When I start a cut, I get everything to 0,0,0....I then start the router and make a small mark with the cutting bit into the MDF that I will be cutting. I zero the Z-axis again and then start cutting. If I should have a power failure or problem that I must start again to finish the job, I can just jog back to my MARK and then restart Mach3 from there. The gantry cannot run off the far side as it will hit the wall first. Will get something on my side to make it more safe.

Gents, my two cents worth. When we tested the machine I did not have emergency or home switches. I ran the machine off the rails several times ( due to stupidity) I then put the emergency switches on which helped to prevent the macine from running of the rails. I still had a problem with the fact that I ran the machine very close to the limits and every now and then into the limits. You have to disconnect the motors in order to reset the machine. I then fitted the home switches. This meant that you can zero the machine exactly at the same place every time automatically. The best thing is that you can use soft limits in Mach to make sure that the machine only runs to the preset limits with no damage to anything. If I can make a suggestion it would be to fit the switches from the word go. Kobus is a very hands on type of chap and find these things easy to do. Some of us need assistance.:)

Eish! Die Boer hy is slim!
Even with a "stopless" machine his got a plan.:D:D
Did you draw those brackets up in Coreldraw - export to V-carve and then save it to G code?

Yes Johan Coreldraw then export to EPS file. Pull that into Vectric Cut2D...do all the cut lines / depth speed etc, then into Mach3 directly.

Marius as for getting the machine exactly to the same starting point everytime with limit switches etc will not do me much good. I slap a piece of wood on the table....anywhere...bring my machine to the 0,0 point of that piece of wood...mark it with my cutter on the wood being cut....I also know the size I want to cut....once all this is set I start it up and let it do it's thing. I don't see the point of always having my machine go to the table 0,0 point and then work from there to do cut's somewere in the middle of the table.

As I cut out small items, I have some MDF piece available on a sheet. I can easily select only a part piece of the design that will fit into this gap. Set it up in Cut2D, bring my machine to that new 0,0 point and cut a piece out...a piece that could have been wasted before....hope this all makes sense.....bottom line I don't alway's cut from the table 0,0 point....I set up my 0,0 point as and where I need it.

I will draw most of my designs in Autocad and then export from there. It might also happen that we will have to work with a existing Coreldraw files as well in the future. My next learning curve is to master the software. I must play around and see if I can set the 0,0 up as per your description.

Kobus,
True for your situation. In my case we recut the same stuff over and over. The material also have a colour split that has to be placed on the correct place on the part. I thought that I might get away with doing it your way, but not easy (for me).:o

Thanks for info Kobus!
Think I buy 34HS4801 motors too.

Sorry my mistake again,,,the steppers are 34 HS 9801

I go for 4801.
Must have a bit more powerful engine.

Marius I agree with you,I would rather know where my 0,0 points are.I will do my first full sheet of Melamine nesting tomorrow with drilling holes ,cutting kick plates and cutting the items out.(ccma is going to hate me):)

Hennie I played with Mach3 this afternoon and used the GOTO Z button for the first time. If you machine is on 0,0,0 and you stop the program in the middle of the cut or you jog the machine to another point on the table and you hit this GOTO Z button ( I think it is called ) Mach3 will take it back to you 0,0,0 where you started originally from. It will not work if you lost steps by running into a clamp or pushing the machine too hard, but under normal operating it works like a charm.

Kobus,
Speaking of loosing steps. I find with my machine being big (and heavy) it seems to be more prone to this loosing steps story. Has anyone played with higher current settings on the Geko drives?

This discussion taken to the Troubleshooting thread:
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1472

Hi Marius, sorry but on losing steps I am afraid that I cannot help as I have only once experienced it in the beginning. After setting up all the speeds etc, I have not noticed it again.


This afternoon I decided to cut a decorative piece that I wanted to do for a long time. I put a piece of hardwood (Saligna) on the machine and flatten it with a 20 mm cutter...Could have done it on the thickneser, but it's more fun on old BBB.

Then fitted my 3mm ballnose and 25 minutes later finished the 'CARVING'. I then ran it agains a brass wire brush to get some of the soft wood out. This give the piece more DEPTH. Some dark brown shoe polish, then some black shoe polish and I am very happy with the result. Size is 400 mm x 100 mm.

Attachment 3873

Maar ons speel lekker!:)

This morning I was cutting slots for my louvres and as noticed on my thread the length of the wood runs in a x direction and the slots at an angle of 45 deg.
Noticed that it doesn`t cut nice holes because of the angle it is as it is cutting stepping the cutter step up step forward and so on.Although the cad drawing shows a perfect slot I just coudn`t get it perfect.
What to do next? turn the whole project at an angle and cut the slot as if it runs along the x axis and not at an angle.Results perfect holes for my louvres ,it did take me an hour or so to get the angle and the0,0 point.( will post picks later )

Kobus,
Now thats the kind of stuff a router should be doing. Very nice man.

Hennie,
That is why I fitted reduction from the start. The more you reduce the better the resolution. In essence all routers using stepper motors does exactly that. The better the resolution the less you notice it though. That is why some guys argue that syncro's and servo's are better as they dont have the step issue.

