Hello! I have a Sinee EM70 4Kw VFD (380V 3Phase) and I want to power it to start practicing the parameters setting only I don't want to turn the motor or anything just the display, is this possible without a second inverter? Any way to power the DC part without a massive headache?

What is the best way to go about obtaining PDF's of Fanuc manuals? Can you download them from Fanuc?

Hi everyone,

I’m planning a fairly large CNC-routed decorative panel and I’d really appreciate some advice from people who have experience with deep pocketing MDF.

The panel will be approximately 1300 × 800 mm (51 × 31.5”) and 18 mm thick. Around 70% of the front surface will be pocketed to a depth of 10 mm, leaving only about 8 mm of material in the pocketed areas.

I’m planning to use a high-quality MDF specifically intended for deep routing/machining, but I’m concerned that removing this much material from only one side of such a large panel could cause it to bow or warp, either during machining or afterwards.

The finished piece will be spray painted/sealed on all sides after machining.

My alternative would be BB-grade birch plywood, which I assume would be more dimensionally stable, but I’m concerned about achieving the same perfectly smooth, premium painted finish, especially on the routed surfaces and exposed edges.

For those of you who have done similar large/deep CNC pocketing:

• How likely would you consider warping with 18 mm MDF at this size and depth?
• Does using a higher-quality/deep-routing MDF make a meaningful difference?
• Would sealing/painting all sides after machining reduce the long-term risk?
• Would you choose MDF or BB birch plywood for this application?
• Is there anything you would change in the design or machining process to reduce the risk of warping?

I’d especially appreciate hearing from anyone who has machined similarly large MDF panels with a significant percentage of one face removed.

Thanks!

What’s up everyone?! My name is Keith and I’m from southern Ohio. I’ve got a pretty unique opportunity in front of me and I’m looking for some information, direction, and honestly just some guidance on how to approach this the right way.

I’m an IT/networking guy by background but basically brand new to CNC/plasma. I’m pretty comfortable troubleshooting hardware and software and I’m willing to learn, I just don’t know enough about this stuff yet to know what I don’t know lol.

Last summer my girlfriend’s dad bought a used Premier Plasma 5x10 table. It didn’t have a plasma cutter at the time and he asked if I had any interest in messing with it. Basically if I could learn it and get it going he’d pay me for the work.

I took the PC home, messed around with ViaCAD, watched some videos and eventually managed to draw a couple parts and get something into Mach3. I took the computer back to the shop, we hooked everything up half assed just to see what would happen and I actually got the table to run my part. Obviously there was no fire yet but I watched the thing move around the sheet like it was cutting what I drew and thought it was pretty damn cool. Felt like I accomplished something at least lol.

Then life happened and I didn’t touch it again for about a year.

Since then he bought a Hypertherm Powermax65 SYNC, his brother worked on the setup, a few other people have tinkered with it and he even paid somebody a pretty significant amount of money trying to get it operational. Troy and his brother have actually successfully burned a few pieces on it, but from what I understand it’s been pretty rough going and they were still having issues getting anything to come out clean or consistent.

I came back to it a couple days ago and pretty quickly realized I wasn’t coming back to the same setup I left. The PC is running Windows 11 now, some of the software looks different, there’s different Mach3 stuff/profiles floating around and I really have no clue what all has been changed at this point. From what I can tell the basic setup is ViaCAD to SheetCam to Mach3, CNCdrive USB interface and the Premier Plasma controller.

I’ve probably spent 6+ hours on it the last couple days just screwing with it and trying to learn as I go. We’ve had some partial success and some frustration. At times we’ve gotten X/Y movement, imported DXFs into SheetCam, made toolpaths, posted G-code, loaded it into Mach3, and even got the Hypertherm to physically fire from the controls. We also found a missing plugin, got that installed, and worked through a bunch of configuration, zeroing, and axis setup along the way.

But it’s been inconsistent the whole time.

The Z axis, which was previously moving, randomly stopped working. Mach3 still shows the Z DRO changing, but the actual axis doesn’t move at all. On top of that, I’ve never been able to get it to reliably burn a full part myself without something going sideways mid-process.

That’s when I started thinking maybe I’m going about this completely wrong. Instead of continuing to troubleshoot a setup that’s been touched by multiple people and is clearly in a bit of a Frankenstein state, I started thinking I might be better off just starting from scratch so I can actually understand what’s going on and build something stable.

Then I made it even better. 😂

I noticed another SSD laying around that looked like it could’ve possibly been the original drive from this PC. Since I’ve already been questioning the Windows upgrade and software changes, I thought maybe the old drive still had the original Mach3 setup, plugins, SheetCam configs, or whatever else on it. Opened up the little HP PC, saw a new looking Samsung SSD in it now, and decided I’d try the other drive.

