Hey everyone, I have a genmitsu 4040 Pro, and the wifi card. I have really enjoyed it through the mobile app as a way to quickly kick off a machine run against a gcode file that I loaded to it's internal sd card, but I hate the interface and the way macros work.

So I built a plugin for UGS that handles all of the file management bits (upload and delete files, load file into memory to be run, start, pause, stop a run) and let's UGS handle all of the remaining tasks.

Why, when I could just use the router through a tcp connection? My workshop is in a corner of my house where the wifi is OK but not great, and if I lose connection midway through a run, I just scrapped my workpiece. This let's me run the file from the machine, without needing to keep the wifi connection up.

Hope you find it useful, https://github.com/waldnzwrld/ugs-genmitsu-wireless-file-manager

TLDR what is the cheapest arm on the market that could handle the vibrations of a dremel or other light weight cutting tool to be able to carve efficiently through dense-ish foams?

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Sooo for my graduation project in architecture I made a biodegradable prototpying foam out of chitin and cellulose and adjusted the pH of the adhesive to be 6 so that when it rehydrates - the chemistry is adjusted so everyting is relatively bioavailable to critters living in soils - and its cellulose and chitin so its just building blocks for life.

Process is first to make an aqueous adhesive, mix with different cellulose grades, huck it into a 3d printed mold, and put it in my hydraulic press and dehydrate slowly in the mold to evap the remaining water content. its... not the most elegant process, but it makes me a foam that is -aldehyde free and can be carved with a knife or cutting tools similar to bluefoam/extruded PU that is famous in architecture modeling. I still wear a dust mask but thats just for dust now not for 'omg potential of covalently crosslinking cells in my lungs in the woodshop.'

I want to pick this project back up and see how it would be useful for milling prototypes of furniture etc... and have for the longest time wanted to make a company around prototyping foams that like.. you can literally throw the dust in the garden and not worry about it...

I have thought about printing an arm but that sounds really dumb to me because of vibration/compensation. I've built a couple OpenBuilds/RatRig CNC mills, ratrig vcore 3.1 500 printers, and am very familiar with hardware/gantries etc... but multi axis milling beyond a set work piece or set in a lathe on a cartesian system is beyond me...

figured ya'll are the right crowd to make me feel insecure about my lack of characterized/average foam density as relates to this question and will give me the right amount of shit for being like WHAT DO YOU MEAN IS THE ARM STRONG ENOUGH YOU DONT KNOW YOUR MATERIAL DENSITYYYYYYY

but I ask anyway. thank you for your service ohh great keepers of the knowledge of feeds and speeds

Play it here - Https//Keepitrunning.fyi

Reddit doesn’t recognise the url, sorry.

Feedback welcome!

Hello. I'm new to this subforum and I'm looking for information about a machine I want to buy (I'm from Chile and the machine is in the UK).
The machine is a 2008 Colchester/Harrison XS1800 lathe and it has a Fanuc Alpha controller. Does this model have a PCMCIA or RS-232 interface for using .NC programs?
There are photos of the controller. I've read that there are two versions of this controller; is this the correct one?

Regards

Is anyone here running a Pade machine? I have a couple of questions regarding their e-Lab software and programming of the machine in general?

I took the plunge and bought a rebuilt 1313 router. It has been delivered to my shop and now I’m just stuck.

How do you level (or at least get the travel consistent) on it?

I bought a machinist’s level (cool) but now I’m not sure if my level is level and I feel like I’m trying to escape a zen thought experiment. What surface can I even use to calibrate the thing. I have a slab of marble left over from a bathroom remodel, is that flat enough?

Once I get that done, how to I approach the leveling? The machine has four screw feet in the four corners but as I try to level the X the Y gets totally out of whack and then I find I’ve pulled another foot off the floor and the whole thing feels messed up now.

Is there an order like tightening lugs on a tire? This machine cost me a lot and I really don’t want to screw it up.

I’ve been across YouTube and Google and the advice suggests: a 48” level, a machinists level, a Bluetooth digital level, a 360 degree laser level, a one dial tramming tool, a two dial tramming tool, various wooden jigs, simple straight edges… i get people have their methods, but it makes it so hard to know where to start. Please help!

Trying to figure out the lowest possible clearance a VF1 needs

Maybe I’m picky, but when I send over a part drawing, I want a bit more back than a price and a delivery date.

If there’s a tight tolerance, tell me how you’re going to hold it. If a finish could affect the fit, bring it up. And if part of the job is going to another shop, I’d much rather know before placing the order.

I actually feel better about a supplier who pushes back on something specific. Even a “we can do this, but this feature will cost you” gives me something useful to work with. I can take that back to engineering and figure out whether we really need it.

