missing a step

[rusty]

another new guy at cnc, i,ve just recieved my shark pro plus [looks good out of the box], loaded what we needed to , cut a 4.5 x12 piece of mdf, placed on table,i went throughthe manual for the set up of the bullshead sign step by step, jogged the router to set 000 in the bottom left corner, started the router, the router moved up and over to the right and started to carve the top of the B, i got the u and part of the first l , alittle confussed . I beleive i have read every thing i can please help rusty

[hdtheater]

What happened after part of the L was carved? Sounds like everything started OK.

[rusty]

Thank you for the reply , i stopped the router when i saw it start to run off the mdf , i believe it would have carved the sign in mid air. I don,t no why it started in the bottom left corner and moved 2inches from the bottom right corner before it started cutting .

[hdtheater]

It sounds like the home position is not correct. Where is the 0,0,0 position on the sign you are carving? Some people put it in the center of the work piece. I have found that I make fewer errors when I use the upper left. Another thing you can check is the thickness of the sign in VCarve vs. the thickness of your material on the table.
-E

[BobA]

Rusty,

I too am a new user of a CNC Router. I received my CNC Shark Pro Plus two days ago.

My first program was made from the Bullshead.dxf drawing. I followed the tutorial. I used a piece of pine 3/4" x 9" x16" thinking this would give a larger safety zone. I set my X and Y zeros to the center of the board and my Z zero above the clamp (again for safety and a trial run).

When I made my trial run I observed the cutter going off the board also. Then I figured it out. I had located my board 90 degrees off. I repositioned the board , zeroed X and Y and made another trial run with the same program. This time my cutter stayed well inside the edges of my material.

I then reset my Z zero to the correct location and run the program. I cut a replica of the drawing. Very impressive.

Bob

[rusty]

wow back in town, now maybe i can spend my time on the machine , first i would like to thank every one for their replies, they have been vary helpful . I to had to reposition my work piece , and everything after that worked fine