Consolidation of problems/solution threads

[AbearDesign]

I am working on consolidating the most helpful post on various subjects in order to make finding solutions to common issues easier. When I was fresh to the machine and it's problems, I had to figure out how to word the searches in different ways in order to find solutions. I am still finding older post that were worded slightly different that didnt show up in my original searches. For now, it is just links to the post, however, I plan on creating more of a at a glance problem/solution reference with links to the post which will provide more discussion around the subjects. I hope this helps someone. If you know of a post or subject to add to this, please post the links so it may help someone else. Basically, my idea is to have a check list during and after setup in order to get the most out of the machine.

[LarryM]

Check the Wiki category.

[AbearDesign]

Thanks! Added those to the list.

[LarryM]

And maybe this one:

[Guide] Using Grbl to debug your homing switches

If you are having difficulties with your homing switches you can do a quick test with Grbl to see what the state of the homing switches is from Grbl's point of view. To do so, you use the Grbl status immediate command ? (question mark). This command asks Grbl for its current value of some of its state information. For the purpose of this article we are interested in the homing switch state. Not all Grbl access programs will pass Grbl immediate commands to the Arduino. UGCS is one of the prog…

[AbearDesign]

added.

[LarryM]

BTW, thanks for doing this. I've been trying to set up a bunch of mini-articles to reference as new people come on board for common problems that we've all run into, but there never was a place for someone to go to, to find out where to go to.

[BryanSheets]

I would say a link to the dust shoes.

[AbearDesign]

That is a major thing I saw lacking and to some degree frustrating. When new, you sometimes don't know what to search for or the questions to ask. Through a lot of forum crawling, I found answers to questions I didn't know I even had until I found others experiences. Would have helped me a lot to have this kind of thing, so I figured, why not create it and hopefully learn more along the way.

Great point on the dust shoes! I will dig up some links tomorrow morning, about to hit the sack right now. I also need to make myself a dust shoe soon.. got the harbor freight dust collector.. now just need to get the hoses, make a cyclone bucket, and dust shoe.

[AbearDesign]

dust shoe section added.... now i'm going to bed

[RobertA_Rieke]

Great idea, thanks for jumping on it! If they can find a way to make it be the first stop for new users, that'll be extremely helpful!

I just added a project that will let a user troubleshoot to figure out lost steps, poor calibration, and lack of perpendicularity between the spindle/router and the wasteboard. It may fit into your list somewhere: https://www.inventables.com/projects/calibration-test-pattern

[AbearDesign]

awesome! I also can't believe I forgot to add your video thread which helped me a ton when setting up my pots and steppers. Thanks for those! Both are added now.

also added the y shield and changed the dust shoe section into dust collection and protection

[Peter_Jakab]

You might want to add a pointer or two to bit usage/recommendation. Like which bits to use when for a particular material.

Thanks.

[AbearDesign]

good idea, I'm going to combine that with feeds and speeds since they are all intertwined.

[AbearDesign]

I figure this may help someone so here is a list of basic things I did to improve my machine.

1. Eccentric nut solution : https://discuss.inventables.com/t/x-axis-v-wheels-and-eccentric-nuts-keep-loosening/14110/16

2. stiffened the x axis, I plan on going further with the steel plate, but for now this is working as a quick cheap solution https://discuss.inventables.com/t/a-30-minute-x-axis-mod-to-reduce-chatter/15775

3. calibrated via these videos: https://discuss.inventables.com/t/x-carve-maintenance-troubleshooting-videos-add-your-own/13405

[LarryJeannette]

This Spreadsheet for calculating initial steps per mm.

Though I think it also needs a section for the calculation to do fine tuning:

(expected move distance / actual move distance) * current steps/mm value = new steps/mm value

[GrantDavis]

Awesome, as a new Xcarve owner this is going to be my favorite page.

[ZacheryWheat]

Has anyone had any issues with the X-Carve creating a step on its first pass consistently around an object? Ours started doing it today and we cant seem to figure out why because it was cutting fine yesterday.

[AbearDesign]

if I'm understanding your problem, your getting stair stepping in the cuts?

if so look at this section of the notes above
"losing steps and binding"

Hope that helps!