[Leonardo]

I'm building my own CNC machine, and wanted to know if someone in this forum knows CATIA

I'm more interested in learning the CAM part as I'm very good a CAD modeling in Rhino3D.

thanks!

[yolk]

depending on the modules catia cam is a high-end cam solution with up to 5 axis synchronous milling. a bit of an overkill for a home made cnc IMnotsoHO.

can you use it at home? because if you can only use it from the office where catia is installed i wouldn't do it.

you want to change your cutting strategies a number of times and test them on your machine. if you always have to generate the cutting paths in your office and then test them at home on your cnc you lose a lot of time.

that's why i chose a cnc controller that also has canned mill cycles/strategies. a pocket or contour i do directly on the controller - no need for a cam. for 3d stuff i use visualmill.

have you looked at visualmill or rhinocam? you get a lot of bang for the buck.

[Leonardo]

depending on the modules catia cam is a high-end cam solution with up to 5 axis synchronous milling. a bit of an overkill for a home made cnc IMnotsoHO.

can you use it at home? because if you can only use it from the office where catia is installed i wouldn't do it.

you want to change your cutting strategies a number of times and test them on your machine. if you always have to generate the cutting paths in your office and then test them at home on your cnc you lose a lot of time.

that's why i chose a cnc controller that also has embedded mill cycles/strategies. a pocket or contour i do directly on the controller - no need for a cam. for 3d stuff i use visualmill.

have you looked at visualmill or rhinocam? you get a lot of bang for the buck.

I see what you are saying... I figure CATIA was overkill, but as long as I have access to it might as well use it.

I'll have to talk to the IT guy and see if they can install it in one of the company's laptop.
I was looking at MasterCAM... but it's going to cost me as much as my home-made CNC machine

[yolk]

just curious - are you going to build a gantry type router or converting a traditional mill? using steppers or servos? how much you wanna spend building the cnc mill?

[Leonardo]

just curious - are you going to build a gantry type router or converting a traditional mill? using steppers or servos? how much you wanna spend building the cnc mill?

I'm converting a harbor freight X2 mini mill into a CNC machine.

I already ordered the mini mill, CNC Fusion kit #4 ( motor mounts,& ball-screws axis), 381 oz-in NEMA 23 Stepper Motors, G540 driver, and power supply

[NicoR44]

I would really love to see the progress on this Leonardo!

[yolk]

great!
i fried my servo drive last week after installing the tool height probe
waiting for the new drive to arrive.


after the conversion of this mill i didn't have the nerve to build a cnc cutter as i planned so i bought one second hand
works like a charm

[Leonardo]

great!
i fried my servo drive last week after installing the tool height probe

Oh man Was it an operator/ installer error? what Servo drive were you using?

[JDHill]

have you looked at visualmill or rhinocam? you get a lot of bang for the buck.

For Rhino, he might also check out madCAM. It is a little less polished than VisualMill (not sure about RhinoCam, I haven't used it) but it is nice because toolpaths it generates are just curves in Rhino, so you can directly edit them however you like.

[yolk]

Oh man Was it an operator/ installer error? what Servo drive were you using?

yeah - it was my error. a clipped piece of cable jumped behind the drive and shortened it

bzzzz!

i don't like working with 400V cabinets - also the brand of my multimeter is 'fluke'..not very reassuring

we use a centroid controller

[raja]

I use http://www.deskproto.com on ISEL 3 axis machine, it works with STL files (in my case from Rhino).
maybe interesting for you.

regards,
raja

[Leonardo]

Well, the mill is here



hopefully the other pieces won't take too long to arrive

[yolk]

great. keep us updated.

[yolk]

any updates? you still have all fingers?

[Leonardo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN4Xu2GY ... er&list=UL

I'm having some issues with backslash in the Y axis... So I'm the process of buying new couplings