Can I do anything "fun" with our cnc router? ATI 3 axis.

Here at work we have two cnc routers that we use to depanel pcb's We can do the basic shape of the board but that's about it. We have searched all over trying to figure out how to make anything fun with it or cut designs. Are there any tutorials out there on something that will work with our machine or somewhere I can look to get started? Can bobcad do it? If we want to cut some kind of picture out of a piece of wood or something is there a way to load the pic (jpg or bmp or something) and have our machine cut out the shape of it? Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi Binow. You can do tons of fun things with your cnc. Check here on the zone for Meshcam. Robgrz has written this program for taking stl, bitmaps and I believe dxf files and has made it possible to do 3d engraving on any 3d cnc machine that takes gcodes. As far a bobcad goes it is a cad program and you will only be limited by your creativity as to what you can draw for machining. Some programs are better suited for "fun" stuff than the cad programs and there should be someone else tell you what those are.

Mike

The software you suggested looks very nice for loading something and converting it to a gcode. I am having a problem trying to get it to set the correct z height. Our machine when at home is at Z 4.00. Our table is Z 0. When I use the Mesh program it is giving me negative Z codes which will not work for our machine. Is there a way to fix this? Also I have been trying to get Mach2 to work. Is that more for you guys that build your routers and use that program to run the entire router functions from your computer?

What? Your software doesn't allow you to set you're Z's Zero wherever you want it, relative to the stock? "EVERY" G-code interpreter that I've tried allows for this.

I almost exlusively use Z-Zero at the Top of the stock.

Go slow ;) I'm a noob to the fun stuff.

I have worked on the machine about a year and a half. Currently all we do is load up a customer drawing of a pcb into gc-prevue. I get the xy coordinates and write the program for our machine manually. I have been wanting to make carvings out of wood for a while but never knew how. I have been searching and came accross this site.

Should I look on the machines control system to see if I can change where the z zero is? When you refer to setting it up for your stock do you change it all the time depending on what size material you are trying to cut?

I am trying to make a cut out of a chevy emblem for starters. I load the bmp into the mesh software, but when I look at the code it spits out, it is all neg z's. If I were to put this code into our machine it'd either error out in the z axis or try to drive the head through the table.

Does your machine support fixture offsets like G54? If so then you can set the material stock to Z of zero.

It doesnt look like it does. It's amazing that we spend over $60,000 for this machine and it is a hunk of crap and you guys can build one from scratch that does all kinds of stuff. Ours says it supports:
Programming Format:
ATI
Excellon1
Excellon2
Trudril d
Trudril r
PMC 1

Not sure if that helps any but let me know.

What kind of control does it use? You MUST be able to put the Z zero anywhere you want...you just need to figure out how. Geneally you just move the machine til the cutter touches the top of the stock, then zero the axis. Don't break your bosses machine. call the machine support people if you need to. Also Meshcam can change the top of stock to something other than zero. I think it's under CAM, Defiine stock. Set the Z for .5" (or whatever works for you)

Eric

Eric

Actually, you can change the retract height in MeshCAM under the CAM menu, but the program zero is always the top, lower left-hand corner of the stock when viewed from above. I'll add a command to change that in the semi-near future, but I'm trying to get a 1.0 release out now.

Be sure to join the support group if you want the opportunity to try out the release candidates.

Robert

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Originally posted by balsaman
What kind of control does it use? You MUST be able to put the Z zero anywhere you want...you just need to figure out how. Geneally you just move the machine til the cutter touches the top of the stock, then zero the axis. Don't break your bosses machine. call the machine support people if you need to. Also Meshcam can change the top of stock to something other than zero. I think it's under CAM, Defiine stock. Set the Z for .5" (or whatever works for you)

Eric

Eric

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I'm not sure which controller we have or even how to check. Is there a way to know what kind of controller our machine uses?

Look for a name tag on the control there are many kinds, Fanuc, Yasnac, Mitsubishi, Analam on and on. If that doesn't work, when you boot up the machine check the screen for any indication as it boots. Also is it a pc based system? Somewhere from the main screen you should be able to find a command to give you info about the control software and the version. This is usually displayed while booting.

I have googled ATI routers, which are not familiar to me, just to get an idea what you are using. All I found out is, that it is a machine specialized for pcb board routing. Therefore it is a specialized machine to do just that, and I would not try to do other things and use materials other than pcb board materials, as this could ruin the machine.

Hopefully, he's already figured it out in the 10 years since he asked. ;)