acceleration?

[ssutton]

This is somewhat of a relative question...but; What are the optimal settings for acceleration in Mach. Running in CV mode doesn't Mach cut corners more accurate? I have the accel. set at 20 on my machine and I generally cut at about 60ipm. I can accel. faster but it looks jerky, however it does not seem to lose any steps.

Thanks,
Scott

[ger21]

Yes, the faster the accel, the more accurately the tool can follow the programmed path. It will look more jerky, and can cause machine flex if the machine isn't rigid enough.

But generally, the faster the accel, the more accurate your machine can cut. Faster accel can also greatly increase feedrates during 3D cutting, or ar least allow you to use faster feedrates.

At 60ipm, accel higher than 20 won't make nearly as much difference as it would at 300-400ipm. I actually get decent results cutting at 150ipm with an accel of 10.

I'm designing my new machine to hopefully be capable of an accel of 388 (1G). But it may be far too jerky to actually use.

[Walky]

IIRC, what CV does is try to keep a constant speed in movements that would normally requiere continuous innecesary acceleration-desacceleration (like curves made of small straight lines). I remember doing some V-Carving with TurboCNC (which doesn't support CV) and then Mach3 and the difference in speed was like night and day.

Acceleration is pretty much machine dependant, but AFAIK higher is always better as long as your machine can take it.

[CNC Lurker]

Originally Posted by ger21 Yes, the faster the accel, the more accurately the tool can follow the programmed path. It will look more jerky, and can cause machine flex if the machine isn't rigid enough. But generally, the faster the accel, the more accurate your machine can cut. Faster accel can also greatly increase feedrates during 3D cutting, or ar least allow you to use faster feedrates. At 60ipm, accel higher than 20 won't make nearly as much difference as it would at 300-400ipm. I actually get decent results cutting at 150ipm with an accel of 10. I'm designing my new machine to hopefully be capable of an accel of 388 (1G). But it may be far too jerky to actually use.

Noted for later reference.