CNC Stuff

[sap1975]

I am getting into home cnc milling and knowing that some of you guy’s are using it already I have a couple of questions.

I have a Rotwerk EFM 200 DS aka. Sieg X2, Mini Mill and whatever with a CNCfusion kit and Xylotex steppers and drivers. The “rig” is up and running and so far i have made a couple of drawings of a Seeker II replica.

The thing is… I’m new at this and I’m looking for cad software. I have been through most of what I could find and it seems to be either too much or too little.
However I found a cad package from co-create which I really like. The only thing is the price issue.

Well… so far the question is. What do you guys use?
Any help would be appertained.

[benedict]

Currently I'm using Rhino3D as CAD, and Vector CAD/CAM for CAM.

I started with SuperCAM, which used to be a DOS-based program. It does CAD, CAM, and machine control, and came with my mill. The CAD interface frustrated me to no end, so for CAD I eventually picked up IntelliCAD, which had an unlimited free demo at the time. I later bought a license for IntelliCAD, but stopped using it once I got Rhino.

If you're at all tied to an educational institution, McNeel & Associates (makers of Rhino) cut some incredible deals. An educational license in US dollars is something like $150. Commercial licenses are about $600, I think.

It's more than possible to hand-write G-code for CNC mills and lathes. Been there, done that, and for some jobs it's still the quickest way to bang out the parts. But it's hard to look at a CNC mill and not want to do something like contouring, where hand-writing would be painful at best and impossible at worst. There's all sorts of CAM software out there. Which one's right depends more on what you want to do than anything else.

If you're only going to need CAM software for contouring, something like MeshCAM would work well. If you're doing mostly 2D or 2.5D parts, something like... cripes, I can't remember the name! (Sorry for the lapse, it's not intentional.) In any case, if you're looking for more info on all this, http://www.cnczone.com is a good place to look. It's an online forum for all things CNC.

Best of luck with your mill! And please do let us know how it goes.

Tom

[slurp]

Solid edge is out there in 2D for free:-

http://www.solidedge.com/free2d/

I've also used QCAD as a simple tool in the past, I understand that it's got a G-Code/CAM add-on. I never used the latter part, QCAD was OK and works in the DXF file format.

regards,
colin

[slurp]

Just following Toms pointers to Taigtool and Peatol I found this in relation to the desk top milling:-

http://www.microproto.com/desktop.htm

There are various links including tool path generation.

regards,
colin

[benedict]

For Taig/Peatol tools, another good place to go is Carter Tools at http://www.cartertools.com Nick Carter's the guy who sold me my lathe and mill, and runs a good site with more info than I can digest in a day. He did a recent set of articles on making jewelry with a CNC mill. Maybe not quite in line with making robot parts, but it's well worth the look. He's got a generic expanding mandrel he wrote up which is used in the CNC jewelry article as well. I can think of... oh... actually a lot of uses for such a beastie in a shop that makes robots. He's also got links to various pieces of software that can be used in the home shop.

Tom

[sap1975]

After going over the microproto site and testing various pieces of software including Allibra, Turbocad, Rhino, Bleeder, and visual-mill just to name the known ones i actually ended up right back where i started.
Co-create seems to be the thing for me.
I am about to get a hold of a student license. (my wife actually gave it to me as a birthday present.)

But… thanks for great input. All of you.

[PeterW]

I have just picked up a small CNC mill from ebay. It is basically the same mill as my manual one so all my collets and tools will fit.
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n66/ ... MG0505.jpg
So far just run the only file that came with it that engraves the old Triumph motorcycle logo.
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n66/ ... MG0510.jpg
I have just been going over the above post to help me decide on some software to help convert my drawings into G code for the Mach3 controller software.

[slurp]

Hi Peter,

At the simpler end of the market most CNC code is built upon a DXF files, it might be worth looking at DXF export of your drawings then look for a DXF to GCode tool.

It's been a while since I played with these things, I'm fairly sure non-regular curves where a problem (DXF didn't do them depending on the conversion from CAD program). The DXF to Gcode tool should allow you to take the 2D to the profiles and spot drilling patterns you require. What's the control software the miller uses?

Non-professionally I used QCAD for a while, it was quire good. It ran on windows and the Linus I was using at the time. It's native file was DXF so you had no loss of detail in the conversion. I remember a free trial download, but checking their site it's 24Euro to buy but I'm heading off topic. RibbonSoft's other product is CAM Expert, a QCAD extension which allow automatic creation of G-Code - this is a bit more expensive at 149Euro but the demo is fully functional, it terminates after 10 minutes but can be restarted and used for 100 hours in total.

It might not be what you want but at least it's something you can try while you're looking http://www.ribbonsoft.com/

best regards,
Colin

[PeterW]

I use DesignCad for all my drawings and I have just downloaded a 15 day trial of Contour Cam that is a third party add on for DesignCad.
I am still in the process of installing it but it should have a postprocessor for Mach3. I will let you know how I get on. The chap who sold me the system recomended a package called Dolphin at around $195 but this if it works is only £70.

[sap1975]

Hi Peter

I know it’s been a while since you posted but i just wanted to say congratuletions on what seems a really nice system.
I can’t help but think that we will be seeing more “leaps and bounds” in the near future.

In regards to 3D CAD software i would like to join in with Colin. You might want to give CoCreate a try. I have had (what i consider anyway) great success using it but as usual there’s a catch. There’s no CAM plug-in and i haven’t been able to find anything satisfactory in the cheaper end of the market and believe me i looked.
A word of warning... although i don’t think its all that relevant in your case. Hobby CNC stuff will steal you time and money. There’s always an upgrade a piece of tooling or a cooling system that seems a must have.

Anyways. Congrats.

Cheers.
/Stig.

[PeterW]

I have now bought the latest version of designcad and contourcam after testing and finally got it all
working. There seems to be an problem running contourcam either after or while running windows internet explorer 7 but other than that it all works well. I havent done a lot of work with it yet but for most things you don’t need to use 3D you just specify the outline in 2D and then allocate how deep each cut is, total depths tool size etc to each object and contour cam generates the G-code file and even displays a 3D simulation of the toolpaths. In the example below:
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n66/ ... 6/Arm1.jpg
Having drawn it in 2D you allocate a number to each in this case 1 for the contour cut and 2 for toolpath an then specify the following
Contour Total depth -1.7mm, Infeed step 0.5mm, Tool Dia 1.75mm, that the contour is external and that contourcam should compensate for tool diam.
Toolpath Total depth -1.7mm, Infeed step 0.5mm, Tool Dia 1.75mm, that the toolpath is internal and that contourcam should compensate for tool diam.
You then tell it to generate the G-Code and it drops into the G-code editor. Here you can add line numbers and on my system I have to delete comments.
You can the rum the simulator to look at the tool paths.
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n66/ ... /CCarm.jpg
If that is ok you can load the G-code onto the system an mill the material in this case carbonfibre
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n66/ ... MG0514.jpg
I know what you mean about the cost after the initial £800 for the machine complete with an oldish PC which was a bargin I have now bought:
Mach3.........................$175
DesignCad 3D Max ver 18...$115
ContourCam...................£88