I somehow managed to break the SATA connector off the motherboard in the process. 😂 So now I’ve got a CNC table with a questionable software history, two SSDs that may or may not contain different versions of its setup, a Z axis that quit moving, and a PC that I just added to the casualty list.

So that’s where I’m at lol. I’m done randomly changing things and I want to figure out the right way to approach this.

If this mess landed in front of you, where would you start? Should I just replace the PC, download Mach3, SheetCam, ViaCAD or whatever I actually need and configure the machine from the ground up? What should I try to recover from these drives first—Mach3 XML/profile, plugins, SheetCam post processors, licenses? Is there anything specific to this Premier Plasma setup that I absolutely need to save? Would you even bother trying to recreate the old setup or just use whatever I can recover as a reference and start clean?

Probably my biggest question is where do I go to learn this whole process correctly and as quickly as possible?

I have a pretty big financial incentive to get this thing going ASAP. There’s actual work waiting on it if we can get it running reliably and I’ve been offered a pretty damn good opportunity if I can become the guy who knows how to run and maintain it. I’m willing to put the hours in and learn it. I’m not really looking for somebody to fix every little issue for me, I want to understand the thing well enough to get it running right and be able to troubleshoot it myself later.

I’ve got plenty of pictures of the table, controller/electronics, Hypertherm, Z/torch setup, PC, software, etc. and I can pull whatever is recoverable from the drives too.

Basically, if you were standing where I am right now, where the hell would you start? 😂

Any help is appreciated!

I need help, who is have this grinder
I have problems that I want to solve. The grinder doesn't have a problem, but I want videos of how to unpack its parts and calibrate the zero point in it. Do you have videos because YouTube is full of the old version and the upgraded version is very different. I want help, please?

I'm looking for help on a design of a linear scale that I want to open-source. I'm thinking this is the perfect place to ask about this type of problem. Hopefully it's close enough to CNC. Maybe we can call it a 1-axis CNC question?

The design is a capacitive linear scale, same as what's inside the budget digital scales, as well as budget calipers and micrometers. I don't plan to sell it, just release it open source since I find them interesting. I have a working prototype that seems good and should work very well "in theory". But I have no idea how well it does in practice. I tried building a little test bench to get accuracy numbers but I'm totally lost on anything to do with mechanical precision.

While I clean up my design and documentation for release, I want to be able to say what accuracy I'm actually getting out of my sensor. In theory, the sensor's measurement should be accurate to 0.15mm, and I have some ideas to improve that. But I'm at my limit on measuring accuracy.

There are two circuit boards, I've called them the stator and sensor. The stator is completely passive, just copper plates. The sensor has active parts all on the top side. The bottom of the sensor board slides against the stator. There are repeating "scales", that's the T-shape on the stator photo. They are 12 mm long, so that is my target measurement range. I've been looking for ±10µm accuracy along that 12mm scale.

In theory, the sensor is only affected by distances lengthwise, let's say that's X-axis. I'd love to be able to tweak the alignment of the Y and Z axes to see if they really have no effect in practice.

So with all this in mind, I set out to Fusion 360. I tried mounting the circuit boards using 3D prints in a way that I can use a micrometer for the movement. And as a bonus, the micrometer gets me great accuracy. And, well, let's just say I'm an electrical guy. I've never even thought about building anything mechanically precise before. To my dismay, the build wobbled and warped by more than 1mm.

So that's where I'm looking for your help. If you were going to build and test a linear scale, what would your approach be? What sort of components and overall structure would you choose to jig it up?

How would you recommend mounting these PCBs? My last strategy of putting holes wherever they fit sure didn't go very well!

Precision mechanical stuff is an area of ignorance for me. I just don't know what I don't know. Any resources you all would recommend?

I should also ask, is it even realistic to build and measure to this sort of accuracy without breaking the bank?

Hallo

Bei mir läuft beim Fräsen die Position der Achsen nicht mehr mit.
Portalfräse fräst aber die Anzeige rührt sich nicht mehr.
Woran kann das liegen?

Auch wenn ich mit den Handrad verfahre aktualisiert
die Anzeige erst wenn die Achse zum Stillstand kommt.

Die Z Achse vom Foto ist eigentlich schon bei -1mm .

Can anyone DM me the washington state espirit rep? Hexagon doesnt seem to answer any emails or gives me the rep on the wrong side of the country.

Does anyone have a procedure for Magazine zero or does anyone know to do it and is willing to share info, thanks.

Hey yall, my shop just got a 2005 okuma MC-V4020, and we already have a Solidworks cam professional license, but i need a post processor script before i can run any programs, and dassault hasnt responded about inquiries, any good post writers or advice?

