Tune the router Wed or Thurs?

[David Hempy]

I spoke to Ron tonight, and he's happy to come help us tune Mach 3.  :-D

How about this Wednesday or Thursday, from 6 to 9 pm? Either one is good for Ron...and me.

Write back with which slots are good for you, and we'll pick one late Monday night.

I'm not sure exactly what all we'll shoot to do, but I'm guessing it will be something like this:

1. Get each axis calibrated and scaled.
2. Experiment with speed and acceleration.
3. Demonstrate the most common Mach3 controls used for a normal, easy job.

Does that sound aboout right, Ron?  Of course, we'll play it by ear as we go.

If by some miracle we have limit switches by then, we'll set those up in software, too. Getting the upper Z limit working, in particular, would be good, since we're having trouble crashing it there.  This shouldn't be too hard to pull off... even if we have to rig something "suspect" to mount the sensor or magnet for a while. (Note to self...bring duct tape...)

WHo's in?

-dave

[David Hempy]

On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 9:38 PM, Ron Kline <ronk...@windstream.net> wrote:

Do you have the machine moving under Mach control ?

Yes.  Manual moves work fine.  We don't have the limit sensors working yet, so the two Y axis motors are not be calibrated to each other...but should be plenty close enough for starters.

 

Have you been able to run a program ?

Yes, we've cut the collexion logo fairly successfully.    We've made several test cuts.  We really had to lie to mach to get it to come out right...scaled the X and Y axes to 0.03, or something.  The entry and exit moves didn't bother to Z-up first, but other than that it worked out pretty well!  ;-)  We're reasonably sure that was poorly prepped g-code (someone else generated it for us), but we aren't really sure.  Well, I'm not, anyway.  Derek has made more cuts in the last week and has likely figured more out.

Derek's got a demo version of CamBam installed, too.
 

Can any one in the group read or write  G code ?

A little bit. We've traced through various sample programs, trying unsuccessfully to fix those entry and exit moves.  Chris is working on a neat project to generate g-code that graphs cosine rosettes.  (Something like that..)  I think we could write a program by hand to cut a square.
 

Calibrating is fairly easy , but needs to be done before speed settings can be done .
I'll bring several programs that have been run before so there are no bugs in them .

Awesome.  Bring them on a thumb drive.
 

Can we cut some 3/4" stainless steel plate before we go home ?  :-D          I'll bring a 1" endmill .

I don't know if we have anything that thin laying around, but I can swing by Hobby Lobby and see if they have any.  ;-)


I do think I'll run by Harbor Freight and buy a half-dozen face shields/safety glasses and ear muffs for the space. FWIW, I encourage anyone who's going to use the machine much to buy their own.  I've got a pair of prescription safety glasses, which are SO much more comfortable than goggles-over-glasses. 

-dave

[Derek Eggers]

Cool.  Ron, thanks for your help.  

Dave, I can make it Wednesday.

Derek Eggers

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[David Hempy]

Anyone else?  Speak now...

[Dustin Mays]

I'll be around on Wednesday as well to play with the Makerbot. I'd also like to check out CamBam (sent those guys an email earlier to let them know how awesome they are).

[David Hempy]

Alrightee then...Wednesday is our night!  See you all at 6 PM.

I just called Ron, and he's good to go.  He's going to bring a precision indicator to help check accuracy and test for lost steps.

Given the progress Derek has made in the last week, he's probably figured out a lot of the tuning that Ron would be doing for us, but I'm certain Ron will still help us get the machine dialed in even better, and teach us valuable skills in running Mach3.  Plus, he says it's always fun playing with a new machine!

See you there,
-dave

ps.  I'll post to the main Collexion list, too.

[Derek Eggers]

Great! See you then

Derek Eggers

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[David Hempy]

Sorry I didn't make it.  I was in the ER with my son.  Nothing serious, all is well. Probably nothing to start with, but you just can't be too careful.

So...what did I miss?  :-)

-dave

[Derek Eggers]

Dave,

Glad to hear your son is OK.  Ron showed up and showed us some very helpful aspects of Mach-3.  He tuned the motor acceleration rate and gave us some pointers of things we should consider:  1) a few of the roller guides on the tool car are loose and could introduce tool slop.  Seems very adjustable, 2) we talked about several ways to get the power cables out of the way -- maybe an overhead bungee until we get the plastic channel cut.  He's a really nice guy and was very complimentary of the work the cnc-builders did.    T

The new configuration is saved as "collexion.xml" and we made a backup called "collexion_ron_kein_calibration.xml" ....just in case we loose something.  Ron had a few high-end precision instruments, but it didn't make sense to use them until we get the x-axis guides tightened up.  

A few other guys were there (I'm drawing a blank on names at the moment),  and have experience ranging from hobby-cnc to professional tool designer and were very helpful.  I see some good momentum building.  

For now I think we should get the power lines out of the way with bungie cord until we get the channel built and get right to the vac-fixture.  I'm not sure if I can get to the space this weekend but I might be able to work on the design in CamBam at home. 

-Derek

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[David Hempy]

Thanks for the report, Derek.  Sounds like I missed some good stuff!  Yeah, Ron is a real gem.  We've known each other close to 20 years and had a few adventures along the way.

I forget if I posted this, but I bought a 4x8 sheet of 1/4" expanded PVC sheet for the e-chain, and a 12"x12"x1/2" acrylic (plexiglass) sheet for the dust shoe.  That's probably enough for two dust shoes, so we can either botch the first one, or have leftovers to make something else...I'm sure it will come in handy.  I also bought six pair of safety glasses.

I left it in my truck yesterday, and the sun came out.  Did I mention the sheet is black?  It got a little wavy gravy before I thought to bring it inside, but should not affect our application once we cut it into little 2" pieces.  Anyway, I'll get all that dropped off soon.  I may take a stab at cutting it if some free time drops in my lap (ha!), but will more likely thank one of you all for beating me to it.  Feel free to use those materials for e-chain and dust collection.

I've got a dial indicator and such when we do get to fine-tuning.  Not as nice as Ron's, I'm sure, but plenty precise for the job.

-dave