First test gear today

[Richard Cullin]

just rename it from "whatever.nc"  to  "whatever.txt"  then it will  load for you

[ArtF]

Or zip it..


Dont feel bad about the hassles, when you get into this it takes time to get used
to the definitions, how things work and what things are called. You got most of
a cut done, not a bad start.. :)

  Drop the file here, it will tell us if its the machine or the commands..

Art

[Rocket]

Today I spent 5 hours just trying to make a simple gear
with 20 teeth in Gearotics.  I seem to go one step forward then two
backward sometimes.

Two major issues that I don't seem to grasp.

1. When I make a gear in Gearotic and my plan is to save it in .dxf,
then open it up in MeshCam.  Do I go through the steps in Gearotic
to pick the tools and make a toolpath or do I skip those things and let
Meshcam do all the adjustments and create the gcode.

It seems that what ever i choose I make some type of mistake along the way.

2.  All day today when I tried to run a job, they all started fine, but the end mill stayed about
1/4" above my material (which is great if you don't wish to have any dust).

Thanks......RR ( I feel like such a pain in the ass, I normally do all things myself and never need help...)

[ArtF]

Hi:

>>1. When I make a gear in Gearotic and my plan is to save it in .dxf,
then open it up in MeshCam.  Do I go through the steps in Gearotic
to pick the tools and make a toolpath or do I skip those things and let
Meshcam do all the adjustmen ts and create the gcode.

  Either/or. There is no need to involve meshcam at all.Or to use a dxf. A dxf is just a drawing of a gear.
(in this case.). Meshcam is creating an output GCode file for you as whatever.nc , or *.tap, or *.txt,
doesnt matter the extension, they are all really text files.  Open one in a text editor and youll see the
GCode. GCode ios the language that drives your carbide. It follows the drawing (the dxf) and offsets to
one side or the other for the tool radius not to cut into your teeth.
  It also drops after each pass to make it incrementally deeper.

>>It seems that what ever i choose I make some type of mistake along the way.

  If your just beginning, exp[ect to make lots of those..

>>>2.  All day today when I tried to run a job, they all started fine, but the end mill stayed about
1/4" above my material (which is great if you don't wish to have any dust).

  Sounds like you didnt specify a depth..

  In Gearotic, you need to select the gear, send it to the 3axis workbench, and generate the toolpath by
telling it the parameters of your tool, how far down to go, and how far it may go each time. (Depth per pass)

  Watch the video on the 3axis workbench. Also, if you want to know why it screwed up, post the .nc file here,
just rename it to .txt an it should post. I can tell very fast by looking at that file
what your doing wrong..

Art

[Rocket]

Art,

Watched the video twice.  Did everything (I think) as you explained.

Shapeoko3...ran job......started in lower left hand corner....spindle never moved for than 1/4 inch
in any direction.

File attached:

Am I nuts.............or what.

I installed a turbo charger to my Polaris Slingshot by myself.
I built a 5000 pound brick pizza oven on my patio with no plans.
I have build 10 computers in my life.

I cannot make a f************gear..........

Yikes...........

Richard

[ArtF]

Richard:

  Well, the gear tap file looks fine. Its 10x10 and .25 deep gear. The question is 10 x 10 what? , If your trying to cut a 10" x 10" gear
1/4" deep, you did well, the file is fine, but your table is running metric mode I'll bet, and its seeing it as 10mm x 10mm, and .25mm deep.

  So you need to tell your carbide that your in standard mode. You should see some movement then..


  Am I rigth in assuming you added the  G43H5  to the file?  get rid of that as well. You need no G43's in
the files that Gearotic puts out. It would command an offset to the already offsetted drawing.But if you remove that
line and then tell the carbide its an inch file, you should be fine.. Adding a G20 to the top of the file may do it,
G20 tells a machine controller its in inch mode..

Art

[Rocket]

Art,
I cannot thank you enough for all your help.

I did not put the G43H5 in the code.
I made about 5 different posts and each one comes up with that G43H5.

I removed that and added G20 as per your instructions and made
somewhat of a test gear.  Not perfect but an advancement as of now.

I also set Carbide Motions to inches, but it defaults back to metric each time it starts.

Is it better for all concerned to work in inches or metrics for the best product?
Or does that not matter?

I assume making a real perfect gear is the result of much tweaking of end mill sizes
and rates of speed and other settings.  Is that correct???

You have great patience, I wish I did also....

I will get this.............

Thanks....RR  That is a photo of my last table build, before getting interested in CNC...

[ArtF]

Richard:

There is no best.. metric or inch, I prefer metric, others prfer inch.

(I gotta go track down that G43H5, shouldnt be there. It wont hurt you, it
just sets a tool length offset, but unless your expecting it it probably shouldnt
be used.

It sounds liek your started and on your way, yell as you get confused as
you go. Its not unusual for a machine to revert to metric on startup, but usually
theres a setting somewhere to make it start in one or the other mode.

Art

[ArtF]

Richard:

  Sorry about the G43, its removed in future versions , there is a file named
defaultmill.pst which controls output of Gcode and allows a user to change the
way code is put out, I put an example in it for someone of G43 commands,
and it got into the release inadvertantly. This is called postprocessing and is an
advanced cnc topic, not something you need to worry about. As of next
version that G43 will no longer show up by default.

  Other than that your file  looks good, your on your way..
Art

[Rocket]

Art help...

Made a gear in gearotic...2 files attached.

Thought is did everything right (see attachments)

The photo is the mess that came out of Carbide Motion.

What is wrong???

Attatchments 2 files
one photo

Thanks RR............

[ArtF]

RR:

  Your gear and file are good, so your fine to there, BUT.. Im thinkiing your machine cannot handle F100, 100" per minute may be too fast for it, it looks as
if your steppers are stalling. Chane all the F50's and F100's to F10 and see what happens, then raisse it to see where it screws up and starts wandering again.
  The result looks very much like a machine stalling on its steppers.

  If you purposely zero in the air, so it doesnt cut the wood, does it appear to follow the path? Does it only go wandering while in the wood? Focus
on the machine, the command file looks good. Does this machien cut anything as of yet? Or is this your initial testing of it?

Art
 

[Rocket]

Thanks Art,

I will change those as per your instr. and get back to you later today...

I owe you a huge lunch at least...!!!

RR

[Rocket]

Art,

The machine is a Shapeoko 3 brand new.  I have
cut a few sample projects that seem to work.

I have cut one gear that was good until about 70% done, then
it went nuts.

By all my online studying and reading, I am positive the machine works well.

[font=Verdana]Could you send me a Gearotic file of a gear that you know works perfectly,
so I could try it on my machine.  I have plenty of .25 inch plywood handy.[/font]

I would thing it would easily cut 1/4 pine plywood in a maybe 3 passes
I paid almost 1500 dollars for this from Shapeoko....

I would just love to see this thing work properly one time.

Maybe a gear about 5-7 inches in diameter.

[ArtF]

1/4 plywood shoudl easily cut in 1-2 passes depending on your tool diameter. But the example you showed doesnt in any way match
the command file you posted. How deep were the tests you did so far? I just posted a reply on another topic before I read this responce,
so lets look at it.

  Each Gearotic GCode file is particular to the machine, I cant just post one, I need to know tool diamter, feedrate, depth per pass ,etc,
but the file you posted had all that and looked fine.

Run the file , but zero .5" in the air so it nver cuts the wood, does it look like its cutting properly?

Art