New Router build and KCam Question

[Pistachio]

Hello,

I just completed my router and have a question on KCam. I am having a problem cutting thru the material. I have the Z axis table setup as follows:

Travel: 0
Normal Cut: .50
Deep Cut .50

The Z axis home is .50 above the table but for some reason the Z always stops at .125 above the table no matter what I do. Since this is my first experience at CNC (besides my foam cutter) I am sure its just a simple thing as I do not know what I am doing yet. From what I understand the Travel and Normal cut are for engraving and not cutting thru the material but even if I make the normal cut 0 it still only drops to .125.

Attached is a picture of my machine that I just got running today. It has a plywood base and the rest is .50 MDF. Its not quite finished as I need to finish painting and attach the vac table. I looked at Balsamans pictures and followed his ideas on his first machine (thanks dude!). The tracks are rather cheap Igus Drylin N27 rails. Leadscrews, leadnuts, and controller are from cnclinx.com. The router is just some cheap trim router that I got on ebay..seems to run fine with a speed control. So far I am happy with it as it cut a near perfect circle which I guess is a good test.

Anway..any help with setting up the Z on KCam to cut thru balsa would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

MM

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[HuFlungDung]

Pistachio,

Trade in your 1/2" thick table top for a 5/8" thickness.

Next!

[Pistachio]

Hey,

I dunno why I said .50..its .75" MDF!

[WOODKNACK]

when i was playing with KCAM it acted screwy! did differnt things every time i tryied to do the same thing! I dumped it and am now useing TURBOCNC. WHAT A DIFFERNCE! dont waste your time with Kcam its not worth it! MY 2 cents..

[mhackney]

Questions on those IGUS linear bearings...

1) Do chips and dust falling in the groove cause problems?

2) I was considering mounting the rails on the movable platform on my Z axis - opposite of what you have - with the bearings themselves fixed to the Y axis.

I have all my parts on hand now and ready for the final design and then assembly process. I am using the IGUS N27s too and am considering a moving gantry design with the rails underneath and protected from chips falling down. I have 24" X, 18"Y and 12"Z rails for a final machining volume of around 18"x12"x3". I'll post some designs for feedback later this weekend.

I just started evaluating CAD software on XP and am currently trying TurboCAD 9 (although I will probably buy the 7.1 version on ebay). I am a long time Mac user but there just isn't an affordable and decent CAD app for OSX. Not to mention the interface to the stepper controller.

[Pistachio]

Hello,

So far not much of problem with chips and dust getting into the tracks..although I really have not done much cutting yet as I am waiting for some new bits that Balsaman told me to use on balsa. Since those shuttles fit into the tracks pretty tightly it seems to just "push" out the debris. My cutting area is 18x8x4. Not sure what you mean on your Z axis setup. I am also a mac user but had to go PC. I bought the TurboCad 7.1 on ebay just like you mentioned. For what I am doing (just 2D) it seems more then adequate. I spent a good day working with TurboCad and it seems easy enough to use.

Be prepared for some tweaking on the Igus shuttle mounts..hopefully you can come up with a better method then I did. For the non threaded version I think the best method would be to put a nut on top of the shuttle. I was not able to do this as I cut all my parts before running into this problem and would have had to do a major rework on the leadscrew mounts in order to fix it.

[mhackney]

Thanks. Are you suggesting running a bolt up through the shuttle then anchoring it with a nut and then attaching the whole shebang to the the table (or whatever)?

Maybe microsoft should do a "reverse-switcher" commercial

[Jerry Dots]

Pistachio
I use Kcam and might be able to help. Post a small sample of the Gcode showing the Z moves. Below is the start of a part that I use.
G90
M03
G00 Z00.000
G00 X00.119 Y00.256
G01 Z-00.400 F24.0
Go download version 3.34b It runs my router real good. The latest versions ..ie..flavors have been full of bugs. I don't use them yet. I going to wait a few more months untill he quits putting out a revised version every few weeks.


Woodknack I like the smoothness of Turbocnc too. I have bought it but I can't get any speed on curves. I cut the number "59" with Kcam in 5min 15 sec(12 inches tall). Then ran the very same file in Turbocnc ... when it started cutting the curve it slowed down to a crawl....maybe 1 inch a minute. The built in estimator said 7 hours to finish. I don't like working in DOS but that is not a big deal if I can get it to cut at the same speed in a curve as it does going straight. Do you have any suggestions?

Jerry Dotson

[Pistachio]

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for the Z help but I think I got it working now. I used .50" travel, 0 for both normal and deep cut values. I still think it might be the wrong way to do it but it seems to work ok as long as keep the Z at .50 before starting the cut. For some reason it drops down to 0 then goes back up to .50 then starts the rest of the program. I cannot tell the Z that .50 above the table is the home position. Maybe a better way to do it would be .50 travel, -.5,-.5 but it seems like I tried that without success. Also..I heard about all the bugs and I am running 4.08 but I till try the version you mentioned..can I get the old versions at Kellyware?

mhackney..right..anchor a nut on the top of the shuttle..I think (keyword) this should help.

[ger21]

when it started cutting the curve it slowed down to a crawl....maybe 1 inch a minute

This is a bug in TurboCNC. I't will be fixed in Version 4 which should be available in the next few weeks (months?). You might want to try the 3.24c version available at the yahoo group.

Gerry

[arvidb]

Nice looking machine! I like the color and layout. Gives it a very "clean" look. It actually got me CADing on something similar for my machine. We'll see.

Arvid

[Jerry Dots]

Go to this site for download of 3.34b. The worst bug I have found in it is when you start up Kcam it starts with pin 1 that I use for the spindle control running. There is not a button to turn it off. So I run a gcode that has 1 line...M05. Then proceed to run any file I want.

http://www.kellyware.com/download/un..._downloads.htm

Gerry I think I am running 3.24c. I will continue to use Kcam until they get the bug out of Turbocnc. I am going to have to write a new post for it as well. Below is code for 1" circle for Kcam. It won't work in Turbocnc.

G00 Z0
M03
T1
G00 X0.000 Y0.000 Z0.000
X1.000 Y0.500
G01 Z-0.400 F24.00
G02 I0.500 J0.500 F20.00
G00 Z0.000
Z0
M05
G00 X0 Y0
M02