The lost steps and the reset in the Gecko drives are what caused the bulk of the problems. An error of 129 steps or about .0005" is causing the lost zero. That amount of error is not significant, but the software sees it then causes the problem.
The next step in developement is to to install the Rodgers DRO board to over come this and hault the machine to prevent the mess from happening.
Take a look if you have the chance at the video.
I suppose now after being at this for a while, NEMA 42 servos would have been a better choice. The Gecko's limit this build to 80 volts motors. I have not seen any Nema 42 80 volt brush servos on ebay yet, but I am looking.
Still working on it.
Ark1.
YouTube - Flange milling