Help please. Dip switches and mach 3 settings

[Radu_Andrei]

Ok. Thank you.

[Radu_Andrei]

Hi. Long time no see.
I.ve only managed to work a couple of days with the cnc in the last 3 weeks, and tested endmill, ballmills, speed, feeds, hardwood, softwood, with and against the grain and so on.
I.m mesmerized by it. :) A lot of fun and a lot to learn. In the end I fould the speed limit for x at 118ipm, and for y at 86ipm. (not bad for a 220 pounds gantry). They can go a bit faster, but I do not like the sound. It.s a bit low with a 17-18000rpm spindle (can.t go lower for long as it is air cooled). Still it seems to be enough to avoid heat or burns. Keeping the stepdown to apx 60% percent of tool diameter seems to work like a charm with all woods.

I bought a pack of stl files from ebay, and they seem great for most decorative jobs, except frames. There are lots of projects which have the frames included in the whole relief, and even if I.m not a fan of it, it looks fine in the end, BUT I also got a few frame designs on their own, and they do not have any joints. I guess it.s fine for mdf, but for solid wood, I wood very much prefer to cut 4 different parts from one piece of wood, alligned one next to another and also cut the 45 angles for each segment.

Reading a bit about this issue online, I found Autodesh Meshmixer (free) and gave it a try. Does not seem very hard to learn, but still need to study a bit.

But as everything with this project, asking here seems to save A LOT!!! of time. So the question is: What software do you use for editing (modifying) STL files?

For example I attached 2 files, with a separate frame and a relief with a frame included. I would like to remove the included frame first, and then cut the separate frame in 4 mitered parts so i can join and attach later. Also because I want it from another type of wood. How would you do it?

[Radu_Andrei]

Oh, and another thing.
It is not an issue the alignment of material on the cnc spoilboard, when you run a profiling cut at the end, and throw away the remaining wood, but how about when a client comes to you with a finished piece of wood, and he want a 3mm edge all around the work. Gave this example as it is extremly visible a missalignment of this nature. How do you approach this?

[Radu_Andrei]

This last 2 questions are secondary to what happened today. While I was doing a job in 2 cuts, a roughing and a fininshing cut, on both of them, in one or two points, the z axis decided to go upwards and cut in thin air.
This was about 5mm or more in the air. Like it was cutting for 2-3 hours without a problem and then sudently, raise the z axis 3-5 mm above and continue cutting.
I could say to the client: it is cubism, but he.ll not buy it as it looks very weird.
I managed to fix it by rewinding the g code, , restart from an approximate gcode line, rezero the z axis and continue cutting, but that.s no fix.

Any ideas, or links that detail this or a similar problem?

[cropwell]

There is a possibility of a broken wire or loose connection. You should check the DIR pulse connections, but it is more likely that you have a break in one of the connecting wires to the Z motor. This is what I had.

[Radu_Andrei]

Hi Rob.
I.ll check that. Thank you.
Today at the end of a job, during the profiling toolpath, the limit switches kept triggering. I assume because they are very cheap lever type switches and don.t go well with dust and vibration.
I.m considering replacing all of them with someting better, especially for homing, as aparently I got a couple of milimeters of error today, as the lever got bent more and more.
Any recommendations?

[Clive S]

Today at the end of a job, during the profiling toolpath, the limit switches kept triggering. I assume because they are very cheap lever type switches and don.t go well with dust and vibration.

Or noise as in emf getting in to the system