Aspire and machining metal ?

[cliff20]

I'm looking at purchasing Aspire, but I notice that about everything is dealing with wood. And yet going through the forums, I noticed that there have been several mentions of working metal as well. But very, very few. My question is why ?
My interest is the other way around, metal. Now I'm wondering if I'm overlooking something in my amazement in what Aspire can do. Are all the wood projects because Aspire is made to work on routers and their codes ?
It seems to me that if a milling machine was strong enough, and stiff enough, Aspire, as well as the mill, should also be able to handle some of these nice Aspire capabilities.
I'm using a Tomach 1100 mill, with a Mach3 machining program. Anyone using the same ? And is anyone having difficulties in machining metal with
Aspire ?

[Leo]

Aspire of ANY other CAM software for that matter has absolutely nothing to do with the material being cut. CAM software generates toolpath - nothing more.

Vectric products are basically what I call artistic in nature as opposed to MasterCAM which I call mechanical in nature.

Artistic in nature means wood plastic, and soft stuff that does not need to be so dimensionally accurate, though it can be dimensionally accurate. Price wise Vectric is relatively inexpensive which attracts a lot of hobbyists which in turn are in home shops using wood.

Mechanical in nature means dimensional accuracy is paramount, though there can be some artistic ability. Price wise something like EdgeCAM will be 10-30 times more expensive and NOT be attractive to the hobby market at all. These are the industrial usage and mostly in metals.

CERTAINLY - Aspire CAN be used to cut AISI-D2 or brass or aluminum or stone or anything else. THAT - is more to do with the machine and speeds and feeds - not software.

[martin54]

As Leo has already said the software you use has nothing to do with the materials you are cutting, there are a lot of hobby users on the forum & the vast majority of them own a router rather than a mill. Routers are generally just not rigid enough to cut metals & you also have the problem that CNC routers use either bench type routers or high speed spindles for cutting which are far to fast for cutting most metals
My machine might be rigid enough to cut metals BUT I would have to fit a much slower speed spindle to be able to cut most metals, below 6000 RPM my spindle doesn't have enough torque to cut butter

The other thing is that not all users are on the forum & even then only a fraction of the registered users ask questions so there may well be other people using Aspire with a dedicated Mill.

The only thing you really require is a post processor & if you are running your machine under mach3 control then there are suitable Post Processors for metric & Imperial units & for those machines fitted with an auto tool changer.

If you have downloaded the trial version then there are sample files that you can cut, means that you can make sure it works OK with your machine before you purchase

[cliff20]

Leo, Martin, and Nicksilva:

Guys, thanks for the enlightenment. Very well done.
I don't have a router, and have never used one. Frankly I never considered their spindle speeds. Their stiffness compared to a mill, yes. But I'm a bit embarrassed not to thought of the spindle speed. Yes, a little bit "high" !
Machine efficiency is not that big of a problem to me, completing a design accurately is. You've sold me on Aspire's abilities. All that remains now is to prove it out with the trial programs.
Unfortunately I have been unable to open any of the .exe files in XP windows in over a week of lots and LOTS of trying. Though others on the forum have in XP without a problem. Why that is, I haven't a clue. I've downloaded 5 converter programs, non of which will touch the .exe files. Yet on some of the training video's that are separated out, I've found that I can access them in FaceBook. But unfortunately, these aren't the most important training and trial files.

Anyway, you have given me a boost to keep at it. I thank all 3 of you for your time and effort, as well as enlightenment. Cliff20

[phill05]

Cliff20,

You only need Mach3 on a dedicated Win XP computer, you need the other programs Aspire etc on a newer operating system to work your designs out on then tool-path and save the G code tap file say to a stick move to the XP Mach3 upload and cut it.

Phill

[Adrian]

Unfortunately I have been unable to open any of the .exe files in XP windows in over a week of lots and LOTS of trying. Though others on the forum have in XP without a problem. Why that is, I haven't a clue.

Are you getting any sort of error message when you try to run the exe files? There shouldn't be a problem with that stage of the installation of tutorials. Not sure what you mean by convertors as there is no conversion you can do on an executable file that would do anything meaningful.

[martin54]

OK so have you managed to install the software on your machine or is that what is giving you a problem?
As Adrian has said a .exe file is not something you can convert to anything else, if you have downloaded the software then all you should have to do is double click (left mouse button) on the downloaded file & that will start the auto installer. If that doesn't work then try a right mouse click on the file & from the flyout menu instead of selecting open select run

As someone else has said if you have a more up to date machine you could installing the software on that would probably be beneficial, do your design work & toolpathing with that machine & then save the toolpaths to some sort of portable media for transfer to the control computer that runs mach3

[TReischl]

There can be some significant differences in software due to their primary target.

A while ago there was a person who posted here quite frequently showing lots of really nice aluminum work he did. I believe it was on a high speed Fadal milling machine. His work was primarily artistic, plaques and things like that.

Recently I have been using a different program for mechanical work that I do. Not because Vectric can't do it, but because the other software has some things like adaptive machining. That software is much more difficult to use as it is designed to be used in places like machine shops with skilled CAD operators.

