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  #31  
Old Tue 15 September 2009, 10:50
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
That V-carving is not great, but there are a lot of factors to be checked....

- First thing to check is if your cutter has a sharp point. Sounds obvious, but there are v-cutters that have small flat tips and there is no way that they can give sharp corners.

- the accel rate set up in your Config, Motor Tuning.

- the "stiffness" of your machine. Comes from a good mechanical setup and elimination of slackness.

I wouldn't waste time on checking out the software/programming for the v-carved letters - Vectric's stuff is 100% there.

There are no test cut programs that I am aware of - would still love to see them.

With a sharp tipped cutter, the z=0 height must be set on (or above) the material surface. If the z=0 were set below the surface, you would get radiused corners at the surface and the sharp corners would be lower down (you would be able to sand the surface down to reveal the sharp corners).
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  #32  
Old Tue 15 September 2009, 14:42
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Pete,

When you have the trial version you are limited in what you can do because they limit the code. But I agree with Gerald, Vectric's software is excellent and the price is much better than most. There are a number of things you can do as you set up the cut file and these work with the bit that you have selected. You don't know what bit is being used.

Gerald, I would be happy to participate in working on test cut programs with some others. I think it would be an excellent thing for every one.
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  #33  
Old Tue 15 September 2009, 16:24
myozman
Just call me: Mike #16
 
Demotte,IN
United States of America
Pete,

When you have the model open in Aspire, hit F12 to open toolpaths. Double click your finish toolpath(s), hit the edit button and change your stepover. You can click on the estimated machine time icon to get a rough machining time. You can see how much longer it takes with a smaller stepover. Once you get your machine setup, you can adjust the time to match your machine, or at least, get it closer.
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  #34  
Old Tue 15 September 2009, 16:59
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Mike,

He can not do that. He has cut files from what I understand that were provided by Vectric. He only has a trial version of Aspire.
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  #35  
Old Tue 15 September 2009, 17:17
myozman
Just call me: Mike #16
 
Demotte,IN
United States of America
Nils,

I forgot that he can't change or create usable toolpaths. The software is very worth the cost. I keep finding new things I can do with it.
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  #36  
Old Tue 15 September 2009, 18:59
inventall
Just call me: pete
 
ca
United States of America
I have no doubt the Vectric’s software it looks great and everyone has great things to say about it. The doubt is in my ability to get it to work on my MM.

I have checked the v groove bits that I have, I used 3 different Freud bits all 90 degrees and different sizes. All with the same results. Even ran a triangle cut test to check the exact degree of the bit.

I have changed the acceleration from 5 to 75 with very little difference in cut quality. I also measured my 1/4 inch spiral bit it is .246 and measured the width of the cut in several places along a straight grove and a round one, all measured between .248 to .251. I wish I had a Dial indicator here in CA. I will bring mine back from NY next week. But if I had to guess at it I would say I have about .005 at the most in any direction. I am testing that by pushing and pulling on the bit, not an easy thing to guess at. But it doesn’t seem like much.

Last night I did 16 different cuts of the "21 Maple Drive" trying everything I could think of, deeper cuts, higher cuts, slower, faster, and even with Backlash compensation enabled with different values. So far no luck. The Backlash setting so far only seems to make it worse. If I raise the bit so that the V-carve cut is about ˝ as deep as it should be the corners are fairly sharp.

Let me ask a dumb question, would running the MM on a computer with only 128k memory cause this type of problem

I wish I could help on the test cut program but as of rite now I have no cad or cam to speak of.
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  #37  
Old Tue 15 September 2009, 19:10
myozman
Just call me: Mike #16
 
Demotte,IN
United States of America
Pete,

Do you have side to side play in your Z slide? Are your v rollers tight enough against the slide? Are all six making contact? I'm just trying to think why your having these problems. I'm thinking you have a mechanical problem rather than a software problem. Have you tried any other software? I just never ran into this problem, even trying other software.
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  #38  
Old Tue 15 September 2009, 19:14
myozman
Just call me: Mike #16
 
Demotte,IN
United States of America
Minimum System Requirements

The Aspire, VCarve Pro, Cut3D, PhotoVCarve and Cut2D software products will all run on virtually all home PC's and do not require any special hardware or graphics card.

