Shows you "ek jaag al weer aan." stirring where I should not.

This one is for our english speaking friends.In Afrikaans there is a saying "moet nie aan die koei se g.a.t. krap nie."and that means don`t scratch where you are not suppose to.And what happens we just did!:D
So to all our friends from over the big oceans if someone looks for trouble you can use Afrikaans!

Hou matigheid voor oë

Done one of the X-rail's rack last night. Decided that I would like a bolt on each side, but are not prepared to to the rail off to do drilling and tapping. I drilled a 6mm hole on the side, opened it up with a 10mm for the allen cap head and tapped a hole in the side of the main beam. Some shim washers between beam and rack, some double sided tape and the rack is on.

Just got in from the cold, but could not wait...here is the proof...:D:D

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10 weeks ago you said:

You are a liar, Sir!

Congrats Kobus,

But all I see is a MechMa ... :)

She looks beautiful.

Congratulation Kobus. :)

Caroline is the MechMa :)

You really pulled out all the stops this last two weeks!
It is a good looking machine. :cool:Congratulations.
I am extremly jealous.

Thanks guys and sorry Gerald, but this thing is ADDICTIVE....once you start you just cannot stop.
Now I need to get MACH3 to do what I want, fit the router and level my worksurface.
Gerald, do you have a count of MM build to date. I would love to put a number on old BBB....Brakpan Big Blue.

Look at the thread title for the count - it was posted 9pm yesterday :)
Your thread is now also a "sticky", it stays at the top together with the other "numbered" machines.

Wow # 6...Thanks Gerald for making this available for the man in the street like me. This dream came together thanks to all the wonderful people on this forum. This is not a speech, but I have to mention Greg that donated 4 x Gecko's and Riaan that donated the main table steel. My total so far is under R 25 000.00. Later when...not if BBB generate some income, I will go for a nice spindle.

THANKS to EVERYBODY !!:D:D

Hi Kobus

Bakgat!!

Now I am going to be in trouble even more to complete mine.
"geniet hom swaer"

Well done Kobus,

pretty good, even for a Shark :D, judging by your speed of progress you should have mach3 and the router sorted by Friday?

Thanks Alan, I was fortunate that other people did all the hard work in designing and de-bugging the build process. I just kept my mouth shut...like a good Shark...got down and dirty and ended up with a superior toy...something that will keep me close to mommy for years to come.

Mach 3 sorted by Friday...come on man I am a Shark supporter...tonight is the night !!!:rolleyes:

Careful with that Shark remark Alan! :)
There are more than one on this forum

More than one anti-Shark too :D

Shame

nice job Kob it's time to mount a router or a spindle :)

Hi Mickey, brackets for router is at the lasercut company. Will pick them up around Wednesday. In the meantime I think it is safe to play around with a pen and paper until I fully understand and can drive the beast without crashing and breaking things.

i'm ok kob, i do the same with my first CN, and it's real, breaking is expensive, but with router, you learn feed's and speed, this is i think the hard to learn.

Kobus,

Congratulations! Job well done.......!

Congratulations Kobus, Eisch that is nice, Sure it is warmer in your heart than outside, enjoy

Thanks guys, its now up to the old grey matter upstairs to get a good grip on the software.

You see Koning, I am a man that cannot wait for something to happen..as a project manager... I MAKE things happen:)

I have some learning to do, but at the moment I play with MACH3 and the wizards / programs that come with it. From the calculations of my rack/pinion/motor I get about 32 steps per pulse. I then set up my velocity to about 3048mm/min (120inch/min). I think the Acceleration is about 101mm/sec.

When I use the WRITE Wizard the G-Code is posted and I start to CUT//write with my big pen plotter. The motors are ticking over very slowly and I have to increase the FEEDRATE manually to get the thing to move / write. Is this just a problem of this particular Wizard?

I also tried to make a design in CorelDraw...exported it to a DXF file. Opened it with LazyCam, but did not see my design.

I then opened up one of the DXF file as supplied by Gerald for the laser cut parts, and this I can see in LazyCam.
This part is the steep learning curve I have to battle with at the moment.
Thanks,
Kobus

The velocity, that you set at 3048mm/min, on the motor tuning screen, is the peak, or jog, velocity of the system.

To set an actual "CUT//write" velocity, you need an "F" statement in your g-code.

