A few projects using VCarve Pro

Projects
21

$x

22

Ok.
I’ll try to put all together.

  1. Clamp your work piece anywhere you want.
  2. Turn your machine on.
  3. Start UGS and go to Machine Control
  4. Click on $X button
  5. Click to Reset Zero, Click Reset X axis-Reset Y axis-Reset Z axis.
  6. Use arrow keys to bring your bit absolute corner of your work piece. Make sure your bit’s center on corner of the work piece on both sides X and Y.
  7. Click on Reset X axis and Reset Y axis buttons one more time. That is your Work Zero. Forget about the numbers.
  8. Use your arrow keys bring your bit somewhere on top of work piece, put piece of paper underneath the bit and 0.01 in or 0.01 mm increment on UGS, lower your bit one click at a time until touches to paper piece. Make sure it’s not pressing too much. Move paper continuously while you’re lowering your bit until stops moving. That is your work Z zero. Leave it as is.
  9. Go to File tab, Browse and load your Gcode.
  10. Click Send. Also good habit to open Visualize before hit Send button to make sure you’re in good shape.

Sit back, enjoy the party.

I hope this helps.

4 Likes
23

I forgot that you have homing enabled, that will cause UGS to open in Alarm state until you home the machine “$H”

24

I never do. That’s the reason to click reset zero and reset XYZ at the beginning. That puts you to virtual home position.

25

Why did you go to all the trouble of hooking up the homing switches?

26

I don’t know why I installed the switches? Thought it was the right thing to do. But now that I think about them. I never used them on Easel. LOL How do I disable them?? Also, GREAT!!! News… First tool pass went just fine. Now I have to change bit. Question, Do I have to go thru all the zeroing again?

27

After the first pass completes the X and Y will return to exactly the initial zero you sent them to. If you change the bit without manually (I mean pushing not jogging) moving them then they are fine. You will need to re-zero the Z since the new bit will not be sticking out exactly the same amount as the first bit. So change the bit then re-zero the Z.

When you are re-zeroing the Z you should be able to tell that your X and Y are still in the corner as you first set them,

28

Yippy!!! First project successful. I don’t think it’s too bad. Ten foot away, it looks great! lol. Thank you VERY much for getting me over this little bump.

20150911_164256.jpg3400×1912 2.15 MB

3 Likes
29

Well, You’re quick or what. You were asking questions less than three hours, now you’re showing great piece of work, also finished with stain over shellac. That pocket is made by .128" Ball head bit, Profile cut out is .128" 2 flute spiral. In 2 hrs and 30 minutes. Impressive.
What’re you think AllenMassey??

1 Like
30

The X-Cave is a very capable machine. Anyone that wants to spend a little (ok, maybe a lot) time can learn to make some awesome projects. Good work Jene, I am glad you stuck with it had had success.

2 Likes
31

Thanks again. Looking forward to many more enjoyable projects.

32

:sunglasses:

33

Dont feel too bad about the homing switches, I’m considering removing mine and disabling homing altogether in easel setup. I never use them anyway.

34

heres my work order

  1. secure work piece where ever you want
  2. turn machine on
  3. start ugs go to machine control
  4. press $H to home machine
  5. once homed jog machine to near left bottom corner of material
  6. install touch plate ground on bit and plate on material, run the 3 command macros to zero XYand Z (see charley thomas’s posts here Touch Plate - #7 by JohnLauer)
  7. load G code and click send
  8. ???
  9. profit
2 Likes
35

I laughed out loud at the underwear gnome reference. I use that a lot myself. :smiley:

3 Likes
36

Hi
Now if I want to change my program from easel to vcarve what is the steps I shall do?
If I need to go back to easel , what is the setup I can use.
vcarve work with the same driver control as easel which I install on my cnc.

37

All you need is a program like the universal gcode sender (UGS) to send the gcode from VCarve to the same Grbl controller you already have.

38

so vcarve is not like easel , in sending a file to the machine,i need another program,

39

Exactly. Download a copy of UGS 2.0.

40

I know how to import svg file to easel and set up the machine , what difference now with vcarve , why we need two programs, how can ardunio receive gcode, can I used the same hardware.