The minimum PC specification for Cut3D, PhotoVCarve and Cut2D is:

* 1 GHz Pentium 4
* Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista
* 256 Mb RAM
* 60 Mb Free disk space
* 1024 x 768 Graphics display

For running Aspire and VCarve Pro 5 we recommend a slightly higher minimum PC specification:

* 2 GHz Pentium 4
* Windows Vista with 2Gb RAM
* Windows XP & 2000 with 1Gb RAM
* 60 Mb Disk space
* 1024 x 768 Graphics display
* DVD Drive

Aspire and VCarve Pro 5 will run on most home PC's but not on Windows 98.

Note - The Intel 82810 & 82815 integrated graphics cards must be set to run in 16 bit color mode.


I even run Aspire on a netbook in front of the tv.
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  #39  
Old Tue 15 September 2009, 20:56
inventall
Just call me: pete
 
ca
United States of America
Thanks Mike, Yea I have the trial version on my notebook as well. I am only running Mach3 on my machine computer. An I was wondering if that could be causing any deviation in the cuts?

Kind of thin I know.
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  #40  
Old Wed 16 September 2009, 03:23
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Pete,

Add more memory to your MM machine.

Your machine and Vectric software will work nicely together. There are a number of MM builders that are using their products. You don't have to worry if it will work.

You may have a problem with your machine if you have not tuned the motors and done the other procedures you need to follow to get your machine ready to cut. Have you tuned your motors?

To you these things may not sound important but with out doing the things Mike suggested and I am suggesting and that have been suggested on this site, you will never know if it is your machine or the software. We know the Vectric software is not the problem. You have to trust us on this. Take the time to set up your machine. Have you cut the road runner out yet?

Good luck
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  #41  
Old Wed 16 September 2009, 04:24
kaartman
Just call me: Koning #20
 
Abu Dhabi
United Arab Emirates
The cut does not look bad, some artistic touch to it, I want to agree with Irfan in post #21, if you look at the letters the cut follow a constant contour but at the corners it goes funny, have look at the flexability of the z slide because of the plunging action of the cutter at the corners makes it look like the Z slide, router - collect gives way to the resistance of the material, shorten the distance between the material to be cut and the Y-gantry and try again,
The boys and girls on the Vectric forum are just as nice as our friends on the MM forum, together the problem will be solved.
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  #42  
Old Wed 16 September 2009, 07:00
domino11
Just call me: Heath
 
Cornwall, Ontario
Canada
Pete,
I am with Nils, XP needs min 512M to run nicely. It will limp along on 128M and run somewhat adequately on 256M. 1Gig will give better performance still. Also dont forget that with XP anything over 3G will get you in trouble due to limitations in the OS and some motherboards. 2Gig is a safe max for XP on all motherboards.
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  #43  
Old Wed 16 September 2009, 22:57
inventall
Just call me: pete
 
ca
United States of America
Forgive me if I am a little confused, just flew back to NY and can’t sleep now, “jetlag”, but it’s great to be home.

Ok Let me ask this “Tuning the motors” Do you guys mean Mach 3 tuning or setting the trim on the G540?? Because my understanding is if the motors run smooth, they are in tune??? As I have said I have tried changing acceleration and velocity with minimal difference in cut quality. I have not found a GOOD way to adjust trim and have no understanding of what “trim” is. I should probably go on CNCzone but that place scares me. I have read what G says about tuning the motors but I don’t get what I am “feeling” for. And then is it the same on the G540 as the 201’s, 202’s, 203’s??

