[kbillan]

I am running through a part i drew now and it is going to take HOURS to do.. its just a 2x2 flat disc..

I am new, and am wondering what everyone sets their feedrate and motor speeds to??

Thanks

Keith

[ger21]

Sounds like you're trying to use MeshCAM to cut a part that would be better served by a 2D CAM program.

[kbillan]

Sounds like you're trying to use MeshCAM to cut a part that would be better served by a 2D CAM program.

Hmm. I was told this would be a good program for what i intend on doing. It seems to cut well now that i ironed out the other nonsense... its just pokey.. and when i override the feedrate- which i had set to 2.00... the motor stalled and ruined the reference point and then ruined the whole part.

I have the motors set to 25 in the config section.. what should they be at?
Keith

[Stepper Monkey]

What driver setup and motors do you have? That would be a good start.

One of us can easily customize and send you a config file for your specific machine if we know what its components are.

[scudzuki]

Your motor setup has nothing to do with optimum feedrates. Your motor setup dictates accuracy (steps per unit) and rapid speed (velocity). Your feedrate for a given job is based on material, operation, and cutter. for instance
milling aluminum with a 2 flute 1" end mill
aluminum 300 surface feet per minute cutting speed with a 1" end mill
spindle speed
RPM = 4 x CS / diameter (the cutter in a mill, the work piece in a lathe)
4 x 300 / 1 = 1200 RPM
2 flute end mill = 1200 x 2 = 2400 flutes (chips) per minute
let's say .002 advance per flute
2400 x .002 = 4800 (thousandths)
or 4.8 inch per minute feed

now you have the formulas to figure out a baseline for your program
use the feed override to alter it when you run the first part
alter the program based on your experience with the first part to run subsequent parts (but turn the feed override to 100%)
Joe

[ger21]

Can you post a pic of the parts your making?

[Stepper Monkey]

Hmm. I guess you are right. The way he configures Mach has nothing to do with motor stalling or machine performance at all. Just go ahead and punch in any random numbers and it should work just fine, as Mach doesn't really do that much in the first place. Nothing important apparently.

[kbillan]

I am making a small disc-- writing from an iPhone right now so I can't attach a pic.. I am using a .125" endmill and cutting machinable wax...

I have the www.deepgroove1.com setup ---I am new.. So all that figuring out feedrates was news to me.

But like it was said... It shouldnt stall out...

Its like this- i am doing this because i have an aptitude for making things. Creating things.. improving things.. this is a tool i have always NEEDED.. but it is so involved.. that it is discouraging.. I thought i would just figure out how to draw something in CAD (which i have 2000i and R14) and i would be able to load it and cut it.. well, i was told that perhaps i would need more of a 3d modeler than CAD.. so i bought RHINO.. LOL... this is getting expensive. I was originally going to buy the 300.00 machine at harbor frieght.. and do things by hand/eye...

anyway-- i need some sort of satisfaction from this soon.. its killing me


Thank you all-- for all of your assistance (and patience)

Keith

[kbillan]

So the question of the day- today.. Tool Changes.

How do i do this and keep my reference to home?

I noticed in the code while i was watching the machine- it got to the first tool change and went right past it. I found the option in Mach3 and it was checked "ignore".. so i unchecked it.

I had the program stopped... and the motor off.. and I then hit go to home... and had it at 0,0,0... i changed the tool.. but, the Z reference was blown.. So i did the best i could getting it to top of stock and then referenced Z to 0.00... and it seems to think the bit is still .125 (its .0625 in the machine now).. but at least it seems to have a decent X,Y reference and Z is about .003 low.. i think thats okay too..

but i would love some tips on tool changes..

Im sorry im such a newb... I am used to being the guy answering the questions.... if any of you needs to know how to mount Latex or Urethane Batman armor to our neoprene suits.. PLEASE ASK (hahaha)

Keith

[awerby]

So the question of the day- today.. Tool Changes.

How do i do this and keep my reference to home?

I noticed in the code while i was watching the machine- it got to the first tool change and went right past it. I found the option in Mach3 and it was checked "ignore".. so i unchecked it.

I had the program stopped... and the motor off.. and I then hit go to home... and had it at 0,0,0... i changed the tool.. but, the Z reference was blown..

[You can break a tool that way, if the new one is longer than the old one. Use the Jog or MDI functions to move the axes individually.]

So i did the best i could getting it to top of stock and then referenced Z to 0.00... and it seems to think the bit is still .125 (its .0625 in the machine now).. but at least it seems to have a decent X,Y reference and Z is about .003 low.. i think thats okay too..

but i would love some tips on tool changes..

[Usually, if you're changing tools by hand, you'll want to use a new program for each tool change. X and Y won't change, but Z will. It's usually good to keep some area of your original surface unmachined, to serve as a reference when changing tools. But if that's not possible, you can use another piece of material the same thickness, and reference Z to that.]



Im sorry im such a newb... I am used to being the guy answering the questions.... if any of you needs to know how to mount Latex or Urethane Batman armor to our neoprene suits.. PLEASE ASK (hahaha)

Keith

[Sure - how do you do that? What glue do you use? And where's "Deepgroove" when you need him? Usually, your dealer would be your first source of help and information about running the tool he sold you. Does he just ignore your "message to seller" if it isn't leading directly to a new sale?]

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[Stepper Monkey]

And where's "Deepgroove" when you need him? ... Does he just ignore your "message to seller" if it isn't leading directly to a new sale?

