Stu iles Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Nice bit of kit One question... Do you ever leave the house? :-) I can think of so much stuff I could make with that 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajlovering Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 They call him "The Olympic Torch" Never goes out 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu iles Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 They call him "The Olympic Torch" Never goes out Haha nice one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex97 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 this might be a silly question but how does the cnc know where part is, like when you were cutting the wheels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowen93 Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 Haha, going out is the problem, you get ideas put in your head! The 6th picture in my last post shows my computer screen whilst Mach3 (the control software that reads the g code and translates it into motor signals) is open, there are the job coordinates shown on that screen which you click zero or set to whatever value you want. Then on the right the toolpath is shown and a crosshair shows where the machine currently is in relation to the datum point in the toolpath program. It's just a case of lining up the material to the toolpath and making sure there's clearance. In another tab info of the actual machine's coordinates are stored. This zero is set by making it travel to all the limit switches and setting the maximum travel for each axis, this is needed for things like toolchanges which bigger machines can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enid_Puceflange Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 I SOOOO NEEED one of these bad boys!! Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayzie12 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Whats the software like to use. can you literally chuck a wireframe from CAD into it and the software will figure it out or -as im guessing- a bit more to it than that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowen93 Posted June 27, 2014 Author Share Posted June 27, 2014 Winpc-nc or whatever came with it is very limited in capability, but is good for testing the machine manually once it's built. You open up a drawing from autocad or solidworks, set zero on the z axis and it runs so very simple but limited to engraving etc so I don't use it. What I use takes a few hours to read online manuals for the basics and some youtube videos helped too, but is mainly a case of getting used to what buttons do but is very simple once used to where the buttons are, no more complicated than using microsoft office. You open a drawing from autocad into DolphinCAD and then specify what lines are for cutting around or drilling, it takes a few clicks for each line or hole. You can also use this program for drawing but autocad and draftsight are much easier to use for drawing. After this you click a button that takes you into DolphinCAM where you input what tools you want to use or load a toolfile that has previously been saved, then select lines and specify if you cut around, on or inside them, drill holes. From this you can specify feedrates, cut depths, ramping and a good range of other options about cutting. It also tells you how long it will take to cut aswell as being able to open a simulation to see what it will look like when cutting and if theresany clearance issues. After this you convert the toolpath file into a format for the machine which is Mach3 in this case, open the nc file in Mach3, line the material up with where you are cutting and push go. All in if you were to cut a 50mm square it would take less than 5minutes to import the drawing, convert it to a toolpath and push go. More complicated parts will just take more time. As it's all hobby level software it's got good features but still simple to use for novices and there's plenty of help on dedicated cnc sites. I'll take some screenshots soon to show importing a drawing to pushing go. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowen93 Posted July 4, 2014 Author Share Posted July 4, 2014 As I want to convert some of the parts on my Mardaves to polycarbonate so they look different from everyone else but all match my stuff I've been doing some batches of suspension arms to test the material. The first set of arms I made kept vibrating at the very end of the cut and leaving big divots in them which I think was a combination of ramping down constantly instead of cutting 1mm, then 2mm, etc but also the machine has settled a bit after some hours of use so all three axes had some play and allowed the cutter to vibrate slightly. This was fixed by winding the little M3 bolts that put tension on the runners by 1/4 of a turn tighter and made it all smooth and precise again, I didn't notice the play because I've been quite sedate cutting so far whilst learning what cutting speeds I can get away with so there has been very little stress on the cutters so far. I have also noticed you can hold the motor shafts and manually turn each spindle by hand now to line the machine up with material, it seems to have "run in" after roughly 5 - 10 hours worth of work. My plan for making parts like these is to cut out the outline of the part and drill some holes to use as location holes, then bolt them to a plate in a vice so that what I am cutting is held instead of it falling down when almost cut, this should mean I can try to leave material for making final cuts to try to give a nice surface finish. Here are some pictures of the centre marks for the holes and the blank cut outs, these are as they came from the machine, not ramping down whilst cutting seems to have stopped the burrs I was getting. Not RC milling but this shows the speed of the machine and some engraving which is what these types of machines were originally designed for doing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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