What makes me uneasy is getting a yes to absolutely everything. Material? Yes. Tolerance? Yes. Shorter lead time? Also yes. At some point I start wondering whether we’re even talking about the same part.

I don’t expect a full engineering review on every small RFQ. But I do want some sign that someone has looked beyond the quantity column.

My preference is to clear up the awkward stuff before comparing prices. Otherwise I’m comparing a detailed quote with someone else’s best-case assumption, and the cheaper number doesn’t mean much.

Curious where other buyers land on this. What’s the difference between a supplier being thorough and one who’s just making the RFQ harder than it needs to be?

I'm looking at purchasing an Altmill 4x4 and noticed at check out there's an option to enter discount codes. Does anyone know if there are any current ones or where they could be found? Every little bit counts! Thanks!

Hey Reddit! I'm looking to set up a small signage shop and I'm struggling to choose between a CNC and CO2.

The signage will be smaller interior stuff, largest being 12x12. I want to offer a wide range of materials, but cast acrylic will probably be most frequently used.

I'll need to cut out tactile acrylic lettering for ADA compliant signs. It seems like CO2 is preferred here, but i'd much prefer to get it working on a CNC instead if it's doable. I'm eyeballing Altmill and OneFinity

I'm hoping to start with 3D printer + CNC. 3D printer would be used for making molds, mounting system, and decorative things for the signs.

The attached image is an example, minimum letter height will be ⅝″. Do you think icons and lettering at this size is doable on a CNC?

Thank you!

I am having quite the fun mounting some diamond wheels on face mill anvils and attacking some carbide on the old vmc with some stupid fusion trickery and thought about this while watching the thing run at 3mm per minute trying to plunge grind custom threading bits

Do you think f360 can be coaxed into doing a threadmilling operation where minor would get a bit smaller as you get farther from the cutting edge for some funky shop made hand taps?Can it even run trace with the point of a threadmill if i manage to model the relief on the helix divided by the flutes

running about 300 housings a year right now, 6061 pocketed from billet, roughly 40 minutes of machine time each plus a 2nd op for the lid face. sales thinks we hit 2,000 a year by 2028 and someone already floated die casting. with the tool cost spread over a few years, at what yearly volume did die casting plus finish machining start winning for you?

Hope shitposts are allowed.

Just being humorous. Nature is calling though, and this is is my first run of this design, so I’m not leaving it. What a predicament.

Sometimes (more often lately) the mill will just shift the trajectory to the left by 1-2 cm in the middle of the job. When it happens, some random value appears in Mach3 axis 4 window (usually ~300). In the toolpath window the trajectory becomes yellow and shifts diagonally.

The mill only has 3 axis. 4th axis (A) is disabled in Motor Outputs.

Full disclosure: I am currently serving sentence in prison, where I work in a carpentry workshop and kind of inherited the CNC operator job. I didn't know anything about CNCs and I still don't know much. Mach3 was preconfigured.

My access to internet is limited to few hours once or twice a week (for downloading *stls, finding necessary info, etc.), but hopefully I'll be able to check comments semi-regularly.

Very new to the CNC/Machining world. Would love tips/methods for getting my machine zeroed on round bar parts. Aswell as round tubing! Thanks guys

We bought a few onsrud 3/16 super O bits with a .875 LOC and instantly broke the first bit. It was set for 4 passes at a feed rate of 80, plunge at 40, at 22000rpm. We lowered the feed rate to 5 so we didn't break another bit but the chips were very fine and welding back on to the aluminum. We are using oil in the sprayer, don't have a vacuum and clear the chips manually with an air gun.

We have a bunch more pieces to cut so any help you can give me is greatly appreciated.

So I start a new job as CNC machines operator, not real much experience on them at all but my previous job was a mechanical fitter. My question is how daunting will this be and will it be overwhelming or am I overthinking it with first job jitters ? Just want to know what I’m getting into and if I’m in over my head

I have 13 years of hands on cnc experience but limited with programming. I can currently only make programs by combining parts of other programs I use and can make some simple cycles. I mostly do milling but would like to know lathes also. I love how it feels when you make a working program and even tho there is little to no need for it at my current work place I would like to learn it for my own pleasure.

What site/app would you recommend for learning g code and some basic to medium (for start) programming at home?

Preferably free but im willing to spend money on something worth paying.

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At my first job we were told we had to have an 85% or better efficiency. What have your experienced in the real world? And what do get when you're running two machines, doing all the setups? I'm struggling to give accurate time estimates when I'm running both our mills and have to program setup, and run the parts .

Edit: My current job doesn't mandate efficiency, as it's about 90% tooling and only 10% production. I get to tell them how much time it will take. I do alright when I only have one machine, but add the second one and I can't estimate for shit.