Marius, Hennie has since discovered that his pinion gear's grubscrews were loose. His angled cuts are free of steps now.

the servo's still have the encoder issues :)

The teething problems seem to be the same for all of us. It happened to me as well

The BOSS requested another thing to be made. A little box with place for 3 little glass jars for flowers.

Attachment 3893

I also made another decorative piece...about 500mm x 500mm. Tried the 2 step approach with CUT2D, but it did not work this time.

Attachment 3894

Gerald,
I too, had those slight cut problems with regard to the grub screws.
To resolve my issues:
- I took a flat file and made a second flat spot on the OM motor shaft
- used set screws with flat bottom for better contact
- second screw backing up the first screw
- locktite

This problem is not something that is rare only to CNC world, I have this issue with many drive train couplers and often will put multiple flats on the shaft. As I recall, JR & Marc machined a couple of nice flats on the gear reducer shaft assemblies.

The un-geared OM motors have 2 flats 90 degrees apart - I was surprised to learn that the higher torque geared motors only have 1 flat. We also add a second flat to those shafts.....with a freehand angle grinder! :)

Kobus, are you on leave, getting all these nice projects done?

Forced leave...the system automatically book you....had 3 day's left over from last years leave, but tomorrow I will be back at work...missing old BBB :mad:

At last we finished the 2nd bike restoration for my eldest son Francois. Now father and son each have it's own 1982 Suzuki GS 1000 G shaft driven motorbike.

This is what it looked like...:
Attachment 3935

After about 5 months of work:
Attachment 3936

My son Francois did most of the assembly...also putting the motor together I left him to do it by himself....just checked in occasionally to see if he is coping...and he did well...

Attachment 3937

Good looking bikes, nice job Francois and Kobus, I like the paint. Enjoy riding together.

My son Richard and I rode our bikes about 300 miles yesterday, it's nice to ride ..... father and son.

Hi Kobus

Nice bikes, neat job, keep save and enjoy!!

Marius look at my thread.one small little thing.

Welcome Tom ...does this mean we will see a MechMate in Brits next year ?

Just for the record, Tom is a friend that I met when I spend a year on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean. He is currently the Team Leader and Medic on another South African Weather station in the Atlantic Ocean. Look at http://www.sanap.ac.za/ and go to GOUGH ISLAND for info on this Island.

Well I got back safetly from Beaufort West delivering one of the 2 Emergency Mobile Trailer Units (EMTU) that I was responsible for as project manager. We delivered it to the Cape Town department there that took it down to Cape Town...sorry Gerald, next time I will take it all the way and come for another visit..

Attachment 3988

This weekend my sisters son...the one that sponsored my main beams visited to use my lathe and thickneser. He is renovating his house and wanted to make a little table for the bathroom. After spending time on the lathe he decided on plan D,E F ...etc....that after I told him that I will gladly cut his parts on old BBB.

He went home to take some measurenents. About 2 hours later he was back and we started to cut. As I showed him my homemade Router table for rounding pieces he included it into his drawings.

The results were amazing...as he is a person that draws structures every day, he included tabs to get everything lined up correctly. Must say old BBB did not dissapoint us and the pieces fitted so well on a dry fit that we had to use a hammer to take it apart....

I did notice some shudder on the big ARC....very easy to remove with some light sanding... but I will now think on adding that 3:1 gearing.

Attachment 3989

Attachment 3990

Attachment 3991

Kobus,
That looks great man. Dont you just enjoy it when a job comes of and it looks that great? How thick is the mdf and how many passes did you cut?

16 mm MDF and with my 6.36mm cutter I did it in 2mm / pass....It took a while, but came out very good. The best is that he designed it, supplied the material...I only had to worry about cutting it.....so far my biggest job.

How is that beast in Midrand doing ?

We call it the monster machine. It has impacted our production so much that even the folk working on the line has great respect for it. Something of a holy nature to them. We are doing our first big 3D mould in the week comming. probably about 36 hours of continues cutting.
I had to put the Pc and the driver electronics on a UPS and so solved all the noise interference problems. She runs solid now.

Thanks for sharing Kobus and Marius. It's great to see real work (including pictures) coming off COMPLETED MechMates.:)

Regards,
John

You can one of these day`s stop working for a boss and do your own thing!:)
"Dit lyk Moerse goed"

Update on that bathroom washing table. Riaan added some stain and fitted it this weekend. Sorry for the poor quality, but he was very exited on the final result and send me a MMS via his cellphone.

Attachment 4068

In the meantime I had some HONEY-TO-DO things. As our winter is approaching I had to move the fireplace to another room. Did some tiling with slate tiles, builded a sturdy metal frame and cladded it with MDF.

Attachment 4069

Come on Winter..and red wine and...

Kobus,
How cold does your Winter get there? I did not even think you guys would need heating of any kind for your houses. :)

Johannesburg's altitude is about 5500 ft.

Places on the coast might not need it, but up here in Johannesburg we are already feeling the change. We go down to freezing some nights / early morning and then the day temp. could reach 17 plus deg C. Some big changes during a day. Furthermore our houses are not build with energy saving in mind. All the windows are single pane, no insulation on the walls and most of the time nothing in the roof. So the little heat we build up during the day is quickly gone by dusk.

Kobus,
That is a big shift in temp. :) I think I would want some insulation in the walls and roof to help moderate the temps better. Is that the norm for houses in your area?