Help - newbie pulling his hair out

[karl swinds]

Hi - forgive me if i post this in the wrong forum -
I have bought myself a cnc router for home use , mainly 3d models for the kids to make and installed mach3 , I have it all working and can move the axis etc from the computer and all seems to be ok

now when i use lazycam the dxf file looks ok on screen and the i import to mach3 and then it all goes wrong........

so my question is - is anyone prepared to do a quick quide on how to do it sucessfully with a know file that works , one i have got it to work once i can then work out the rest of things ...

Am i using the best software???? if not any reccomendations????

thanks in advance for any advice as i really as loosing the will to live and i havnt even started yet...lol

karl

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

The first thing you need to do is to get rid of Easycam. Not a good program. If you CNC uses mach3 then I recomend getting one of the vectric products. I do all my actual cut designs for my clock with Corel then use Cut 2D to make the gcode for mach3.

Cut 2D is at the low end of the vectric software but its can be used to upgrad to a better software like VCarve.

That said I dont like designing in Vectric software. Its just not as smooth as other packages. Most of the time I design a part in corel. IF it needs to be modeled in 3D I then export that part as well as others to Autocad.

Bottom Line Drop LazyCam. If you dont do it now you will later.

[Shane Sura]

Karl,
First of all I agree with everything Mike says. I use V-Carve Pro and Mach 3. I have not even bothered with Lazycam. I also am looking for a design alternative to V-Carve because I find it limiting. As far as guides / files here is a super simple one. It is just a 6 inch circle. I used the file a ton when I was setting up my machine because making a perfect circle is a the litmus test of a CNC machine. The file is set such that the X/Y origin is in the middle of the work. So when you set your X/Y in Mach make sure you have enough material to make the circle around it. Also it is assuming a .5 inch 60 degree V-Bit. Finally, it is set to cut .075 then drop down to .15 to finish the circle. So make sure you have enough room. Hope this helps you test your machine.

Before you run please verify the toolpath and Gcode in your Mach.

198296

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

There is a LazyCAM manual and sample files here. http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,12078.0.html

[John McClanahan]

Lazycam doesn't seem to be very popular. I think the free version supplied with Mach is limited, as doesn't work completely. That may be the source of your problems.

John

[Jerome Stanek]

try downloading the Vectric trial software and running their sample files.

[Mike Wenman]

Agree with everyone else that Vectric products are the way to go. I started out using Cambam which isn't bad, but am so glad i stepped up to Vectric.

[karl swinds]

hiya guys

many thanks for all your advice - all noted - i have looked at artcam and started using that but going to order the vectric products as that seems to be the one most ppl use - i have managed to kick out some simple things tho....

once again many thanks for your help

karl

[Paul Johnstone]

I am going to recommend a slightly different course of action.

You said you are mainly interested in cutting out 3d models for the kids.
The Vectric software is very good, but if you are mainly interested in cutting out STL files.
take a look at Deskproto. I do most of my CNC work with a combination of Alibre (costs only $99) and
Deskproto (which has an educational license if you qualify). I use Alibre to create the stl file (drawing), and
deskproto to generate the G-code.

Deskproto has a 30 day trial that lets you actually cut out files.
The Vectric trial software does not let you cut anything, it only shows a preview of the cut.

The vectric software is also nice, and is better suited to making signs than deskproto. It also has some CAD built in.
I use Vectric software when I want to lay out dados, etc.. It is excellent in that area..
But cutting out an STL file (especially on the rotary axis) is a lot more complex and timeconsuming in the vectric software, in my opinion.

Try them both out. If nothing else, the 30 day trial of Deskproto (they have sample STL files to cut too) can
let you verify your machine is functional..