Um, Yes. Pretty much exactly. Sometimes it takes a couple weeks to get a response even when you ARE trying to throw money at him.
Paul is simply there to sell you the stuff, as cheaply as possible, and service isn't part of the deal. You send money, you get three drop shipped crates full of parts, you figure out how it all is supposed to go together.
If you are comfortable with that, going through him can save you a few hundred bucks, but that's the trade-off over going with a more traditional dealer - you're on your own. To his credit, he's very up front about it, but after sale service is simply not part of the bargain.

[kbillan]

Yup, stopped replying to emails once all of the parts were here.


Shady IMHO.

I have got the thing running well. It cuts beautifully-- but it is SLOW SLOW. I tried increasing the motor speeds again and it resulted of a day of cutting out the window.

Tool changes i have covered.. just trying to figure out how to make the machine faster.

Right now, I have the motor speeds set to like 20 and the accellerations to 2...

the Z stalled out last time and well.. waste of a lot of time.

Keith

[Stepper Monkey]

Like I've offered before, post the .xml config file you are running, and we can take a look at it. Or PM me and e-mail it to me. Or I can email you a good basic conservative Xylotex/Taig .xml file.

Either way, you need to get right the file setup before you do anything else. After that, if it is stalling at weird times we can determine from there what hardware adjustments you may need to make, but only after we know Mach is in good shape.

I don't know what my "rapids" are exactly because I've never found out - on a desktop machine I think it is just pointless wanking for bragging rights. What really matters is the real usable cutting speeds, and I generally cut at around 50 IPM on my Taig most of the time.
If you aren't doing at least 20 IPM I'd say it needs some tuning, if it can't get over 10 IPM there is something very wrong. Not being able to go over 2 IPM means something is seriously screwed up.

[TOTALLYRC]

Like I've offered before, post the .xml config file you are running, and we can take a look at it. Or PM me and e-mail it to me. Or I can email you a good basic conservative Xylotex/Taig .xml file.

Either way, you need to get right the file setup before you do anything else. After that, if it is stalling at weird times we can determine from there what hardware adjustments you may need to make, but only after we know Mach is in good shape.

I don't know what my "rapids" are exactly because I've never found out - on a desktop machine I think it is just pointless wanking for bragging rights. What really matters is the real usable cutting speeds, and I generally cut at around 50 IPM on my Taig most of the time.
If you aren't doing at least 20 IPM I'd say it needs some tuning, if it can't get over 10 IPM there is something very wrong. Not being able to go over 2 IPM means something is seriously screwed up.

On my Taig with the Xylotex 4 axis board, 24v ps, and the keling 425's in parallel, the most I can go is 10 ipm and not worry about stalling, that is my rapid and max machining speed. I think that it is set to 1/8 step but I would have to check.

Mike

[awerby]

Yup, stopped replying to emails once all of the parts were here.


Shady IMHO.

I have got the thing running well. It cuts beautifully-- but it is SLOW SLOW. I tried increasing the motor speeds again and it resulted of a day of cutting out the window.

Tool changes i have covered.. just trying to figure out how to make the machine faster.

Right now, I have the motor speeds set to like 20 and the accellerations to 2...

the Z stalled out last time and well.. waste of a lot of time.

Keith

[The slow speed is because he didn't sell you the official Taig controller, but something he put together that doesn't work as well. If it works reliably at 20 ipm, you should probably leave it there and hope for the best. The low-end Taig controller is good to about 25 ipm; the DSLS goes to about 50 ipm. Make sure you've got adequate lubrication on all the screws and slides. It's most critical on the Z-axis, since it tends to flow off vertical surfaces. I like the #2 way oil (you can get it from Enco) which is thickened to help it stay on where it's needed.]

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[kbillan]

Stepper Monkey== YGPM

I dont know how to post the file to here... Ill email it.

I am currently running at 5 IPM. 130k lines in my program, sized down.. it was much bigger but i took the step over down a bit to save time..


I just lubed the whole machine with mobil oil... i read mobil somewhere.. Hope that will suffice for the moment..

Keith

[rowbare]

You aren't running this from a laptop by chance? I have the same setup and tried running it from a laptop at first. Was getting all kinds of wonky behavior till I switched to a desktop computer.

[kbillan]

You aren't running this from a laptop by chance? I have the same setup and tried running it from a laptop at first. Was getting all kinds of wonky behavior till I switched to a desktop computer.

Actually- I was until this past week. I bought a brand new 2.7Ghz AMD Desktop.

Running XP... 1G ram (ill get more soon).. no other programs, except Rhino, Meshcam and mach3..

Keith

[kbillan]

So for giggles, I set the tools in Meshcam to 20. for feed rate and ran it with out a bit... after a few minutes i think i said-- Really?

seems to be working fine at 20IPM.

I was turning the motor speeds up in Mach3 to make it run faster and that is where the problem was. I am going to let this part im making now run out and see how it looks. I may try lowering the motor speeds even more and turning up the feed rate more.


My question now is===

it seems that around the edges of the part, the machine doesnt know to keep the bit away from the part. It doesnt compensate for the shaft diameter.. and im sure its something stupid i have done.. but specifically on this end mill
http://www.bitsbits.net/index.php?ma...products_id=70

it doesnt compensate for the shaft.. and sometimes crashes into the part.

how would you all set the parameters for this tool in your settings?

I think i have flute diameter set to .062, flute length same, shaft diameter .125...

Keith

[bullseye]

For compensation you need to turn it on with a G41 or G42 (depending if you want left or right comp.) G40 turns comp off....

if you search the mach3 thread for "cutter compensation" articles by ger explain it perfectly.....