[Steve303]

I want to try Rigid Tapping on my Pulsar. Last night I noticed that the switch on the BOB has been in the "ON" position since I receive the mill, just never realized it until today. Can running the Pulsar with the switch in the "ON" position cause any damage to the mill?

Steve

[LeeWay]

No. I have done it before. It is designed to run either way, but only sync the spindle with the Z axis with it switched on.

[Steve303]

Thanks Lee. That's what I was hoping to hear.

Steve

[LeeWay]

I switched over to Path Pilot on the machine and I really am impressed with what it's capable of now.
Much stronger and faster.
One thing about the Pulsar under Path Pilot, the rigid tapping is a bit off fort some reason. It taps fine but when backing out, it wants to lift parts out of the vise. I am using Fusion 360 exclusively on it now and on the tap settings dialog, I have to add a .02 seconds delay. That makes it tap correctly. The size of taps doesn't matter. Same delay. Much nicer threads too.

[Steve303]

Up to now, I've been using Vectric's VCarve Pro as my main CAD/CAM program. I have a quite easy to use and I used it before I got my Pulsar. I've tweaked the post processor a little find it works well. I do wish VCarve had adaptive clearing toolpaths.

I am still a total newbie with Fusion 360. Still lots to learn with Fusion.

Steve

[Novakon]

I want to try Rigid Tapping on my Pulsar. Last night I noticed that the switch on the BOB has been in the "ON" position since I receive the mill, just never realized it until today. Can running the Pulsar with the switch in the "ON" position cause any damage to the mill?

Steve

Hi Steve,

This switch is used to toggle between rigid tapping and the 4th axis. While in the "ON" position, the spindle is treated like the 4th axis and you can manually turn it with the "F" and "R" keys. If you want to operate the 4th axis, you will lose rigid tapping. You can program the tapping using the G codes manually or we have it set up in the BobCAD post code processors also. If Path pilot runs the coordinated control of the spindle and Z, then the switch should be in the "OFF" position.

Regards,
John

[Novakon]

I switched over to Path Pilot on the machine and I really am impressed with what it's capable of now.
Much stronger and faster.
One thing about the Pulsar under Path Pilot, the rigid tapping is a bit off fort some reason. It taps fine but when backing out, it wants to lift parts out of the vise. I am using Fusion 360 exclusively on it now and on the tap settings dialog, I have to add a .02 seconds delay. That makes it tap correctly. The size of taps doesn't matter. Same delay. Much nicer threads too.

This required delay might be for the BOB to switch over if you are running in the "ON" position. Normally, it will default to step and direction until it sees a signal on the A axis and then switches inputs. I am curious in Path Pilot if you use the spindle control with Z or the A axis with Z? With the proper controller coding, the switch is not necessary on the BOB. This was an interim design until better software came available. I believe Mach4 had the coding at one point, but we have not looked at Mach4 in a long time.

Regards,
John

[Steve303]

I switched over to Path Pilot on the machine and I really am impressed with what it's capable of now.
Much stronger and faster.
One thing about the Pulsar under Path Pilot, the rigid tapping is a bit off fort some reason. It taps fine but when backing out, it wants to lift parts out of the vise. I am using Fusion 360 exclusively on it now and on the tap settings dialog, I have to add a .02 seconds delay. That makes it tap correctly. The size of taps doesn't matter. Same delay. Much nicer threads too.

What post are you using for Fusion 360?
Steve

[LeeWay]

Here is the post I use in fusion for the Pulsar.

Attachment 342222

Just remove the .doc off the end.

I am not sure what position the switch is in right now. I will check it out tomorrow.
Also not real sure how Fusion does rigid tapping, but I suspect it is the normal way with the bypass for the 4th axis.
It does work well though.

[brianbonedoc]

With pathpilot I too noticed lifting unless you add a 'dwell'. I think I use .05s but will have to check. U don't need to switch it to rigid tap mode - that just converts it to a axis. It's ironic that using pathpilot our novakons can do stuff that the tormachs can't

[LeeWay]

Yep. Cool stuff. Tormach is pretty adamant about not adding servo's anywhere. The rigid tapping is one of the reasons I quit looking at the 770 and started looking at the Pulsar.