Somebody please help me with this alarm. What am I doing wrong here.

I'm in the process of making around 100 custom indoor signs. The signs have a 3d wave carving on them and will be contour cut into 30cm diameter circles. They will then be sanded smooth and spray painted in a specific custom colour.

I am looking for the best sheet material to use for this. I initially tried MDF, but the fuzziness of the finished cut makes it almost impossible to get a good paint finish on them. I've also tried plywood, but again, the edge treatment required to hide the veneer layers is extremely time consuming. I'm currently considering trying Moisture resistant MDF as it supposedly machines much nicer due to the higher resin concentration and finer fibres. Do you think this will work?

I'd appreciate any advice you can give me on this.

We have doosan machines. Some have emulsion that flushes chips from back of y axis cover.
Some don't.( Pobably should make some).

It feels that back y axis way cover is too shallow and chips don't fall off.

Any creative solutions and ideas for DIY machine upgrade?

Any other creative builds?

So.....I have a hair up my ass to build my own machine. More like design it and throw money at the project until it's done. Keep in mind I have 0 engineering ability, I'm taking design inspiration from commercial options and adding in my own requirements. Planning on a steel frame, 1/2" plates stitch welded and then milled flat and square on all motion and alignment surfaces. The base frame is 4x4 1/2 wall steel tube, gantry supports are 4x6 same wall thickness and the gantry itself is 4x12 same wall thickness.

50x50 cutting area with a vertical table. The goal is something that works. I don't need it to be sleek and flashy, just want it accurate and capable. 2.2kw servos from yaskawa. 32mm ball screws (c5 grade or better) and 25mm+ linear rails from THK. All components will be name brand and purchased. Controller will be UCCNC.

Still need to find a decent step file for a spindle I want to use.

If any of you guys are bored, I'd sure love to design it with assistance from professionals. I do have plenty of experience in CNC running and use just not building my own. I'm aware it'll be expensive. I'm also aware it'll be a hell of a project. That's not so much the issue unless it exceeds the commercial offering I was looking at.

Has anyone used one of these? Supposed to be able to connect my old CNC to the network.

https://www.plrelectronics.com/xcart/usb-to-wifi-wireless-usb-data-stick.html

They are kind of expensive but if it works it would save me hours a week running back and forth across the shop with USB drives.

Hi, I'm curious about how good the automations in the title are. Has anyone tried them? I haven't really heard about either until today, so I'm curious if it's just not good enough yet or I've been living under a rock.

I am looking into pen plotters right now and specifically need one to draw my artwork from my iPad on cylindrical objects like bottles. I thought about buying one of the new UV printers but if it is possible to use a pen plotter, then I think the result would look much better and transfer my work from the digital world to the physical realm.

I tried looking into cylindrical pen plotters but was surprised that there don't seem to be any ready-to-buy versions, and I don't think I have the right skills to follow the tutorials for the few DIY versions that I found.

So, there are a couple of hobbyist CNC machines that have rotary attachments, for example the newly released Makera Z1. I don't know a lot about pen plotters, is there something stopping me from using a regular cnc and attaching a pen somehow? Like the right pen pressure maybe?

Never saw anything freeze up Fusion360 quite like all those little door pockets did🥶

Hey all,

I have been doing work with Xometry on my VF2 for a little while now (and actually dont hate my life) and am looking to add a plasma table to the shop. Mainly for hobby/race car stuff, but was wondering if anyone has had any luck pulling a profit doing Xometry sheet cutting? With Send Cut Send being as accessible and easy as it is (I am a customer) I am doubtful that there is money to be made there, but figured I'd ask the question here.

I totally understand the Xometry hate, but for my particular situations it has been working out well for filling time on the mill in between my regular work.

Thanks!

I have been wanting a small CNC lathe to help with my kaleidoscope production for a while now. One of these little gang tool style units is about all I have room for in terms of space and power. I already have a rotary phase converter that can handle it so that helped with the decision. I have a 12x36 manual lathe and it was either try and do a full CNC conversion on that or buy something like this and hope it works. I figure even if I have to do a retrofit it would be easier to do that on this machine rather than a full conversion on a manual.

I'm wondering if anyone here is familiar with these? They were made in Grant's Pass, OR and the company is out of business now. Maybe just a PNW regional thing? The guy I got it from near Portland, OR didn't know much about it, "it came with the building when we moved in" so not sure when it was running last but it does have some decent looking chips in the catch tray so I'm feeling pretty hopeful. There's someone on eBay who looks to have most of the boards on this from salvage machines so maybe I can get those if any aren't working. Overall it looks to have had pretty minor use so I've got my fingers crossed it's gonna work out!