Hi Guys,
I actually have a background in selling CAD/CAM software for the cabinet making industry and have set up a Morbidelli in the workshop I was in charge of, so I am familiar with the process. However I would never consider myself an expert and these small machines are a different kettle of fish that's for sure.
I look forward to many melted plastics and broken bits as I learn what works and what doesn't with these machines and I also look forward to weighing up the pro's and cons of the various free versions of CAD/CAM and Sender software.
I am currently running Candle and it seems simple enough if a little lacking (but then so was Xylog on the Morbidelli!!) but it's fine as I approach my first job.
I am not going to limit myself to materials or project ideas but right now I have one thing I am trying to do and that is build instrument and switch panels for a flight simulator. For any one panel (size approximately 180 x 120mm but still TBD),I need to cut two copies, one in 5mm opaque white acrylic and one in 5mm clear acrylic. The opaque white acrylic has to be painted grey on top and sides and then reprocessed with laser text engraving to allow illumination through the text at night. As you can see, this is going to require multiple placements of the same piece for additional processing and this is where I come unstuck. I am happy with the machine bed 'Home' position and I understand how to set XY zero for the work /job origin. I also understand how to 'restore origin' (so long as I don't turn the machine off) so I can return the spindle to the job start point again after changing a tool for example.
However, how do I ever get the piece to sit in the exact position and orientation it had before I removed it for painting and moreover, how do I set the painted piece up for laser engraving when clearly I have had to depower the machine and have lost the job origin?
Thanks in advance for any help with this.
Cheers
Terry
Auckland, New Zealand