If you are doing mostly artistic work I would recommend you stick with Aspire. Mechanical work? Well, if you are not well versed in higher end CAD/CAM products, stick with Vectric, it will help you maintain your sanity.

[jhowelb]

My shop is the home of a metal cutting lathe, a upright mill/drill and a home built cnc router. All originally controlled by one Windows XP computer by way of a printer switcher rotary switch.

I used the mill with Aspire to design and cut the motor mounts and other parts for the lathe as I made the conversion from manual to cnc. Then used the lathe to upgrade the conversion I had made of the mill/drill.

Recently my XP computer took a dump and I replaced it with a Windows 7 computer that has a printer port.

All parts live and work happily together and I work in whatever media (metal, wood, etc) I choose for a particular project.

Aspire and Mach3 are the best things that ever happened to my shop!

[Leo]

Best Buy sells refurbished computers with no issues and current operating systems. The computers are nicely robust with likely more power and omphf than that old XP machine. I am sure a Price of well under $200 can put those XP issues, squarely in the past.

I currently see 30 desktop computers from $98 to $200, ALL of which will serve better than the old XP box. They come with warranty also. You can EASILY do it in the $100-$150 range - EASILY. Heck win 10 ALONE costs that much.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage ... &keys=keys

The computer on my CNC machine cost $125 2 years ago - was win 7 - upgraded to win 10 free, I have never looked back. Done this on "several" occasions, never a problem.

To me - old computers are not worth a plug nickle.

[martin54]

Leo, I would agree with you to a point, for any sort of work such as design or anything that needs to be done online then yes keep your operating system as up to date as you can, windows 7 64bit which still has a couple of years support would be the minimum I would look at but if possible then something with the latest operating system

But plenty of people run windows XP as a dedicated computer for CNC control & I don't see a problem with this especially if running something like mach3 which doesn't need a lot of computer resources

Not sure if you are still running mach3 on your CNC or not but if you are then XP seems to work just as well as windows 7 from what I have read on CNC zone, mind you been a while since I last checked

[TReischl]

LOL. I just wish I still had a copy of Win98. It was great, when the operating system got all bunged up, just wipe the drive, reinstall the disks!

These days? If you need to clean up a messy system, good luck!!!!

Ok, I don't really wish I still had Win98.... that is sort of like wishing we could bring back outhouses.

[Rcnewcomb]

Ok, I don't really wish I still had Win98.... that is sort of like wishing we could bring back outhouses.

Win98 and outhouses -- yes, I associate the two as well

[martin54]

LOL. I just wish I still had a copy of Win98. It was great, when the operating system got all bunged up, just wipe the drive, reinstall the disks!

These days? If you need to clean up a messy system, good luck!!!!

Ok, I don't really wish I still had Win98.... that is sort of like wishing we could bring back outhouses.

I have windows 98SE if you need it Ted That & Millennium, 2000 plus I think I still have 95 knocking about somewhere, sorry can't help if you need 3.1 though

Although I do have a floppy drive you can borrow if you find someone who does nave it

[cliff20]

Well,........you guys sure helped out on the decision. Think I'll take the suggestion to upgrade to a refurbished computer to run the Aspire. Use my CNC computer then for running the Mach3 machining program. Which works great, other than the first program I tried, and the Mach3 program had a bug in it and failed to change the millimeters into inches. On hitting the GO button on a drilling program, it INSTANTLY drilled a 5/8" hole through a 2x6 I was using to protect the milling table, then through my shinny brand new milling table, just missing the lead screw by 1/2". All in less than 1 1/2 seconds, before I could react and hit the E-Stop.
A new, "PURE" program from Mach solved that problem ! No problems at all in a year. So if your new to CNC, never forget that these machines can move incredibly fast when out of control, and will eat themselves and you in a heart beat.

I took Leo's suggestion on a Best Buy refurbished computer. I wouldn't of thought of Best Buy, but got the whole works, for just over 200 $. The only downside is, all their machines are loaded with Windows 10.

And yes, I was under the impression that .exe was a format. I finally found out it is a wrapper, and nothing works in the format converting programs to really get rid of it.
But what not only galls me, but is so frustrating is, if I have another program with an .exe extension that is not running under Aspire, XP will open them up just fine. Put that same program in Aspire and try to open it, and Aspire won't touch it. Why does this only happen under Aspires influence, if I have something not set right in XP ??
Nobody else seems to have this problem, so I must have something not set right in Aspire, or more likely XP. Yet I can open .crv and .crv3d in the Aspire "index" without a problem individually. But if I try to open either the Trial machining, or Tutorial programs under "their main heading listing" individually, I get, "NO VIDEO FORMAT WITH SUPPORTED FORMAT AND MIME TYPE FOUND". And those two programming areas are where the gold is hidden in how to run Aspire, and test it. That message is also what lead me to mistaking believe it was a program formatting problem.

I'll also go ahead and purchase Aspire, as I've seen no comments that their could be problem otherwise, and there is a lot of knowledge out there saying so. Anyway, with the new-used computer, I'll probably be in Aspire Heaven on the 17th of January when it arrives.

And if I run into any of you at a conference next year, (depending on wherever that will be), I'll buy you all a beer for patting the babies hand during his crisis.
Thanks again; Cliff20