Topics

1

CamBam help (General usage) / Cutting Aluminum for the first time...

« on: July 08, 2015, 07:41:15 am »

Hi!
I am a long time CB user, but will be venturing out to cut aluminum for the first time soon, I'm used to brass and steel.
Can you give me some tips on speeds, depths and lubricant.
The material is 6083-T6, 10mm thick.
I will be doing lots of drilling and then cutting(slotting) the outside shape.
The drill doesn't worry me, but slotting does.
The tools I have on hand are 3mm carbide end mills.
My mill goes to max. 2700 rpm.
What does your experience say?
Is a 3mm mill too small for slotting alu 10mm deep?
What DOC and speed would you recommend?
Is carbide OK or HSS better?
What lubricant should I be using, if any?

I am very wary of alu, it seems to be very different and much more difficut to work than brass and steel, but have never had material of this quality in my hands before.
What would be your ideal tool, depth, speed, lub if you had a choice for this kind of work?

Thanks for any info,
Don

(I have been making watches, rarely cut material thicker than 3mm.  Now I am making a pendulum clock, 1.5 meters high.  What a difference!)

2

CamBam help (General usage) / Project to surface usage...

« on: June 02, 2013, 12:08:46 pm »

I now have my stick fonts working, an stl volume loaded and want to do a project to surface.
I select the stl, and a polyline that I want to project.
Calling the project to surface routine I get the following error

Unhandled exception
Method not found System.Collections.IEnumeratorCamBam.UI.CADSelection.GetEnumerateor()

Am I doing something wrong?
Don

edit: I see in that picture that I try to project a region, it does the same with a polyline, any polyline.

3

CamBam help (General usage) / Arc text and CB stickfonts

« on: May 31, 2013, 13:51:02 pm »

Is anyone having luck using Georges nice stick fonts with the arc text plugin?
I only get an error that they aren't true type fonts and then have to abort the plugin.

I usually pocket my engraving, but have to engrave on a non-flat surface this time, so need to use an engraving MOP.  Thus I need to use the stick fonts.
It would be a shame to have to use an external program to make the tool paths as the arc text plugin works so well.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Don

4

CamBam help (General usage) / WARNING - anyone using Avast antivirus with MACH3

« on: March 24, 2013, 21:35:56 pm »

After installing the latest Avast anitvirus update today MACH3 lost position on me today twice in less than half an hour.
This has never happened to me before, after a tool change the actual position in MACH3 was very very wrong (each axis aroubd 80 mm to 100 mm away from the real position).  It was only luck that I was standing next to the machine when it happened so I could hit the emergency stop that kept things from breaking.
I completely uninstalled Avast (and unhooked the network) and worked the rest of the afternoon without a problem.

I know this doesn't prove anything, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty conclusive IMHO.
Don't use MACH3 with the newest version of Avast.

Don

5

CamBam help (General usage) / Lead-in starting point

« on: February 04, 2013, 11:58:20 am »

I have discovered through trial and error that the biggest part of my tool wear comes from plunging into the material, whether it be vertical or through a spiral lead-in doesn't seem to make a big difference.
I am now, whenever possible, drilling a hole outside the part and starting all my cuts from that hole to be able to first go to the correct depth and then start cutting horizontally.  Of course this is not always possible, but when it is I am currently creating the tool path myself using offsets and then an engrave MOP.  This OK for testing, but is, of course, a major pain now that it is becoming my general working method.  And I would like to be able to use the nice features of CB like the holding tabs.

Is there any way that I can create lead-ins that start at a point that I define?  I seem to be able to place a point and drill at the beginning of a tangent lead-in, but every MOP has its own idea of where the lead-in should start, so I would have holes all over.  Not a real big help.  And sometimes the lead-in needs to be long so I don't have to place a hole in my part.  I want to be able to define one or more points at which MOPs can start with a lead-in to the respective MOP.

Anyone have an idea how I might go about this?
Thanks for your help.
Don

6

CamBam help (General usage) / What's the simplest way to force a tool change?...

« on: January 13, 2013, 20:15:56 pm »

yeh, I know, make a MOP with another tool, but I want to force a recalibration of the tool length without changing the tool.
Background: I mill my pieces from both sides, up until today the turning over of the workpiece has always coincided with a tool change.  And todays pieces are the first time that I will be throwing pieces out because the final thickness of the pieces is so far off the pieces are unusable.  (after the turn the tool seems to be 0.06mm too long FWIW).
Apparently that tool change or at least the accompanying length calibration is necessary after turning the piece.
Thanks in advance for your ideas,
Don

7

Bug Reports / 9.8k nesting bug ?