Now I know 128k is way under the requirements of Mach (I started with256 on that computer but one of the memory slots died). I had planned to buy more memory for it, then found out that 1gig for that computer is $300. So I bought a much better IBM with 1gig for $124 from Tiger Direct. So far I have not got that one to work rite with the machine. The Kernal?? Speed is too low. I think I have the fix for that now from the Mach forum: run “msconfig” and shutdown all the start-ups.

Nils is there something that someone has suggested that I have not done?? I am pretty confident that the Z has little play, run-out or backlash as I am a heavy equipment and automotive mechanic I am very use to checking mechanical tolerances. When I return to CA next week, with a dial indicator I will post the specs.

My question was dumb, but I was just wondering what the effects on the cut (if any), from too little memory would be.
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  #44  
Old Thu 17 September 2009, 02:58
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Tuning the motors. Yes, we mean turning the pot on the Geckos. If you feel the motors are running smooth then it is not necessary to do. You check it by feeling the motor for roughness. Like on a car, you want the motor to run smooth.

If you don't have enough memory, Mach may have a problem running or the computer will spend processing time to swap things in and out of memory because it doesn't have enough to perfrom the tasks it needs to perform. That is not good.

If you are only using the computer for Mach there should not be a lot of start-ups that need shuting down.

If you feel that there is no play in the Z then I am not sure why you are having a problem. The cut looks like it has some chatter.

What does it look like when you cut circles? If you cut a 4" circle is it actually 4"? Are there lines along the edge like you have in your photos? If it is not 4" or what ever size you cut and there are lines, you might have loose pinon gears.

For us software guys, if you don't have enough memory in the computer, the software program may not perform the same way every time. Mach knows how much memory they need to run their software. If you don't want to provide that much then you may not run right.

It is not a great example but lets say you manufacture cars, you tell the users that the car requires 6 quarts of oil. Car owner only use 3 quarts of oil. The additional 3 quarts cost too much. How do you think the car is going to run? It might run fine but evently some thing is not going to work the way you the manufacture knows it will work if it has a 6 quarts. Mach must have a reason for the amount of memory they want. Unlike the oil example, more oil is not better but more memory is good to an extent.

To answer your question, we don't know if having too little memory will effect the cut but we do understand it will have some effect.

Pete, we are just providing some ideas that might work.
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  #45  
Old Thu 17 September 2009, 10:24
inventall
Just call me: pete
 
ca
United States of America
Don't get me wrong I really appreciate your input in to my problems. Most of you have been doing this stuff longer than I've been alive

I just realized that I did not post the following pic's here I put them on the Vectric forum. The square is 4x4 and the circle is 6inches. The sides of the blue carve took a couple of swipes with sand paper to look like that. If you look close at the "bulls" carve corners you will see the same problem.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg MM test cut 1.jpg (60.2 KB, 366 views)
File Type: jpg MM test cut 2.jpg (38.3 KB, 367 views)
File Type: jpg MM test cut 3.jpg (59.5 KB, 368 views)
File Type: jpg MM test cut 4.jpg (47.0 KB, 368 views)
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  #46  
Old Fri 18 September 2009, 06:34
astrolavista
Just call me: Rene #29
 
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada
I'm using Aspire to do most of my work, I had some issues with my Vcarves before I tuned my machine.. I think the key was just slowing down, I tried running some tests at 150 in/min and did not produce very nice crisp vcarves. I'm now running 1/2 that speed and they are looking good.. also been working on some 3d stuff and the same applies. I've been able to knock the job time down by being more "creative" with my cut strategies mixing 3d with pocketing..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlcbTNdODUI
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  #47  
Old Fri 18 September 2009, 16:33
inventall
Just call me: pete
 
ca
United States of America
Thanks Rene, But I tried that. I think I went down to 20 ipm at one point. I wish I made a video of it cutting. At the slower speed you can watch the bit rise up to make the angle than the Z stops and moves farther in to the corner as if it is rounding it on purpose.
I hope I can come up with something before I return to CA.

Maybe if I just disassemble the hole thing and put it back together it will work better. IDK it works on cars.
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