Mach3 as 3d Printer Software

[nerginer]

I am very happy to announce that the new board and a new web page has been released. Converting a CNC Machine to a 3D Printer
This page is full of information to help people who have their own desktop CNC machine and wish to use it as a 3D printer.
An other new development is a mach3 add-on which will allow you to run Skeinforge (the modified one) inside mach3. You will use mach3 software both for slicing the STL file and printing directly.
The controller board will isolate the temperature controlling functions from motor control functions. This will help us to setup a 3d printer in a modular and easy way. I hope you will enjoy the idea. Please post your photos and videos about your setup.

Regards,
Nuri Erginer
store.gnexlab.com

[Don C]

I ordered my Makers Gear plastruder and one of your control boards today. One of the things I can't figure out is the speed. My Gcode has very high feed rates in the 7980 range which is 325 ipm. my mach3 is setup in inches and the g21 tells it to work in MM do I need to make a XML file for a MM machine and change my steppes per to stepes per MM.
Thanks
Don Clifton

[nerginer]

I am not familiar with inches but both mm and inches can be used. The important thing is the skeinforge settings for speed. After installing the mach3 add-on and run it you will see that skeinforge will pops up. You can change the settings and save and close. The next time you run the add-on you will get outputs with new settings. I will be very happy to publish your skeinforge profiles at Converting a CNC Machine to a 3D Printer

[Don C]

Where are you located, I ordered your temperature control board and haven't received it yet or tracking info.
Thanks
Donald Clifton

[nerginer]

There are lots of interest for the controller board. We have received your order 3 days ago. The board will ship tomorrow. A tracking number will send to your email. Please contact me regarding orders from store@gnexlab.com

Regards,
Nuri Erginer

[Don C]

Thanks, I see your in Turkey. That will take a while.
Thanks
Don Clifton

[Don C]

Received my Second Gen board today. Was easy to setup and I should be printing buy this afternoon.

[fritzgutten]

how did the printing go Don?

[Don C]

It worked really well. The only problem I had was ledges where there wasn't something to support the plastic. Other then that everything worked right out of the box. I used a maker bot Plastruder and a nexgin temperature controller, a .35 mm nozzle and 1.75 PLA.

I was using a PMDX 126 breakout board with a Smoothstepper a Gecko's 203v drives.
Thanks
Don Clifton

[miljnor]

post pictures please!

[CNC74]

I have fingers crossed for pictures!!

This is high on my list of upcoming projects for my FLA-100!!!

[Don C]

right now I'm working on a enco mill that I'm converting to CNC. When I get it going I will setup the 3D printer and take some pictures.
Don Clifton

[dmauch]

Here is a video on my cnc machine that I added an extruder stepper driven. The video speed shown is the actual speed of the machine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry4iGalsCp8]3D printer using mach3 on a cnc machine - YouTube

The machine has a precison XYZ axis using ballscrews on the XY.
I'm using an old G540 4 axis step motopr driver and the laets lockdown version of mach3
I am using Gnexlab ver 2 controller and slic3d to generate the G code. If you stop the video at about 19 seconds you can clearlt see the nice internal thread.
Dan Mauch
Camtronics, inc. -- CNC with Dan Mauch

[Don C]

Dan what is Slic3d I haven't seen it before. Print looks really nice.
Don Clifton

[fritzgutten]

I believe he'srefering to slic3r. Its one of the up and coming cam packages for 3d printing. Good stuff

[Don C]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.
Donald Clifton

[dmauch]

Go to slic3r.org and d/l a copy also locate the tutorials.

Dan Mauch
Camtronics Inc

Dan what is Slic3d I haven't seen it before. Print looks really nice.
Don Clifton

[Levtech]

I am building my first little cnc machine and think it would be great to have a 3 in 1 machine.
(3 axis mill, 3D printer, digital probe) I would also like it to be a chick magnet but.....
Do you have any advise for the planning of such a machine? Right now I have just been collecting parts and daydreaming about it working.

[Fastest1]

Dan. I knew you had been working on yours and saw your article in Digital Machinist. I hadnt responded here though i had seen it. Good work. I on the other hand am really good with procrastination and misunderstanding. This was an early attempt. I have since been sidetracked on a G0704 build. Fortunately during this build it helped me realize I might have been missing steps for a while. Upon listening to this video and another I was reviewing, it is apprent I was missing steps at this time.

[metricengr]

Hey Guys,

I need some serious help!?!?! I am so lost at something that should be so simple. I am confused at how to setup the motor settings in Mach3 I have been doing some googleing an I keep getting more confused. Here is some important Information.

Mach 3 -Software Controller
Parallel Probotix Breakout Board
CW230 - 2 Phase Microstepping Stepper Motor Driver {MicroStep: 1 (200), 1/2 (400), 1/4 (800), 1/8 (1600), 1/16 (3200), 1/32 (6400), 1/64 (12800) }
2 Nema 17 Motors wire like Rock-cliff Described.
Hobbed 1/2 inch pulleys
Gnex Temperature Controller - for Hot End control
Nozzle is .5 mm


I would like to know how I setup the Steps per, Velocity in Inches per Minute, and Acceleration in Inches per sec / sec. I would love to have a website that outline how do it with math. I am Engineer Student so math is no problem in fact i would prefer it. Please help any thing would be awesome. Also do i need to change my machine to mm from inches? I am basing my whole design of Rockcliffs Design.