Setting Material and home position

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hdtheater
Posts: 263
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 8:14 am

Setting Material and home position

Post by hdtheater »

Does anybody have a simple method of getting the material set in the right place on the table and then setting home position?

Eric
Thanks,

-Eric

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spinningwood
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:28 am

Re: Setting Material and home position

Post by spinningwood »

Eric - You can put the material anywhere on the table you want.

Depending on what you are doing, orientation to the shark axes may or may not be important to you. I attached a strip of wood to the left side of my shark table and then ran a simple toolpath to have the Shark machine the edge of it (along the Y axis). This give me a flat edge parallel to the Y axis to use a guide for mounting the workpiece. I can index off of this using spacers where needed to allow me to position (with a flat edge) where ever I want with a known orientation to the shark axes.

When you set your project up in your software (probably VCarve) you will have to define the XY origin. I find I use the center point most commonly, but there are times where using a corner (most likely lower left) makes more sense. Whatever you pick when you set up the project, remember it. If you consistently use the same origin, you are a lot less likely to zero the machine at the wrong place. Defining your origin in one place and accidentally zeroing the shark at another is unlikely to give you desirable results.

In any case, I mark my origin point on the workpiece and then use a "pointy" bit (I have a sharpened piece of drill rod I use, but a V Bit can be used) to move the shark to that point. I zero X and Y. I then put in the bit I'm going to be using. I put it in a little further into the collet than I normally would. I jog Z down slowly until the bit is almost touching the workpiece. I loosen the collet and let the bit drop down to touch the workpiece and then tighten the collet. I zero Z at that point.

If I'm going to be changing bits during the job and my origin point is going to be cut away, I will move to a spot on my shark table that I've marked. I note the x, Y and Z at that point. After changing bits during the job I can move to my marked location and set the Z (shouldn't have to set X or Y unless I've turned the machine off at some point during the job).

Did that help?

Ed

hdtheater
Posts: 263
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 8:14 am

Re: Setting Material and home position

Post by hdtheater »

Yes it did! Thanks, Ed.

I messed up my first piece because I had the XY set to the lower left hand corner and 0,0,0 was kind of in the center. After hitting E-Stop, that ruined my first board. :D

I just got my Pro Plus this week(first CNC machine) and spent more time trying to get the material square on the table than I did carving. Since the table is bigger than the work area, I do not know where the work limits are yet.

I thought about drawing up a grid with 1" squares and then carving it into a piece of wood just to know the XY limits. Then maybe use it as a spoil board.

As far as your index board, Any chance you could post a photo of it to give me a frame of reference?

Thanks again,

Eric
Thanks,

-Eric

Facebook.com/inspireddesignstx

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Buc
Posts: 548
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:34 pm
Location: Waterford, PA

Re: Setting Material and home position

Post by Buc »

Eric,
Here is a page to look at. I got my ideas for squaring the material to the shark from here.

http://www.woodshred.com/asharkclamping.html

I also use the center of my material to locate X0 and Y0. Also I mark the material along the edge where it will not machine my marks for X0 and Y0. Then if trouble does come along and I have to reset X0 and Y0 I move the router to the X0 mark and set X, then move to the Y0 mark and set Y0. For the z axis you can touch off the table and the jog the z axis up (+) your material thickness and set Z0.
Buc

spinningwood
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:28 am

Re: Setting Material and home position

Post by spinningwood »

Hi Eric - Attached is a picture showing the wood strip I screwed to my table top for edge alignment (next to the steel tubing). After I screwed it on I ran a simple toolpath that just moved the full length of the y axis. I set it up to skim the board so that it was perfectly parallel to the y axis. You will also notice that I replaced the stock table with plywood before bolting steel tubing (both sides) to flatten it. With the pro plus, you shouldn't have to worry about that and you could attach an alignment strip at the edge using t-slot botls.

I generally place a 1/8" piece of plywood under my workpiece when I will be cutting through. Some people don't worry about it and just replace the table top when it's too cut up. With the Pro Plus, you definitely don't want the cutter hitting the aluminum slot table. Having a supply of 1/8" plywood that you can cut to fit under your work pieces whenever there is any chance of cutting through would probably give you more flexible clamping options than just putting a large spoilboard on topy of the aluminum.

When I first got my shark, I ran a shallow v groove (0.01" deep) around the perimeter of the shark cutting area so I would know where the limits were. I never really used it though. After running a couple of jobs you should get a good feel for where the limits are. If you really want a visual of the limits, you could scribe a light line in the pro plus aluminum table by hand with an awl or something.

Ed
Attachments
Edge Board.jpg

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