mach 3 machining problems

[brad.henrie]

Hi all,

I'm new to CNC machining and am trying to set up a Sherline 5400 3-axis mill to run with mach 3 on windows 7. I installed it alright but it doesn't work right. The professional machinist I am working with who has programmed CNC since it came out can't find the problem.

Using shortcut keys I can jog normally. And I can run most G-code commands. But when my friend made a program on his machine and tried it on mine it didn't work. The cuts were screwed up and circles were out of alignment. Since it is a G-code program I thought it would work the same on all machines. Am I mistaken in some way?

I have my machine working and motors tuned right. I have even done a few simple projects with it. But for some reason my friends code isn't working. Could it be the difference between how mach 3 interprets the code or maybe it's windows 7?

I am out of ideas so if anybody has any I am open to any suggestions

Thanks

[ger21]

It's not Windows 7.

One possible cause is the IJ mode. You can change it in general config.

There are many different "flavors" of g-code. However, it's more likely that Mach would give an error and not run rather than run incorrectly. But it's certainly possible.

[metalworkz]

Hello,
I am thinking if the code was generated by his machine it is probably specifically set up for that machine. Just like CAM programs use different post processors to output the code in a syntax that each different machine type will read correctly the code from his machine is not being read the same by Mach3(my guess). I would try and get a program generated with a post processor of the Mach2 or Mach3 variety and see how that does on your machine. I am not sure if Lazycam is still released with Mach but you could make some simple toolpaths with that to do some tests on your machine. Maybe your friend(who must have a CAM program for his machine) could redo the toolpaths and output them with the Mach3 post processor for you to try?