Thread: Help, New cnc user

welcome to the forum

let the madness begin , read up on some of the others ( like myself ) who bought a 6040 ,9040 , 6545 , 3040 , cnc from china
a lot of info on this site ,
1st up , i recommend you convert the stepper driver too a Gecko 540 and 48volt power supply from our wonderful sponsor ' Homann Designs ' ( search the net , he is the cheapest, for new ,with backup service )
The box that comes with the ( what ever band "luckysun " is calling him self this month), has a habit of not working , + the pin configuration depends on what day it was made ,

THE MACHINE COMES FROM CHINA WITH NO ELECTRICAL EARTH " DANGER " please make sure the machine is properly earthed before starting the spindle , some people have been lucky there was a foot of sawdust on the floor of there shed , and no where for the current to go when there spindless short to earth

^^^ take that with a pinch of salt ^^^ i have not seen your machine ,and 20% have worked out of the box with the setup instructions

for the CAM software that turns CAD drawings into code , there are many choices
2D is your basic vector carver , from an out line you specify the depth of the cut , what side of the line ect
2.5D has 4th axis lath capabilities , same simple vector based program where you tel it how deep you want it too cut
3D is where the cutting bit will follow the surface of a 3D CAD drawing , moving all 3 axis at the same time ( 2D sets the z axis to a height and mills a shape

i own
victric CUT2D , it works but i wouldn't recommend it , the zoom function is irritating , and it handles like a 1990 shareware program
TurboCAD 2.5D CAM , a freebie plugin with the CAD program , nice , even dose 4th axis , and keeps the g-code with the drawing , if you change the drawing ,the g-code changes automatically , weird stuff ,you can even draw your own bit profiles , or type in the product code for the bit
victric CUT3D ..I WOULD RECOMMEND THAT , a good program ,but you need 3D CAD files , useless with 2D vectors
victric PhotovCave , handy to have , does stuff the others cant do , and it cant do much but images / gray scale vectors

edit , i had Homman Designs page open ,and went for a bit of a look , wow he sells a lot more software now , lol,couldn't resist ,ive been eyeing off" cnc wrapper" for a while now , 1/2 the time its easier to draw a 3D texture on a flat than it is in a round , TurboCAD2.5D does simple turnings , cogs , threads , but refuses to do textures on the round

take this with a grain of salt, because I'm a newbie:
I've found Vectric's Aspire program quite nice and easy to use. A friend of mine has it, and I've used it to cad and cam up a couple of projects using his PC. Some things I couldn't figure out how to do (carved top and back for an electric guitar), but I'm pretty sure that was just not knowing how to drive it properly.

The cost is kind of high - I think he paid about $2k or so for it. I'd take a close look at the features and see if its worth it before buying it. I'm planning on trialling some other software (freecad, meshcam and cambam) before I make up my mind about what I'm buying.

Do you have all the machine configuration settings figured out for Mach3 yet? I didn't get a manual with my 6040, so I used the screenshots I found here: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review - Page 1 and the manual I found here: http://mambohead.com/wp-content/uplo...ion-Manual.pdf
for my initial configuration settings. I'm not using mach3, but the settings seem to work fine with my controller.

Originally Posted by SawDustSniffer

....TurboCAD 2.5D CAM , a freebie plugin with the CAD program

I'd be interested in that. Is it a TurboCad product. I could not find it on their site. Would you know where it is available?

Regards
Peter

its a plug in for turbocad16pro platinum , it wont work as a stand alone program
so bye turbocad pro 16 platinum and it comes in the box , there selling ver20 now , so ver16 is cheep , i payed AU$350 2 years ago , should be down around AU$200 now , ver 20 is $1400

its complex , and good , if you need a CAD program as well , is a good choice , a lot of the auto stuff relies on using turbocads constraints in the drawings , so a lot of features wont be available if you just use it as a cam for imported dxf files

there are free 2D cams available , but i haven't used any so cant set you in the right direction on those programs

so other forum members , have you tried any free ( really free , not trialware ) CAM programs that you like enough to recommended , even a list of ones you have downloaded that arnt worth the telstra costs of downloading

YOUR RIGHT , VER 16 IS OFF THE MARKET

i searched my spam mail box for the " adds they keep sending me too up grade " and came across

ver 17 with cam $299<font color=red> Sorry, this item is sold out. Please see TurboCAD Pro 18 with CAM Plug In. Thanks </font> TurboCAD Pro 17 Platinum Edition with CAM Plug In The Complete CAD & CAM Solution EDIT lol , old link the advertisement was 1 year old
ver18 with cam $ 330 TurboCAD Pro 18 Platinum Edition with CAM Plug In Complete CAD & CAM Solution - TurboCAD Pro 18

2.5DCAM addin bye its self $200 CAM Plug In for TurboCAD Pro 18 - Training, Plug-ins and Add-ons for TurboCAD 18 identical cover / cd case to he one shipped with turbocad16pro platinum




dam i should read my junk mail , a #3D addon for $100 Contour CAM for DesignCAD 3D MAX: CD-Rom For DesignCAD v14-21 - DesignCAD
designCAM is there lower level CAD ( that's easier to learn ) $100 DesignCAD 3D Max 23
but those ver's dont line up ? so a bit of searching your self


disclaimer , i am in no way related to turbo cad , just a happy customer

Send me an email referencing the forum, Im in perth can possibly help you out