Wincnc Questions

[trucks1948]

I bought a used practical cnc table,it came with wincnc,but not much for instructions.I use corel draw and i like it.My question is when im cutting and i get a pop up and the torch gets hung up.i can't figure out how to start over at the same place .I don't have thc yet.Any help would really be appreciated.Jim

[Scratch]

I'll try to remember off the top of my head without going out to the shop....

Hit the red button at the top of the screen, the STOP button.
Look at the bottom of the screen and find what LINE you stopped at.
Click on the RESTART button at the top left, (looks like a turned arrow I think)
You have to enter in what line number you want to restart at, so deduct how ever many lines you think you need to.
Hit enter, and the head will move to that line location, if you need to, go back a few more lines.
Hit enter and the torch will start back up again.

I'm going by memory here and although I know I used this procedure just last night, I may be a little off on the buttons or steps, but I do it so much, I really don't even think about it when I'm doing it so I may be off a bit. If it doesn't work, let me know and I'll write it down next time I remember.

good luck

[Scratch]

By the way.... don't you hate those pop ups!

I "helped" that problem by ordering more of the slat holders from Practical and filling the whole bed with slats. Now I only get pop ups with the smaller parts.

[trucks1948]

Thanks for the help ill give it a try.ya sure do hate the pop-ups.i just went the other way last night and took a slat out so the font would fall clear instead of popping up.Worked on that job.Jim

[trucks1948]

Scratch,thanks again for the info worked great.One more question.Is there a way to tell what line that you are on?I hope thats not as dumb a question as it sounds.

[Scratch]

Not sure what you mean...
It does tell what line you're cutting, at the bottom of the screen down by the time counter, if that's what you mean.

[Plasman256]

If you are getting this pop up and it is saying "Lost Arc" or something along those lines it is due to the part dropping out and the metal falling away from the cut. You should be able to reduce or eliminate this by two ways. One, as suggested, put more slats in to keep parts from falling away and two: eliminate the lead-out. give it an overburn instead if that is allowable from WinCNC. I have never personally used that software, however, I know this problem. A hole drops away or the part does and you lose arc, the torch shuts off, and you get the error, stopping the nest. These two solutions should help you out. - Plasman

[trucks1948]

Scratch,i have a number and file name on the bottom until i hit the stop botton,then it goes away.So when i need it its gone.Does your machine show speed as a%?If so what do you cut 12 gage at?thanks Jim

[Scratch]

Plasman... I don't think he's using a THC... but good point if he is.

Jim, You might be using a different version of WinCNC. I'm using Key Version 5.00

But yes, on mine when I hit the stop button, the filename goes away, but right above that in the G-code display box, it reads in red:
ABORTED BY USER
LINE 1207 (or whatever)

That shows what line you stopped it at.

And on mine, at the bottom from left to right, it shows the filename, line number, time into cutting, then percentage into cutting.
The speed is shown up at the top right of the screen in the colored numbers, by the X,Y, and Z coordinates.

I don't cut much 12 gauge since 11 gauge is the common 1/8" sheet at my steel supplier. I cut 11G mild steel at about 110 IPM