EcoCam Tangential Cutters

I have a EOT-2 and a TCT-1 with a variety of bits. Does anyone know what software would work best with these heads. The manufacturer is in German and is absolutely no help at all. They suggest "I just try different settings" We broke 2 of the bits last night so we need to get some more info as to what to run for speeds, rates, etc.
We got the coding to work through SheetCam but we had to set the tool up as a Mill/Router. I highly doubt that's the right way to do it but it ran the paths...sort of. We had circles not meeting up from start to finish, various issues. By time 4am rolled around both my bits were broke and I had really accomplished nothing but a bunch of scrap material.
They have no information as to how to setup the blades in the cutters. We found through trial and error (more on the error side) that the blade needs to be perpendicular to the Y axis before starting, so setting a zero angle on a blade to a Y axis by eye is not the most accurate thing in the world.
Plus lead in moves or plunge rates were not getting coded in the final build.
Is there a better software to handle Tangential cutters than SheetCam? If SheetCam is good for this application, what settings work best, does SheetCam support questions like this?

Thanks guys

Hi Eric

I'm using a TCM-3 and a EOT-2 with quite good success. I'm running the Mach3 software - if you need, I can give you the neccessary setup details. The Mach3 has the advantage, that it calculates the tangental path automatically out ouf the coordinates, so you can run it basicly like Mill/Router.
Did you setup the electronic for the reference run? If not, it would be indeed a bit difficult to have the blade correctly aligned - although it doesen't matter if it's a little offset.
I had by the way only good phone calls with ECOCAM and they were very helpful.

Tell me if you need more help. Phone call might work best.

Dani

Dani,
I'll take any or all information you have on that cutter and how it works. Thank you,
would PM work best, I'd rather call but I'm sure our hours are very different. I can't wait to use this equipment, it looks like it has lots of possibilities.

Hi,

I'm thinking about building a fabric cutter based on an Ecocam EOT so was interested by your posts. I was looking at using Mach 3 but am a bit uncertain as to how I might need to spec out the machine to get it to perform best without spending more than I need to.

I was thinking that servo for the x and y axes might be necessary to get a smooth tool path so that the cutting blade doesn't get subjected to side loads when a stepper 'steps', if that makes sense. What are you using? I was thinking that servos may be the way to go for these axes and that I'd then need dedicated motion control electronics to deal with the control requirements for the servos. Is this along the lines of what you are using? What are you using for the z-axis? Pneumatic?

I'd be grateful for any tips you guys might be able to share on this. Any more info on the setups your using, problems you've had, etc... would be much appreciated.

Eric, by any chance did you use other components and assemblies from DamenCNC or did you go elsewhere or get the knife directly from the manufacturer?

Thanks!

Alex

Alex,
Yes, I got a bunch of knives and creasing tools direct from EcoCam with the heads. I've already broke a couple as I don't have any documentation as to how fast the feed rate needs to be, etc. I had special software edited on my 4-Axis router to compensate for the "C" axis which is the rotation of the cuter head on the "Z" axis.

Hi Eric,

Is your machine one made by yourself or is it a retrofit to an existing machine (servo or stepper drive on the axes?)? What material are you cutting? I've spoken to a company that makes the full fabric cutting machines and they reckon that a blade in a machine seeing a lot of use may only last a day (for a reciprocating knife) but they didn't mention anything about blades breaking, just getting dull and cutting poorly. I think the max speed of their machine was 2m/s and acceleration could top out at 2g, don't know if that will help at all with feedrates?!

Another thing that I've heard about these sort of machines is that the quality of the dxf file and how it is converted to g-code can make a big difference to the quality of cut. With poor interpretation and conversion of the dxf file the cutter can jump around all over the edge of a pattern and cut little sections before going back to cutting from where it left off, are you seeing anything like this?

The CNC was retrofitted with the cutter heads. We can swap them out when we need them between milling and knife cutting.
Yes, coding is critical. I was cutting small plastic tokens (circles) 1.5" in diameter. The start of the curve and the end point of the curve did not match. I always suspected it was do to the generation of the G-Code. Hopefully Mach3 takes care of that, I was using a demo of SheetCam to test it and it was a butchered code at best.

Based on what I've heard I think that the source of some dxf related cutting problems may not be due to the Gcode interpreter but the Gcode generator. I use a program that, among other things, can generate flat patterns in dxf format for cutting. From what I've seen, when a CM program imports these DXF files and convert them to cutting paths, they can make a real mess of things. I've only seen demos so I don't know the details as to what constitues a 'good' dxf files for cutting and what makes a CAM program a good interpreter for such a file. I'm a newbie and I'm not sure if this is any help but thought I'd pass it on in case its of use or interest.

PS What machine did you retrofit the cutter on to?

Hi everyone, I'm new here. I have a problem with Mach3 and tangential cutting. I am using Vectric Aspire 4.0 for generating my G-code. I'm cutting with an EOT-2 and it's working very well, the only problem i have is, while the z axis is lifting up, the knife is rotating. It's damaging my material. It should lift the z axis and then rotate the knife. Has anyone a solution? Should i look after a new software for generating G-code? If yes, wich one? I hope someone has a solution!

Thank you!

Hi Dani

I'm using a EOT-2 but my problem is while the z axis is lifting up, the knife is rotating. It's damaging the material. It should lift the z axis and then rotate the knife. how did you solve this

Thank you

Mauricio

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MRSoluciones

Hi Dani

I'm using a EOT-2 but my problem is while the z axis is lifting up, the knife is rotating. It's damaging the material. It should lift the z axis and then rotate the knife. how did you solve this

Thank you

Mauricio

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Hi Mauricio

Sorry for not replaying to your question, but for what ever reason I did't get any email about it...
This lift up problem is a known bug within Mach3 and I daubt that it will ever be corrected.
My work around for the moment is, to add a lead in and lead out where ever the angle of the next part is bigger than what you have set up for the Z- lift action.
I hope with Mach4 they will have solved it.

Just out of curiosity, what are you cutting with EOT-2? Any pictures/videos?

Thanks
Dani

Hi,

I'm looking to buy an EOT-3 Oscillating knife for my mach3 setup. Does anyone have a wiring diagram for the 7 pin power cable? How is the position sensor and the oscillating knife wired up? Direct to a power supply? Not sure what power supply to buy with the setup.

Ben