Messages

16

Members Machines / Re: quick change for hobbiest?

« on: October 28, 2020, 17:52:51 pm »

I am quite mistaken, I have the standard ER20 collets [at least I got the R part right  ]  i forget what power spindle i have, it is plenty powerful enough for what i do now.  like i said, i'm a hobbyist and seem to always be making prototypes.

17

Members Machines / quick change for hobbiest?

« on: October 28, 2020, 00:01:09 am »

i am not doing production work but do tire of changing bits, re-zeroing, and all.  i have R8 collets on a water cooled 5kw(?) motor.  what options are available for simple manual bit changing?  are there adapters, or did i buy the wrong style of motor?  i work almost exclusively with plywood.  do i lose available Z axis travel with adapters?  my CRP4848 has 6" currently.

18

Members Projects / flat stack end table

« on: October 27, 2020, 23:44:45 pm »

uses 2' x 4' of 3/4 birch.  this is just a prototype from radiata pine ply.  inspired by a mid-century modern credenza we have.  likely paint the arched legs to accentuate the curves.

19

Members Projects / Re: Spark plug story

« on: October 27, 2020, 23:37:59 pm »

i need some plug adapters so i can run metric long reach auto plugs in the old style plugs [that use the 7/8" wrench.  from bronze.  they make them but i dislike how the hex drive on the adapter crushes the copper washer at just 6 points and would prefer a style that has a continuous flange.  i can send pics and dimensions

20

CamBam help (General usage) / using SIDE PROFILE

« on: October 27, 2020, 18:52:46 pm »

after getting odd results i finally figured out what is going on with the geometry.  having been a carpenter and built many flights of stairs greatly helped.  in this example i used real life 3/4" plywood, which actually measures .71" thick.  I was wanting in this example to cut a slot an inch wide with a 45° tapered side profile.  the 45° line shown is the desired shape.  using rough steps illustrates better what happens with the "stair steps" that are actually milled.  the geometry is such that the "stairs" will always be built on top of the sloped line, never cut any material below it, which is desired.  so the "stairs" start at the bottom with a "riser" the height you specify.  the next "tread" will be whatever the distance horizontally over to the sloped line.  this repeats up thru to the top height of the material.  so even if the "risers" incrementally match the material thickness, say it was .75" and we stepped .25", the top of the material will always have a "tread", or a portion of a tread on the top, which of course makes the slot thickness measure smaller than what was desired.  the geometry for the side profile is measured thru where the "risers" touch the inside of the tread, like where your toe would hit when standing on a tread.  this all makes sense now, but i found no detailed explanation anywhere.  even the VALUE parameter doesn't specifically say that unit is in degrees from vertical [it is].  if you compute what that top "tread" measurement is, you can add a negative ROUGHING CLEARANCE value and force the "stairs" to be cut below the sloped line.

21

CamBam help (General usage) / Re: optimizing 3-D surface milling

« on: October 05, 2017, 04:58:29 am »

Bob - have you checked out the CAM operations in Fusion360?  another student today was telling me about using Fusion360 for CAM as well as creating 3D models.  13 MOPs for 3D machining.  some allow maximum depth of cutter but computes material load and adjusts cutting speed.  anyway, appear to be very extensive.  many 2D and 3D deal with various methods of roughing out material based on the shape of the part or optimizing the toolpath to reduce direction changes etc.....  what a lot of software for free. [well, you'd have to pay because you make over $100K/yr ☺]

22

Members Projects / greenland kayak paddle

« on: October 04, 2017, 19:52:51 pm »

cut from a 2x6 western red cedar.  weighs 29oz.  I made a hollow one, but only saved 9oz, hardly worth the significantly more effort.  swing weight is nearly the same.  takes 4 milling sessions, about 40min each, since it is too long for my 48" table.

