New Mill losing steps

[EddyCurrent]

thank you for the reply what is the best way to find the steps per revolution. I guess moving the machine in hand wheel is a start.

No, not how many steps per revolution but how many millimeters does the table move for one revolution of the stepper motor, you need this for both X and Y directions.
Looking at the photo, your stepper motors appear to be directly coupled to the end of the lead screws and therefore have a 1:1 ratio.

In Mach 3 the calculation for 'steps per' is;

((360 degrees / motor step angle) * microstep value) / screw pitch

So for your machine we don't know the screw pitch and that is what you need to do by turning the screw one rev and measuring the table distance moved.

As an example for my machine the calculation is;
((360/1.8) * 8) / 10 = 160 steps per.

Similar to what jazzcnc said but using 1/8 microstep it looks like your machine has a screw pitch of 2.0176mm which sounds a bit odd.

[JAZZCNC]

Eddy's correct and to do the maths we need the screw pitch. . .BUT . . . There is another way to do this if you don't know. (thou in your case it's not hard to find out)
In Mach on the settings Tab there is an option to "Set steps per Unit" it's just above the reset button.

To do this you will need to accurately measure how far the machine moves. (Tape measure isn't accurate enough)
when you click the button it will ask which Axis to calibrate then after this it will ask how far to move. Enter an amount, soon as you click enter the machine will move in a positive direction. Mach will then ask how far it moved, so measure distance and enter into box then it will calculate the STEPS PER for you.

Do this for each axis and you'll be set. The longer the distance you can measure and the more accurate the better.

[lukecnc2012]

hi guys getting an error saying ( cant have a move of zero) this comes up when i go to type in the distance i want the machine to move

[lukecnc2012]

[lukecnc2012]

also have noticed the machine does not like moving to axis at same time manually. Ive been programming and 5axis machinist for last 10 years but this has got me confused.

[EddyCurrent]

Maybe watch this video;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG-RRpInAts

[lukecnc2012]

thanks will have a look.