I’m trying to set up and flatten the waste board the ends of the mdf are past the travel on the Y axis. I’ve already adjusted the limit switches to clear the dust boot. The problem is how to zero all three axis. I was thinking first Home the machine then using the tape glue method put a small block on the wasteboard put the triquetra on it and zero all the axis then put the flattening bit in and reset Z zero. Thoughts ideas pro or con!
You really should not need to change anything on the X & Y axis. Just zero the Z-Axis at exactly the point where the limit switches have the Machine X & Y Home at. You can flip the Triquetra on its top so that the legs are sticking up; this will prevent any interaction with the t-track there if you are holding the triquetra out over the edge.
If you can’t hold the triquetra in that location while the Z-Axis is probing, you can do it manually.
- Home the machine
- Move the X and Y position over to where the bit is completely over the waste strip.
- Use a multimeter, on the continuity setting, with one probe attached to the triquetra and the other probe held/clamped to the bit. Move the bit down in increments until you get really close to the triquetra. Then use the smallest increment to move the bit down until the multimeter starts beeping.
- Move the Z-Axis up 0.1"
- Remove the triquetra
- Move the X and Y position back to the original position; if you move right and back 1" on each then simply move 1" left and forward to return to the Machine Home position.
- Then, simply use the jog commands to move the Z-Axis down the exact thickness of the triquetra. This will involve using several moves of different Z-Axis distances since there is no longer an option for a manually input value for the Z-Axis distance. You can do it though. For instance, mine is 0.82" thick, so I use 8 x 0.1" moves and 2 x 0.01" moves to do this.
This will place the bit at what is the top of the wasteboard in the lower left hand corner. Carve should be taken to understand if there is a different part of the wasteboard that is significantly higher than this though. You really want to zero the Z-Axis at the topmost elevation with respect to the wasteboard.
Does that help? Otherwise, I am not certain I understand the question completely. Feel free to elaborate on what you are asking…
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Brandon Parker
Yep that told me what I needed to know! I wasn’t sure if I could start and run a cut from the home position. I can use the triquetra and just zero the bit! Thanks for your help. I’m going to set the bit a little high and run a few air passes just to be sure I’m good. Should I setup up my soft limits first I bought this in March of 2016. According to Larry M the max travel is 790mm on x and y.
You could set up soft limits, but from my experience, most people do not. I would definitely recommend Homing the machine and then jog to each extent of the X & Y Axes and see how far your machine can really go with the way you have it set up. Every machine has the potential to be slightly different due to the different placement of the bolts where the limit switches get activated.
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Brandon Parker
Thank you for the input! I tried to run the gcode. 001 doc Raster conventional raster angle 90 deg profile pass 1st 1" 3 wing cutter. Failed miserably! Made 1 cut dead center towards the front of the machine hit the limit switch right y motor kept going!
How do you have the project set up in Easel?
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Brandon Parker
No I use vcarve pro. I ran another test just cutting out shapes it worked flawless.
I wonder if it’s because it doesn’t know where work zero is?
Homing the machine sets the Machine Home position. What are you using for a GCode sender?
You should be setting the Work Home position to the front, left corner if you are going off of what I mentioned above, and your project should reflect this as well.
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Brandon Parker
I use Picsender to send the gcode to the machine
Are you setting the Work Home position with that?
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Brandon Parker
What do you mean by “work home”?
This is what I do! I use vcarve to lay out the design using the front left corner I then create the gcode and put it on my server I go downstairs and set up the machine open up picsender and get the 3 axis zeroing file off the server and load into picsender and run the file then I go back to the server and get the project gcode load it into picsender and hit send and it begins cutting out the project.
Ok, if you are not using the 3 axis zeroing file then you need to manually set them in this case. That is the part that sets the “Work Home” for the X-Carve. I do not use Picksender, but doing this manually in Easel is super easy.
The “Work Home” position is the (X, Y, Z) Zero position(0, 0, 0) for the workpiece. This is actually just declared as an offset from the Machine Home internally within the GRBL firmware. It is how GRBL knows where in relation to the actual machine the workpiece is located.
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Brandon Parker
Ok now that makes sense! I’m going to try the triquetra 1st using a 1/2in block of wood to set xy then move the wood turn the triquetra over for the true z zero. It sounds fiddley but I’m going to give it a shot!. Thank you for all your time! I’m also going to generate a new gcode for the cut start over fresh lol.
Thanks again
Greg
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