First, I want to say Thank You to this forum for getting me through my first 3 months with the crossfire. Almost everything question and challenge I had was discussed here. Super awesome help. I am really enjoying it now.
I have a hypertherm Powermax 45xp, which is new and cured many problems I was having before.
I have a water table so I can’t put pieces under the Y gantry.
I cut a large 2’ x 6’ sign for a customer, simple letter cut outs. I indexed it in 4 parts, moving it in the Y direction. I created 4 extrusions in fusion360 and created a different setup and different profile path for each. I indexed from each part to the next part to mark the 0,0 for the next part. If interesting, I could show the details. From this I believe I can do a 24 x infinity piece in this manner.
My question / thought is this.
Could we not theoretically do a 48 x infinity piece, by indexing in the Y direction and then rotating the stock 180 deg and run it through again in the Y direction to get to the other half of the 48 stock? I hope this is clear. Of course I have to create the setups to include the flipped coordinate systems. From this last piece I learned out to change the x/y coordinates of my fusion drawings. So now I think I can do the same trick when I rotate the stock. I wonder if anyone has already tried this or worked it out.
Thanks again for all the great discussions and trouble shooting that goes on in this community.
yes, in theory it possible but a lot of work. indexing in a single direction is not that difficult. I agree , it would be better to index X rather than Y… this is why I opted for the XL>. but didnt realize , I could not get stock to clear under the y rail. as I could before adding a water table. I am going to fab a stanchion about an inch higher. This will allow stock to pass under the y axis rail. giving 33x infinity. - I am not sure what the purpose of the XL is to have it - if you index the y… because you just move from 24x infinity to 24 x 33 - which is less than 24 x infinity. it would be better to go to 33 x infinity from 24 x infinity… That should have been a given. I was sort of dissappointed after adding the water table which i ordered with the XL… to learn that they expected you only to index in the y direction… Which makes no theoretical advantage to have… but at 33 x infinity i can cut 99% of what i need and at 24 x infinity about 80% I do not have the room for a pro… regardless of price. but have determined, I will need to add a THC.
I did the same thing with this piece. One thing I do is my Corel space is set up as the same size as the cut area on the cnc. When I do the artwork I align it all the same and it makes it easy for me to set it up on the cnc. It works for me. I would love to see how you index it.! This is an actual antique crosscut saw. I must say for how thin it was the steel was very very hard
I didn’t know you could do it in MACH3, I will have to find that.
To make changes to the coordinate system in fusion, In MANUFACTURE, in the SETUP, in the work coordinate system section (WCS), under ORIENTATION, I choose “Select X & Y Axes”. Then I click on axis lines or segments until I get then where I want them and also use the flip check boxes.
nice peice, what font aare you using? yeah its interesting how materials have changed over time. I am sure the iron content in that is higher than the mild steel we are used today.
You said you did 4 extrusions , one for each indexing. That seems like a like of work to do. Couldnt you use the same extrusion and select a different toolpath in multiple profiles. and then just offset your x or y in your set up for each indexing… thought i guess you could do 1 extrusion with 4 setups with one profile in each…
I actually, tried to do this in the setup , and I was unable to select the axis , not sure maybe I don’t know how to do it, but I do have all sorts of issue with my fusion istalls and it leaves me with a message cant complete updates always.
As for Mach, on the second tab, there is a section that says rotation, try 90 degrees… works easily for me.
I too just started working with this stuff. So far after a few glitches working pretty well.
So is it possible to educate me on this indexing stuff? Not following the info exactly in your messages.
I was figuring to cut big pieces I would pause cutting to move to next location to resume cutting and use a alignment bar to ensure part remains in line. I haven’t tried this yet so not sure I can even react fast enough to pause it.