« on: August 14, 2011, 11:47:15 am »

I have tried nesting for the first time today making one part 3 times.
Thought it was just great until I saw that all the drill MOPS for all the 3 copies were at the position of the original part definition.
The pockets and profiles seem to be OK.
Any ideas?
Will post a cb file later.
Don

8

CamBam help (General usage) / Postprocessor macros in 9.8H

« on: December 30, 2010, 19:51:09 pm »

Hi Andy,
Does the fact that there are new macros in 9.8H mean that our custom postprocessors need to be rewritten?
Or will they update automatically?
Don

9

CamBam help (General usage) / What is the best way to insert non-cutting moves ?

« on: August 08, 2010, 15:01:34 pm »

I have been editing my g-code to add moves for work piece repositioning etc..
It would be so much easier if I could just make a MOP which inserted that g-code.
Then I wouldn't have to search through the g-code to find the correct place etc.
What is the best way to insert a snippit of g-code?
Thanks,
Don

 

10

Members Projects / Started a new watch

« on: August 02, 2010, 11:43:48 am »

All the machining done with CamBam
To get an idea of the scale, in the first picture the plate, right, is dia 35mm, the bridges, left, 29.5.
All the screws seen in the pictures are S0.4, the screw heads are dia. 0.58mm











Don

11

CamBam help (General usage) / Tool path forms

« on: July 28, 2010, 17:51:39 pm »

Hi !
I am planning on using the milling tool paths as a decorative element on my next watch movement.
You may or may-not know that in high end watches good movement decoration is a coveted and expensive feature.
In any case this next watch is to look very industrial and I think these milling paths are just the thing.
Everyone else polishes them away, as I have up 'til now too. 
This time I will be protecting them so they don't get any scratches.
I like the forms that I am getting from CamBam  and that they are not spiral, but concentric.

There is just one problem.
I always have a radial mark where the tool is moved from one concentric path to the next as marked here for example.


Any ideas how I can avoid this mark and just have perfect concentric paths?
Many thanks in advance for your ideas!
Don

12

CamBam help (General usage) / Another tab problem

« on: July 07, 2010, 10:47:27 am »

I think the tab feature is great, now that i have started using it, but i am having a problem with several parts.
Please take a look at the attached file.
Both tabs should be on the top edge of the part, the edge where the tab center dot is placed.
But as you can see the tab to the right starts on the bottom and goes all the way around the end of the part.
What is going on here?
I have this problem on several parts and it appears to happen when the tab "square" extends across the entire width of the part and intersects with the tool path on the other side.  But it doesn't always happen either.
I know that I can avoid this by moving the tab to certain positions, but I have the tabs where they are for a reason, it is not by chance.
Is there a way to make the tab "square" extend only in one direction so it doesn't extend across the part to the tool path on the other side?
How else can this be avoided?
Many thanks in advance for your help!
Don

13

CamBam help (General usage) / Selecting objects under a tab

« on: July 05, 2010, 11:09:23 am »

I have used tabs on a profile for the first time in my latest project.
It works great, but I am having problems selecting objects that are under the outline of the tab.
I am using ver 0.9.7f
Even if the profile is not selected and the tab not shown trying to select an object under the tab always selects the tab.
Is there a way to select "through" the tab?
I have ended up moving the tabs to select under them, which is a real pain as I have multiple MOPs using the same object with tabs at the same places so I need to re-align them every time.
Don

14

Feature Requests / Lead-in drill point

« on: February 26, 2010, 13:18:55 pm »

When using 1 toothed cutters I need to use a tangental lead-in with a hole pre-drilled at the start point.
It would be nice to have a automatic "lead-in" pointlist which I could then then use for a drill MOP.
Or at least be able to snap to the toolpath start point when making the pointlist.
For the moment I am drilling much bigger than necessary to have some positioning tolerance.
Don

15

Installation Help / What version of .NET for XP

« on: January 24, 2010, 10:31:29 am »

I want to install CAMBAM on a compi running XP with no net connection. 
Can someone please point me to the runtime download of .NET I need?
Regards,
Don