23

CamBam help (General usage) / Re: optimizing 3-D surface milling

« on: October 02, 2017, 19:05:44 pm »

when you use, say, the horizontal 3D MOP, the milling path is a set of parallel lines within the surface or some constraint.  it repeats this path over and over as it incrementally drops the cutter head.  it also raises the cutter head as it passes over parts that are higher than the current cutting level.  so, perhaps I'm missing something, but if say, we are currently cutting at Z=6mm, working our way down to Z=0 [the table height], why couldn't we skip all the moves where Z>6mm?  then when Z=6 level is done, skip moves where Z>5mm etc...[assuming 1mm increments].  I am observing while cutting this paddle that when cutting the tapered tip the machine runs all the way to the far end, then back, then cuts for a few inches, then back to the far end.....  so, I don't understand why the tool path would always travel the full extents, other than it makes for a very simple algorithm.  if I were to use increment=0 for the final finish [as has been suggested] then the full travel makes sense because it would be constantly cutting.

24

CamBam help (General usage) / Re: optimizing 3-D surface milling

« on: October 02, 2017, 06:13:13 am »

good to know about waterline roughing.  yes, I'm using MIXED.  back to my original question, it wouldn't take much code to skip all the motions where Z isn't cutting anything during HORIZONTAL or VERTICAL 3-D MOPs, right?  I'm surprised that these MOPs are so simplistic in that they traverse the entire part even if nothing is being cut.  when the cutting stops, why not look ahead and catch the return pass where the cutting resumes?

I will have to try the WATERLINE then VERTICAL milling for my next attempt.  the paddle I just made is hollow, so very lightweight.  takes a huge amount to machine time however, 4+ hrs.

25

CamBam help (General usage) / optimizing 3-D surface milling

« on: September 30, 2017, 22:18:15 pm »

i am sitting here watching my machine carve a canoe paddle from a 3-D model.  using the HORIZONTAL technique i observe a lot of "cutting air" while it travels to the far end and back.  it seems to me that a lot of motion could be eliminated simply by looking ahead and deleting all the code until the Z-axis plunges down to the current depth being cut.  i'm sure i'm not the first to observe or ask about this.  are there optimizing routines that the G-code can be run thru?

26

Related Softwares / Re: DraftSight2017

« on: April 04, 2017, 04:48:02 am »

does your screen look like this?

27

Related Softwares / Re: DraftSight2017

« on: April 04, 2017, 04:44:38 am »

PIXELMAKER - don't know why I can't get my old version back.  when I attempted to apply hotfix, they downloaded draftsight2017 instead.  I can't find things like TRIM, SPLINES etc....  this version is a toy and unusable.  not sure why mine should be different from yours.  mine is the free version.  yours free?

28

Related Softwares / DraftSight2017

« on: March 03, 2017, 20:47:50 pm »

I will ask here because I can't seem to log into any of the draftsight forums or support anymore.  it appears that draftsight launched the 2017 version on march 1st and my prior version no longer works.  I am guessing some other cambam users also use draftsight?  is it true that the free version no longer supports TRIM, EXTEND, and SPLINE ?  plus whatever else I've yet to discover missing.  I feel like paul ryan has gotten hold of it.  of course the $100/yr PRO version is avail.  it was my understanding that Dassault was required by the courts to offer this free version after stealing autocad design.  this is frustrating.

29

CamBam help (General usage) / woodgrain background?

« on: March 01, 2017, 20:27:02 pm »

I have a friend who wants a sign made for his BBQ restaurant.  the sign will be exposed to some harsh weather, so I suggested using a UHD plastic like Corafoam.  He wants a wood, rustic look however.  I wondered if cambam has any plugins or tricks to carve random woodgrain into the background.  I don't want to buy more software, since this is a one-time thing.  the sign will be 41x66" so I will have to carve half at a time since my bed is only 4x4'.

30

CamBam help (General usage) / Re: zoom wheel direction

« on: February 03, 2017, 18:03:26 pm »

yes autohotkey script.  I know enough about it to be dangerous.  I came across that script and tried it, and viola!  magic stuff.  my favorite however are my abbreviations.  I use triple "e" as my email address, triple "s" as my street address, triple "c" as my city, .......  fabulous for filling out menus.  triple letters not found in English spelling and fast to type.  example-

::nnn::Kevin Lane
::