Answers Needed Should I Search Or Should I Post? How To Get The Best From The Cnczone

[Oldmanandhistoy]

I’m new to the CNC ZONE and need information on a particular subject what is the best way to find the information I need?


Why should I try to find the information first rather then just asking in a forum?


Could some one give me good advice on the best way to use the search engines available on this site?


If I find information but am still unsure how to use it should I post for more help?


If I post in a forum and get no replies should I post my question in a different forum?


Any other good advice will be welcome.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by Oldmanandhistoy If I post in a forum and get no replies should I post my question in a different forum?

No, duplicate posts get deleted. If you don't get any replies, reply to your own thread with more info if posible. There are a lot of posts here, and it's easy to get overlooked. Bumping it with a reply will usually get it noticed.

[CuttersCov]

I’m new to the CNC ZONE and need information on a particular subject what is the best way to find the information I need?

Advanced search.

Why should I try to find the information first rather then just asking in a forum?

Honestly, because it's good internet etiquette to try and do a little work of your own first, by searching, if you can't find what you are looking for then ask. If you do find what you are looking for it and it isn't exactly what you need you can refer people to other postings, develop other questions that you wouldn't have thought of and basically learn a little.

I try to do searches first, but sometimes they just don't work for what you need or you can't remember where you saw something or what it was called.

People tend to help those that help themselves as well.

Could some one give me good advice on the best way to use the search engines available on this site?

Learn to use the search feature. I use the advanced mode so I can search on titles first then if I can't find what I am looking for I do a search on the bodies. Also, learn how to do searches in general, example: "vee bearing" is different than the words: vee bearing

Using quotes forces the search to find the two words next to each other with a space in the middle, whereas the second one will find the word: vee and the word: bearing in the body and the thread may actually be about something totally different.


If I find information but am still unsure how to use it should I post for more help?

The more information you can give, the better. Sometimes you just need general information, sometimes a little more. In short, yes, post. I usually tell people what I found through the search engine and why it's different or not exactly what I am looking for, this helps them understand what you are trying to do.

If I post in a forum and get no replies should I post my question in a different forum?

No, this is considered cross posting and is looked down on in certain areas of the internet. Besides it is probably rare that a question can fit more than one category. If it's a general question trust me there will be an answer somewhere. And what Gerry said, It get's deleted.

Any other good advice will be welcome.

If you are building a machine start a log in the work log section people seem to like these, I know I do. I get a kick out of seeing other people's machines and will usually have a question or two about techniques. There are so many ways of building a machine that it isn't even funny.

Certain things usually have their own support groups off cnczone as well. For example, Mach3 has a yahoogroup. It might be better to ask a question there. Or if it's directly related to the product email the company directly. I have emailed Mariss from Gecko, directly, sent him a pm here and have even asked questions about Gecko in the forum.

Look at the importance or vitality(if that's a word) of the question, when I emailed Mariss directly it was questions about length of wire for gecko drives and how this affected voltage across the resistance of the wire. It was something very specific that I needed a very "correct" answer for.

I've PMed quite a few members as well, about their machines. I'm sure I'm not alone, but we all love bragging about the work we did

-Sorry about all the red

Hope this helps,

Matt

[Oldmanandhistoy]

You could change it to green. or blue? lol

Thank you for your time and input.

John

[NC Cams]

Matt:

Very nice reply and in a very readable format.

Should be required reading for 'newbies'. A lot of the "generic" inquiries get asked over and over and the replies really don't/won't/can't change. Your "how to search" info might help them get answers quicker and in a more complete fashion.

I must say that your reply was much less acerbic than my frustration laced reply that addressed data searching as displayed in post #15 regarding of the following thread:

CNC Information

[Oldmanandhistoy]

One more question; how would I know if a question I have needs expert advice, so would need to be posted here instead of the relevant forum.

For instance I recently posted this (after doing a search of course) http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...313#post214313 did I post this in the correct forum or should I have posted it in this forum for the experts to answer?


John

[Adobe Machine]

OK, NC Cams, I have a question..Just how in heck do you "remember" all of your posts ? ? , you have almost 2000 posts since Dec. 2005...Thats a lot !
Do you have a" magic" cross referance system ? Or just a very very good memory ? I ask because sometimes I have trouble remembering my childrens birthdays ( some days, names ) and their are only 7 of them..Will you reveal your secret ?

Adobe (old as dirt )

[Oldmanandhistoy]

The reason I posted this thread in the “ask the expert” forum was, if I were a new comer to this website and needed questions answer and was not the kind of person to make the effort to do some searching and reading of relevant threads, then I would go straight to the “ask the expert” forum (we would all like our questions answered by an expert if we had the choice) and post my question there. So in the hope new comers would see this thread and think twice about asking a question that had been asked too many times before I thought where better to post it then there. If I was the already described new comer I would be very unlikely to look here before asking a question.

Just letting you know why I posted it there

[epineh]

Originally Posted by Adobe Machine I ask because sometimes I have trouble remembering my childrens birthdays ( some days, names ) and their are only 7 of them..Will you reveal your secret ? Adobe (old as dirt )

7 Children !!!

Did you never get around to buying a TV ?

I guess looking at both sides of the problem, yes some questions get asked all the time, power supplies are up there, but that isn't necessarily the fault of the person asking the question for the first time, I would think a begginners link would solve a lot of problems (as I have mentioned before), simply an overview of a basic setup and requirements, maybe with a few hot links to more detailed information.

Something at the top of the main page that is easy to spot.

Russell.

[Adobe Machine]

No on TV, never had time..

Adobe (old as dirt)

[CuttersCov]

how would I know if a question I have needs expert advice

I'm going to take a guess and say that this is one of the new forums as before this week I never saw, but haven't been on the zone for about a month.

I'm not sure, to be honest, what the main scope of the forum is either. Possibly expert type questions like something to do with engineering in order to understand them.

What would be nice is to have a single thread on each major subject. The rack and pinion vs lead screw vs ball screw gets asked a lot. I even made a posting about it some time ago. But I think that subject is covered under the linear motion category.

Wikipedia type posts for these things would be great, then people could simply edit in what they know, or give tips about.

[CuttersCov]

Originally Posted by Oldmanandhistoy One more question; how would I know if a question I have needs expert advice, so would need to be posted here instead of the relevant forum. For instance I recently posted this (after doing a search of course) http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...313#post214313 did I post this in the correct forum or should I have posted it in this forum for the experts to answer? John

John,

For something like that I would have emailed that company directly. I read that thread and what you want to know seems fairly technical. I would tend to agree with Gerry, though, steppers can't stop on a dime unless you cut power. I have steppers from Bob Campbell and have been messing with them all week in Mach3 if I jog them one direction then immediately jog in the other the motors don't immediately reverse. Keep in mind this is just an observation and may only apply to what I am doing.