Danny, You are correct that the SmoothStepper implements the touch probe functions internally so the response time is incredibly fast, much faster than one can obtain though a parallel port. The thing

The federate is dependent on many factors but a good safe starting point for the two flute bits I sell is to feed 1IPM per thousand spindle RPM. So if your spindle is 20,000RPM feed at 20IPM. If you a

Run-out is the amount of 'wobble' you bit has when spinning. Not bit will be perfect so a small amount of run-out will be inherent in the bit, however most will come from the spindle and how the bit i

I believe I gave him a method to estimate just that in method #1 below... Jeff Birt Soigeneris.com

There are some methods of figuring out how far a cutter will travel. 1) Estimate: When milling a PCB about 90% of the time is spent cutting the isolation tracks. The rest is air moves, etc. So let's s

You are correct. On end mills cutting wood for example the ZrN coated tool cuts like a tool with just a bit of wear on it, but it will stay at that same performance level much longer. On PCB tools the

bits as they are So don't expect to The anticipated life in FR4 could be about 6,000 linear inches. If your spindle has a lot of run-out or your feeds/speeds are too aggressive than you'll get less. T

Your right JJ I was referring to the two main base camps of CNC, RS274X and Fanuc. Mach did start out with the original NIST EMC code just as EMC2 did. Over the years Mach has moved to be more Fanuc l

In reality there is no real GCode standard, yes there is RS274, but almost nobody follows it. Fanuc has about 85% of the CNC control market and does things their own way so you will find that Mach and

I have found that 1/8” holes work really well as you can use broken 1/8” shank bits for alignment pins. Jeff Birt Soigeneris.com Check out our PCB making bit sets: http://www.soigeneris.com/PCB_Tools-

I'm not sure I follow what you are saying. Anything on the milling layer will only have GCode generated for it if you tell PCB-Gcode to do so. Holes that are drilled via a drill bit, i.e. holes on the

It would be better to use a bit made just for PCB cutting, and they are less expensive too! Take a look at this page: http://www.soigeneris.com/PCB_Tools-list.aspx (my website). There are two main typ

The first thing to do is take your Bosch OEM collet firmly in your hand…and then throw it as hard as you can (off of a cliff J ). They are simply awful (a LOT of run-out.) Next step, pick up some prec

This may be your experience, but it is certainly not a generally accepted truth. I'm not picking on you Dan, it's just that if you look at commercial PCB routing machines they use V-bits: http://www.l

Copper is not really abrasive it is ‘gummy’, it is very soft and cuts so easily using the wrong tools can be disastrous. On the other hand PCB substrates are really abrasive. Some like ceramic filled

Paul I’m glads you brought up this point as I was not clear enough in my answer before. I was speaking very specifically about the bits that Bruce bought from me. For trace isolation I suggest using c

Bruce, I’m glad the bits are working well for you. I suggest feeding at 1IPM per thousand spindle RPM, in other words if your spindle goes 6,000RPM then set your feed rate to 6IPM. This is a bit on th

Take a look at: http://www.grizzly.com/products/Test-Indicator-0-0001-Resolution/G9611 Please note that this indicator is not equivalent to a Starret or BesTest but is a good quality and for the avera

Lee is right on the money. The first step in getting good results is to have your CNC set up and running properly. It pains me to see folks going to so much effort to try work around problems rather t

Put the outline of your PCB on the ‘milling’ layer and then tell PCBGCode to create the milling layer coder for you. Jeff Birt Soigeneris.com From: pcb-gcode@yahoogroups.com [mailto:pcb-gcode@yahoogro