Topics

1

CamBam help (General usage) / New Years Wish

« on: January 04, 2026, 19:28:33 pm »

In the new year I'd like to see Andy save CamBam from a slow death because it is a really great little program.  I have to think there is something that can be done. I for one would be happy to pay an upgrade fee just to get the occasional bug fix or new feature. Machining the area missed by a large tool comes to mind.
Maybe license the source code and take a commission on sales.
We've all been waiting for a LONG time!

2

Members Machines / FrankenRouter

« on: May 28, 2025, 00:29:28 am »

Well after 4 years I finally got the FrankenRouter up and running for the high school FIRST Robotics team. Why the name? It was built from the carcass of watering machines I built almost 30 years ago and donated to us by the customer. The PLC and most of the electrical is from the machine too.  The control enclosure, shop vac, and the coolant pan are from a junkyard. Steppers are ex-Tormach.
Its a very special machine. 24” x 48” x 7” axis, on wheels and fits through a 35” school door so it goes in our closet. Full enclosure and flood coolant. Main door is vertical and powered up and down.  Main and rear door can be raised an inch so a full 4x8 sheet of plywood can be cut by passing it through.
Control is Acorn and CamBam. Z axis, Spindle clamp and caster mounts are lost foam castings I machined on my homebuilt CNC.

3

CamBam help (General usage) / Drilling through both sides of hollow tubing

« on: February 09, 2025, 13:25:03 pm »

On the FIRST team we need to drill lots of holes through 1x2 tubing both sides using a canned cycle. Any way to make a script or something to drill first side rapid down to bottom side and drill it through? Currently doing the top holes in one cycle then the bottom holes individually so the drill pulls completely out for the horizontal move.
Thanks!

4

CamBam help (General usage) / FrankenRouter

« on: January 03, 2025, 00:47:44 am »

The FrankenRouter is finally up and running after five years!  I'll post photos on Saturday.  So what is a FrankenRouter?  Well 25 years ago I built some robot water machines for a greenhouse customer and five years ago he took a couple out of service.  So my Grandson and I went and hauled home the carcass.  So the frame of the FrankenRouter was made from that aluminum 8020 style extrusion.  The electronics and a PLC were also reused, with a modern CPU donated by Automation Direct.  The electrical enclosure came from a junk yard, as well as the stepper power transformer, a metal pan, a shop vac, carpeting, mastic sheet, for sound reduction.  So it is a fully enclosed 24x48x6 bridge router that is on wheels and fits through a 35" school door opening to go in a large closet.  It has a coolant pump and full coolant pan around and under the extrusion table so we can cut metal.  It also has a permanently mounted 4th axis/lathe driven by a large stepper motor.  CNC controller is a Centroid Acorn.  Runs pretty smooth at 100 ipm but the long X screw gets to vibrating too much at higher speeds.

5

CamBam help (General usage) / Coolant activation

« on: March 23, 2024, 13:19:11 pm »

How would add the M7 and M9 for coolant activation automatically without editing G-code?

6

CamBam help (General usage) / Plugins on Windows 7

« on: February 05, 2024, 12:34:02 pm »

Our little CNC machine uses Mach 3 with Smooth Stepper on a Windows 7 laptop.  I installed CamBam on the laptop and it works fine except for plugins.  On startup it complains about CAS issues with .NET 4.  Any ideas how to fix this?  Not anxious to upgrade Windows as I didn't set this computer up in first place and it runs the machine just fine.

7

Scripts and Plugin Help / Plugin idea

« on: June 02, 2022, 22:30:44 pm »

I have found the Profile2Helix plugin to be one of the most useful to me. I’ve done a lot of different parts with it.  How about one that produces a series of engrave lines perpendicular to a profile? Would be really useful for producing straight grooves or ribs or moldings in wood with a ball mill.

8

CamBam help (General usage) / Another CNC needs CamBam

« on: April 08, 2021, 17:30:47 pm »

Time to order another copy of CamBam. I proposed by a converted Grizzly machine to some small parts at my job. My boss said no, he’d rather we bought something new like the ProCutCNC on Ebay. I was good with that, but 5 attempts to get information about the machine and no response on Ebay or directly at their website!
Finally I said to my boss that we are within a few thousand dollars of a used industrial machine and I found a Fadal VMC15 that had ZERO spindle hours! How is that possible? The machine came from a medical company that equiped it with a laser and used it for marking parts. Never ran the spindle or used the tool changer, or pushed a cutter through metal so hopefully it will be in great shape.

9

CamBam help (General usage) / Using lathe

« on: April 30, 2020, 17:43:46 pm »

I am trying to profile this simple roller using the lathe function in 0.98using a tool with a 0.030" nose radius.  I can't seem to get a usable program.  In roughing it cuts off the surface on the right end and when it finishes the tool goes back to the clearance plane right thru the part.  I can apply a leadout, but that also goes through the part on the leftside, and I can't get a leadin at all.

Suggestions on how to do this? Maybe another program?

Thanks

10

CamBam help (General usage) / Line tangent to one or two circles

« on: April 26, 2020, 18:10:51 pm »

Is there a function, plugin, or script to do this with CamBam? I know how to do it geometrically but that is a pain. This would be hugely useful.

11

CamBam help (General usage) / COVID 19 boost for CamBam?

« on: March 26, 2020, 23:27:16 pm »

Lots of activity here. Everyone staying home and working with CamBam?  I am still going to work but if we shut down that will happen for me too as I can work on my CNC in my garage.

I changed jobs and have no sick time or vacation time accumulated yet and I haven't passed 90 days trial yet so I don't have much choice.  However they are very happy with my work.  Working on Chinese built production machines.  They are so badly built in every way that it is hard to imagine!  Nothing I touch is has been right and needs to be redone.  Broke a linear bearing shaft in a punch press die set yesterday and after less than a year of intermittent operation all the bearings and shafts are completely shot.

12

CamBam help (General usage) / First use of Trochoid pocket

« on: February 16, 2020, 19:02:04 pm »

So today I am using a Trochoid pocket for the first time because I have to remove a fairly large deep pocket.  Just wanted to report how great it works! Nice and gentle on my machine and very fast.

Thanks for this MOP

13

CamBam help (General usage) / Plugin Amazement

« on: November 28, 2019, 22:08:26 pm »

I just reinstalled CamBam on my new computer.  I just have say at how freaking impressed I am by all the plugins you guys have written for CamBam!  Until I downloaded them today I had no idea there were so many really useful ones.

You guys all get a huge ATTABOY!

14

Feature Requests / Constant feed MOP

« on: November 22, 2019, 23:36:58 pm »

It occurs to me it would be really nice if pocket and profile MOPs could change the feed speed on radiuses to recognize that the if the tool has very close to the same radius as an inside radius that the actual feed rate of the cutting edge is far higher than the programmed feed of the tool path. I’ll bet we could cut far faster if you enabled radius feed compensation and avoid jamming a tool right into a tight corner. 

15

CamBam help (General usage) / Fireworks

« on: July 04, 2019, 20:56:01 pm »

Every time I see fireworks now I think of Lloyd and wonder if it is his handywork!