Doing it wrong all this time!

[A_Camera]

Charlie as i know your build (as i made some of the parts for you) It looks like your orientation is correct in my book ( as you stand in front of the machine). In the case of your machine the longest travel is left and right, this would be your X. The head traveling away from you and towards you is your Y. The Z Axis as always never changes and is is the head up and down directions. This is the standard configuration for any milling machine. In the technical sense the X and X doesn't really matter as long as you know what each one is. As i described above is the standard configuration that's been used for the last zillion years.

It's not about which is the longest axis, it's about orientation. The one parallel with your belly is the X, the one moving AWAY from your belly is Y and the one moving towards your head from your feet is the Z. Plus (increasing value) is moving from left to right, from nearest to farthest (away from you) and from lowest to highest, assuming the lowest is always zero. Just look in any maths book, it should be like that in every one of them. ...but you may have another book, the one with a printing error, because his orientation is indeed wrong regarding Y. But it really isn't a big deal, except that it is a bit confusing if he is learning the wrong way or talking to other people about axis orientation. I don't know where Y is increasing when moving towards you, and I really don't think it's been like that for any number of years, let alone zillion...

[charlieuk]

thanks for all the help I think I have it all switched around now and working in the correct directions.


I think I'm the most unlucky person with there cnc or it certainly feels that way, probably to a lack of knowledge on my part

This has all come about as its the first time I have used my machine with a different program other than my surfboard program.


I have been using fusion360 on a friends cnc that uses nc studio and i was getting everything working fine. Like i mentioned earlier this is the first time i have tried to use fusion on my own cnc that runs mach3.

i drew a file*and went to cut it out and a few seconds in everything stops and my y axis driver shows a fault. I re set everything and tried again and it stoped exactly in the same place and cased the same fault on the driver, i repeated two more times out of desperation and the same thing each time!


i then ran a file created by my surfboard program and it all ran fine.


i then created a very simple drawing of a few boxes on fusion and tried to cut it and that also worked fine.


i then tried the original file and it crashed again

so i rew drew the original file in a slightly different way and then that too also crashed!!


I'm absolutely lost as to why it is doing it and very frustrated too considering its such a simple thing!

[m_c]

For direction, you have to think about the cutter moving in relation to the workpiece.

On a moving gantry machine (i.e. typical router), Y+ the gantry moves away from you, and X+ the spindle moves to the right.
On a moving table machine (i.e. typical mill), Y+ the table moves towards you, and X+ the table moves to the left.

Z is easier to remember, as it's simply whatever way moves the cutter vertically away from the work, but that may mean lifting the spindle, or dropping the table.

[charlieuk]

cheers yea that's how I have it now and slowly getting used to it! although still having problems with my fusion files.

[A_Camera]

On a moving table machine (i.e. typical mill), Y+ the table moves towards you, and X+ the table moves to the left.

Yes, but when the table is moving towards your belly the Y axis value is actually increasing, so the arrow is moving away from you (imaginary movement). So mathematically it is the same as with a moving gantry type of machine and the same G code can be run. In a moving table machine the X, Y zero of the table is the left bottom corner of the table, same as a moving gantry type of machine.

[m_c]

Yes, but when the table is moving towards your belly the Y axis value is actually increasing, so the arrow is moving away from you (imaginary movement). So mathematically it is the same as with a moving gantry type of machine and the same G code can be run. In a moving table machine the X, Y zero of the table is the left bottom corner of the table, same as a moving gantry type of machine.

That was what I was highlighting in my post, or did you ignore the first sentence?

[Desertboy]

I gave up trying to decide what was what so now I go with bottom axis, gantry and Z axis then no one seems to get confused.

To me though it seems logical that the bed should be X, Gantry Y and of course spindle Z, wouldn't surprise me if the Americans fucked everything up as they don't even know how to spell colour lol.

[A_Camera]

I gave up trying to decide what was what so now I go with bottom axis, gantry and Z axis then no one seems to get confused.

To me though it seems logical that the bed should be X, Gantry Y and of course spindle Z, wouldn't surprise me if the Americans fucked everything up as they don't even know how to spell colour lol.

In a moving gantry, yes... well... maybe...

I still think it is more logical the way I see it.

The axis parallel with your belly is the X. Positive X movement is from left to right.
The axis moving away from you is the Y. Positive Y is movement is from you, negative is towards you.

This seems to work with every CAD, CAM software as well as Mach3 and UCCNC screens I used.

[m_c]

It's not about which is the longest axis, it's about orientation. The one parallel with your belly is the X, the one moving AWAY from your belly is Y and the one moving towards your head from your feet is the Z.

[Ger21]

I didn't read all of the replies,but your Y axis is backwards. If X+ is to the right, then Y+ moves towards your wall in the back.