Anything Manufacturing - Small to Medium Scale Metal Work (CAD/CAM included!)

Just a different robotics league. I've over in the left coast.

Here's the new season's game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocmONiVun9M

 

Basically.

The only real bracing on the Pro is up top, with nothing to keep the legs for splaying outwards. Most recent threads was a few days ago reading like this -

 

Or, you can drill holes in the legs and cut out some braces to bolt into place.

 

Oh - I live on the left coast... I mentor a team in Sonoma County. I haven't heard of Vex, except for the company that makes robot parts! That's cool. I clearly don't get out much!

I was thinking of making a brace/shelf like that westweld insta dude did. (some day) but that is good to know! at least it's pretty easy to check. I am still stoked to use this thing (some day) but I have to say the engineering on it is pretty janky. They could have so easily avoided this issue. The 'stand' should at worst make your machine un level or a little twisted, but it shouldn't rack it out of square.

 

Now you get my comment way back, about how it reminds you of its quality.

I have to say though, I can see their Firecontrol software easily being enjoyed on even more premium tables. It's just so nice and easy to use.

 

I remember your words vividly! And they echoed when the titan 25 arrived, too. Still, you cut a TON of awesome stuff on yours. I'm sure I'm going to have fun making stuff with it between cursing at its 'unique character'.

 

Shit I keep forgetting you have a Titan!

Man, wish I had the room for one really. Hell, I'd need someone to help me get it all set up considering how heavy it is.

But yes, anyone can get great cut quality out of any Langmuir table and I hope I emphasized that enough both here and in the FB group. Got a ton of people wanting a "your thoughts on..." and "how's it compare" video which I may do once I'm up and running. You guys here are seeing it all first hand with boxing and assembly.

Once your ass is back, you gotta get to making parts!

 

Added racing stripes to my CNC table



(Need a small strip for the right side)

No but the real update being that the flex seal was really dry already so I laid on a second coat.

Tomorrow my second can of flex seal arrives so I can run the first coat on the second pan.

Also my larger monitor just arrived and it's perfect for running the table.

 

Think I should send Flex Seal a pic of my table once it's done, huge marketing for sure!

 

I don't know why I'm laughing at this. Just seems memeworthy, I guess.

 

I don't know about you but I can hear his voice in my head, great commercials.

 

Shit I could probably use my water bed as a boat

 

Well, Flex Seal delayed for a day. It's ok cause it's for the second pan anyway.

Used the aerosol can I had also purchased and I hit all the small areas between the bolts as well as the corners.



Slats are installed and the second half of the table is ready to start getting Flex Seal tomorrow.

This means by Sunday I should be applying a second coat and maybe cutting by Tuesday

Edit: started the second pan today

 

This will be a slightly lengthy post so bare with me.

Those of you who have gotten to know me, talk to me offline, know that normally rely on my nights for leaning when it comes to software - it's when the family is asleep and I can really get to messing with things without interruption.

Since I can't run my table, I thought I would play a bit with the Optimum software as I've toyed with it a bit over the last few days and share some of the functions I think are really neat.

For starters, Optimum has it's own CAD, CAM, and controller built-in to its software. Now I haven't touched on the CAD side, and most likely never will, but since I want to steer clear of purchasing and learning Sheetcam, I thought I would give Optimum's CAM a try.

Just like any other CAM software, you need to load up your image file which I've done so right here. In this particular case, I already clicked the "ADD TO NEST" there shown at the bottom but normally you would have a blank sheet on the right side of your screen.



What I found most interesting is that, Optimum instantly generates cut paths for you just the same way Sheetcam does when you load an image. I did not have to manually remove any lead ins/outs on my open loops, or set my lead in on the correct side of a cutout as it recognized the hand as being an outside cut. All of the guesswork was instantly done for me.

Now, if you're like me and you specifically work on parts, then you know cutting certain geometries at different speeds (in thick material) is important so that's where the right side of the screen comes into play.

By creating what is called a "layer" and choosing lines/contours you wish to change color, you can create independent settings for both kerf and cut speed.



