My Z axis is not going low enough into my material causing my 60° V bit to to miss the depth in my detailed pass. I am using a piece of pine wood that is .75 in. deep. I have lowered the Z axis sled in hopes that would help, and it did a little. What else can I do to troubleshoot my Z axis situation? In the image you can see that it is also missing the first two detailed passes, cutting in the air. I have done everything from the detailed video provided by Inventables, for your first project, and Z probe before the second detailed pass.
First of all, welcome to the forum. I have only been here a few months myself, but I do find it to be a very good source of help and projects.
I use an extra wasteboard to bring my workpiece up a bit higher, which I find is very helpful when doing through cuts, and I don’t have to worry about hitting the limit switch. I also always zero my Z to the piece instead of using the probe. I don’t like the probe. Even though I have adjusted the probe length (this could be your issue), I still find that it is not accurate. I use a piece of paper and run the bit down until it touches the paper and it can no longer move, and this is where I set my zero.
If you are doing a second pass with a different bit, you need to calibrate the Z zero again, and always Home when you are done. Changing the bit can move the position of the spindle, so make it a habit.
Cheers, I hope this helps, and I look forward to seeing your projects!
Can you lead me to a more specific understanding of the Z position without the Z probe? Also interested in your own personal description, but there’s probably just an article already associated with how to do just that. I am obviously (LoL) not in a place where I feel comfortable in manually setting that position yet, but do believe in my capabilities and would thoroughly enjoy learning the benefits. Thank you for your time!
It looks to me like a few issues are at play here. 1 you’ve resolved or nearly resolved the issue of Z Axis placement height. (this is a very common new X-Carve owner issue due to the lack of clarity within the manual) Here’s My input on this issue and how low it should be for most new owners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4h_Nk4Umyg
Now, the other issue I see here is that the Workpiece appears to not have been surfaced using the cnc, the issue that this introduces (by not surfacing) is a high likelihood of the workpiece surface not being parallel to the gantry’s plane of movement.
The best practice is to surface using the CNC itself, a close 2nd is to Plane the workpiece and Surface the wasteboard AND to verify co-planar (aka parallel planes) by using this shimming method to verify and if needed, adjust into coplanar.
I also Suggest to then Probe your Z Zero usign the CENTER of the area you will be carving for most accurate Z zeroing.
What I mean here, is Don’t Probe Z zero at the front left corner, instead Probe atop the actual area being carved, in this scenario from your photos you’d Probe Z zero at the upper and center area of the board.
Once X,Y Zeros are set and you then get to the page for probing, you can jog the spindle wherever you want to probe and it knows exactly where the spindle is in relation to those X,Y zeros so you can probe anywhere and the cnc still knows where the prior set XY zeros are and the carve will be properly positioned…
This is fantastic. Thank you for so much clarity. I actually had to leave town for the week and can’t troubleshoot on my actual machine at this point. The problems or situation with my machine is kind of eating up a lot of my thoughts. I was going to use this time away to research, and still will, but I am happy to have people like you in my corner. I will devour your information and bring it back to my XCARVE at home in the coming week. Thanks again!
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