Thanks Gerald, that's correct, but the Wizard put a F=1 in if I remember correctly...so that lies with how the wizard was set up. I could not find anywhere to change the feed rate on this Wizard. Will edit the file manually and then try again. Will also play more with Lazycam tonight.

If the wizard doesn't ask for the speed (or the material), then be grateful that it adds a F=1 in the g-code.........makes an easy place for you to edit. :)

Editing g-code files manually for speed is fairly standard practice, unless you want the "wizard" to ask about your material, cutter bluntness, surface finish needed, etc. We don't use the Mach wizards (nor Lazycam) so I can't tell you if there is a better way of using that wizard.

Hallo Kobus,
I am working on my import list.
Did you import the motors from Oriental?
What else did you get from the States?

Hi Johan, Correct, steppers from China directly and the wheels from America. The rest all local. Phone/mail me if you have any questions....will see if I can help.

I am little bit confused...and that is easily achieved.:confused:.
For about 2 day's I am fighting to get my DESIGNS into Mach3 to 'cut'.

I have Mach3 version R2.63 and on the FILE menu only have ...LOAD G-Code
......LazyCAM
......Close File
......Exit

BUT....If I read the MACH3 MILL manual they talk about Importing DXF, HPGL, BMP and JPG directly from MACH3 FILE menu.

I know that I can IMPORT them into LazyCam, but me and LazyCam is not seeing eye to eye at the moment and I cannot get my design situated on the correct start point etc etc.

Anybody with more experience please fell free to help me...I NEED to make dust this weekend and time is running out.
Thanks in advance

Have you tried the Lazycam forum? Probably part of www.machsupport.com?

An economical product that is well accepted is www.sheetcam.com. I am convinced the free trial version will have you going by the weekend.

This product's trial will also have you cutting soon:
http://www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectr.../c2d_index.htm

Both of the suggested products are UK-based (our time zone) and have excellent forums. I was honoured to meet the writers of both programs in England 3 years ago and they are extremely approachable, helpful people.

Thanks Gerald, Sheetcam and c2d will be tried. I got home last night DETERMINED to get it right with LazyCam. With all new programs you go through this learning curve...sometime its easy, sometimes its more difficult. LazyCam interface is not like all windows programs where you click, drag and presto you resize your work. Some actions can be mouse driven, but others needs a manual typed input to change something.

I also found out that if I do my design in CoreDraw..which I have used for years now...and export to DXF, I get funnies in LazyCam/ Mach3. But if I export it to WMF format, it works well in LazyCam and Mach3.

I tried to use Lazycam but gave up because of the lack of help within the program. I am using Sheetcam with good results because of 2 reasons, 1st ... Marc helped me a lot and 2nd Sheetcam has excellent help within the program. My vote goes for Sheetcam. Marc and I have talked to Les (the developer?) and he is very willing to listen and make things work better for CNC Routers. I think the program has been used a lot more for plasma cutters than routers. Just think about all the extra control you need for a router. Anyway just my 2 cents worth.

Thanks JR, was wondering WHY I cannot get it right with LazyCam straight away...not as user friendly as I would have expected it to be. Will give it another go tonight, and then on to Sheetcam....there goes my budget again.

There are some other budget CAM programs listed here:

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=19

Kobus,

I'm using the VCarve Pro programs. Very easy and intutive. I was carving wood within 1 hour of opening the program.

+1 on the vectric products. I wound up picking the vcarve pro also.

I downloaded a free trial of sheetcam and tried to figure out both lazy cam and sheet cam, IMHO both were very complicated compared to vcarve. There is a forum for vcarve with help and support also. $$ for vcarve pro is more than sheetcam but I think that they have a lower priced 2D software now that is avaliable and I think you can upgrade the 2D later to vcarve pro without having to pay the full price of the vcarve pro. I would still perfer the vectric 2D over sheetcam.

Not that I am advertising for or pushing any peticular software, all seem overpriced to me except for Mach 3, just echoing an opinion that the vectric is pretty simple and works well, even for thick headed guys like me:D

The CAM discussion has been copied here:
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=854

Between FIGHTING to get the software sorted, I did my router bracket last night...yes in the cold.... Don't worry I decided to replace the main bearing while I am busy putting it on the BBB. This little Makita router served me well for many years and is still going strong, so the least I can do is fit a new bearing before it starts it life as a CNC router.

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I like a man with good morals. :)