I cannot see why anyone would need so many layers as the most number of speeds I could think of in a realistic scenario is maybe 3 - one for an outside cut, one for a hole, and one for an even smaller hole. I find that if a hole is about .25" that I need to cut it an extra 5-7ipm slower than say a hole at .45" to achieve an accurate dimension.

Well, I would venture to guess that maybe the reason for the many layers is in the event that you have nested a ton of different items all together.

You can import multiple image files into your "work area", create the size of your material, and simply let the software nest everything together like so.

As you'll notice up top, I can determine the size of the sheet I'm working with as well as the distance between parts and the angle of rotations. The angle of rotations is important because too severe of an angle means contours that require many X-Y transitions, one major strength in having either servos or gear reduction kit like I do.



Whether you're working on a nested setup, or an individual item, you have additional options where you can set your lead in and out points if different than what was automatically set.



After which, you can actually determine the sequence of the parts being cut. Noticing here you'll see that the software sides with performing one complete cutout before moving onto the next. I think this is smart as it can prevent large tip ups from occurring.



And of course the important detail here, your actual lead in and out distances as well as placing them in or out of an object. Another thing I also noticed is that you can just as easily grab a lead in/arc and simply move and drag it elsewhere while also making it bigger or smaller with a scroll wheel. They make it super easy to adjust on the fly.



Anyway, once that's done you just hit the green check mark up top and your g-code is created and loaded right into the controller part of the software. At any time you can simply click CAM and it'll go back to your project you're working on without having to start all over again.

I confirmed this as I toyed with nesting, then back to one part just as quickly.



Couple of misc items here, just two options over from G-Code you have Charts. Optimum, as I showed the other day, has a huge library of cut charts from lots of different machines from different manufacturers. You can see it has not only my speeds, but also the correct cut and pierce heights as well as pierce delay and voltage. If I wanted to order more consumables, the screen shows me right there what set to buy as it lists part numbers.



Moving one more over to the Advanced tab you'll see the many other settings you can change which effect both cutting and jogging.



If you noticed at the bottom, you will see Parking Presets. This is actually something I had asked Langmuir about a long time ago and they never incorporated it into their software. Well, Optimum has user-adjustable presets for up to 10 parking locations where you can click on and make your torch go at any time. But the best part is that you can actually set it where your torch will always go to the park preset after it cuts your design out.



There's really a shit ton more to it, and I didn't expect to go even this far with it as I've yet to cut anything at all.

I think for the novice, the software can definitely be quite intimidating as you wouldn't be familiar with much of the verbiage used, much less understand how many of these features work to your advantage. With my experience though, I'm really excited at just how much is offered in this software and I'm especially happy that I can get my cut paths drawn nearly instantly without fighting to create so many profiles.

It's sad really, when I can take an intricate design on Fusion and get it cut ready really fast. But that's all due to the number of times I pushed myself to do it and get there.

Can't wait to learn more and share with y'all here.

 

How much was the software?

I like how you have the nesting option, but F360 wants you to pay for it.

I rarely cut multiple items, but when I do, I've justed moved things on the screen so they close to being nested.

Good write up. Thanks.

 

I'm always of the opinion that I'd rather have far more options than I could ever need than to be artificially limited by basic software options.

 

Great question!

If you buy a Sparx modular table, you will have to download Myplasm (free) and provide your own computer to run said software. This is the default option for their tables.

For the Sparx Modular it is a $500 upgrade, or if you simply buy their Pro or Optimum table. This consists of the Optimum controller as well as a mini PC included. I thought it was cool AF that it runs Ubuntu, one distro I'm very familiar with.

I have no experience with Myplasm but it seems quite outdated and everyone hates a lot of stuff on said software. Still popular though as it's also the default for Premier Plasma tables and a few others.

The purchase is a one time fee, and you get updates for life. You can even update Optimum from the software itself if you're connected to the internet.

My friend said even if I don't use many of the features described above, that it is still worth getting Optimum for the controller side of things. All the adjustments available for running the table, the parking and homing features, and more are all worth it.

 

For me? Totally agree. Just hope I don't spend too much time on it that'll keep me from cutting

I do love the layout of Firecontrol though but I think once I get better acquainted with Optimum, I'll never want to go back.

 

So $500 gets you a mini PC, better controller, free updates (constantly being updated), and some powerful Sheetcam features all in one.