3 Axis CNC router

[JoeHarris]

Hello! Nice to see so many of you are still on here! Hope you’re all alright.

[JAZZCNC]

Hello! Nice to see so many of you are still on here! Hope you’re all alright.

I'm ready to explode with frustration trying to deal with banks and I would like to strap them one by one to the bed of the 10x 5 router I'm building and peck drill tiny holes into there heads so they can feel how my head does and while at it just to make me feel better give them a good stretching...Lol . . . . But other than that I'm surviving Joe, hope you and yours are ok.

Hope that routers not gone rusty in the corner and you've been using it.?

[Kitwn]

I've tried to gey my head round Fusion360 a few times but it just doesn't seem to work for me either. I've used CamBam since the first day I switched on my original MDF and allthread machine and am still very happy with it, especially with the huge range of useful add-ons available from the very active support community. You have to pay for it but it's a one-off payment that gets you a lifetime of updates.

[JonnyFive]

I’ve found Fusion 360 to be a real pain in the ass to learn, I’m a ProE / Creo veteran of 20 years and Fusion baffled me at the start. I’ve watched loads of tutorials on YouTube and it’s starting to make sense - it’s a very different way of thinking than how my brain has been programmed to use CAD. That said, it is a very powerful piece of kit which is perhaps what puts people off if they only want to make simple things. Stick with it mate, it’ll be well worth it!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Neale]

I’ve found Fusion 360 to be a real pain in the ass to learn, I’m a ProE / Creo veteran of 20 years and Fusion baffled me at the start. I’ve watched loads of tutorials on YouTube and it’s starting to make sense - it’s a very different way of thinking than how my brain has been programmed to use CAD.

Absolutely right - I've run a few "intro to F360" sessions for fellow club members and I reckon the ones that have the biggest problems are the ones who come to it with a "I've done lots of 2D draughting and 2D CAD" approach. They have to go through an unlearn cycle before they can pick up the new ideas! Building a 3D model is not the same as creating 2D engineering drawings, and especially not if you want to get the best out of it.

As for things going wrong when you're not looking - between my last run of my router and the next "switch on from cold" session (no more than overnight) my machine managed to break a limit switch wire inside a junction box; as there were two switches in series, this seems to have also caused one of those switches to self-destruct. Symptoms were axis moving slowly in wrong direction when homing, which was really weird to see. I no longer believe that a machine won't develop a fault if you only turn your back on it for a little while even while it's switched off!

[JonnyFive]

It’s like Schrödinger's CNC machine


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JoeHarris]

Thanks to Dean, the problem seems to be sorted - it was a software issue and required a reinstall of MACH3... but as of this evening I think I have a working machine. I have just cut a square that is square and a circle that is circular for the first time. It has only taken Lockdown to push me into getting it done! The calibration and squaring process is a bit of a pain but less painful than I thought it was going to be. Only slight hiccup was accidentally plunging a centre finder into the bed. Scary and funny in equal measure, how casually the z axis just kept pushing it into the MDF. Machines really don’t know or care. Reminded me of the bit at the beginning of the MACH3 manual:

“a computer is quite prepared to rotate an 8" unbalanced cast iron four-jaw chuck at 3000 rpm, to plunge a panel-fielding router cutter deep into a piece of oak, or to mill away the clamps holding your work to the table.”

Hopefully I can start using this mighty tool now, with no more nasty surprises! Thanks everyone for the help, it’s only taken the best part of a decade!!

[JAZZCNC]

Only slight hiccup was accidentally plunging a center finder into the bed. Scary and funny in equal measure, how casually the z-axis just kept pushing it into the MDF. Machines really don’t know or care.

My first experience of the power of CNC and stepper motors was watching my Z-axis a quite happily plunge a 1" square of aluminum and the pen which was inserted in the end of it thru 2 x 18mm MDF boards making a perfectly formed square just as if I'd used my mortising machine.!! . . . I'll never forget the look on my son's face when we looked at each other with eyes wide open...


Now get it working and the first thing to do is the Aztec calendar it's a perfect test of the machine. Then next thing is to make something nice for the Mrs and surprise her, get her on side and you've cracked it, she'll never hassle you again...

[JoeHarris]

Now get it working and the first thing to do is the Aztec calendar it's a perfect test of the machine.

Thanks Dean and thanks Clive! Can you email me the Aztec model? I’d love to give it a go once I’ve skimmed off the bed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JoeHarris]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk