OK, I have had my G.Weike for a little while now and it's been cutting very well.
A lot of what I have done is fairly simple as far as setup is concerned, thankfully most of what I am doing is going to be like that. Draw what I need in my fav program, export as DXF, import it to lasercut and 'immediate' ticked so I just put the laser over the general area I want to start cutting and go..
Very easy and caters for a lot of what I am doing.
Now I am tackling some of the more complex thing that I do and I am figuring out how I go about it with the laser. I am good with other CNC machines and I am pretty used to how they operate. I am finding doing some tasks a lot harder than I would on a CNC router as an example.
So, heres what I was doing today.. For some rever lasermax sheet I needed to engrave and cut out the rectangular piece. Easy so far.
Next I needed to flip the piece over keeping it square and in exactly the same place so I could engrave on the other side where this engraving would overlay what was on the first side.
Next I needed to rotate the piece at 90 degrees to engrave the third drawing, which has to be done this way to get the desired effect. When turning the work to 90 degrees I need to make sure the the top left is the same origin so that everything overlays correctly.
To get everything aligned properly I have a jig I made so that I can flip, rotate and maintain the same top left position with the X/Y aligned with the lasers X/Y.
What I am doing is fairly simple and procedural but how I have to go about it is a little different than how I might do it with my router.
With my router I would 'zero' my x and y. With the laser I do not, I am just using immediate mode so I cannot move the head between operations otherwise I lose the position. I have not found any way to have some sort of equivalent table co-oridinate system and workpiece coordinate system that I do on my router.
Hopefully you get what I am doing an may be able to offer advise on what is a better way to do it. If there isn't then so be it.
It would be good if when I position the head I could get some reading as to where it is os the table, e.g. 300, 487 and then be able to move it to that spot in the future.
Trying to use the move option in lasercut has not done anything. The head doesnt move when I press OK so I dont know exactly what that function is for.
One more thing that is a little annoying on a large machine like this one, 1500x1200 is that I work mostly on the left side and the controls are on the right side! I am thinking about making a simple controller, maybe even an xbox controller and using some software to map the controller buttons to mouse clicks in certain regions on the screen so that I can carry it around with me to jog the head about and raise, lower the table. Anyone tried this? I notice in mine I cannot tick the option for stepping in lasercut. Something I would want to do. At the moment I have to do it through the lasers panel which means a number of presses to set the jog to 0.1 mm and then change it back to 0.0 to move freely. Not sure why that is either.
Just don't tick the "Immediate" option in Lasercut, then press the "Reset" button on your controller or click "Datum" in Lasercut and let your machine find it's physical limits. The lower left corner should now be at position "Zero". Draw a dot in LaserCut and put it on the coordinates X:0 Y (Basically, the left lower corner of the table). Put material on the left lower side of the working table and let the machine "cut" the dot. (R=0.1mm is what I use) If the dot is exactly on the lower left edge of the material, congratulations, you can now use your machine "normally". "Immediate Mode" is actually not much used and it becomes problematic when you have to cut/engrave the same material multiple times. I had my problems with it until I discovered "Reset button/Datum command" and normal mode. I hope it solves your problem.
A few tips for lasercut, please :)
Reply with Quote(Basically, the left lower corner of the table). Put material on the left lower side of the working table and let the machine "cut" the dot. (R=0.1mm is what I use) If the dot is exactly on the lower left edge of the material, congratulations, you can now use your machine "normally". "Immediate Mode" is actually not much used and it becomes problematic when you have to cut/engrave the same material multiple times. I had my problems with it until I discovered "Reset button/Datum command" and normal mode. I hope it solves your problem.
