Set up and leveling Shark Pro HD

Discussion about the CNC Shark Pro Plus HD

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drueth
Posts: 208
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2011 7:09 am

Set up and leveling Shark Pro HD

Post by drueth »

The Shark Pro HD like any other tool in your shop must be set up to work at its best. With that said, I will try to lay out what I have learned. I am sure some of this will apply to some of the older models as well as the new Mako. The pics that I have attached may not follow the text as close as they should. The reason is that I first did this about 6 months ago. When I saw other users were also having the same problem, I removed my deck and went through the setup process all over.

First the table you place your shark on must be as flat as possible and also level. If it is not, it will cause the base of the Shark to rack and one corner or the side may be higher or lower than all the other critical load points. The table must also be able to handle the weight of the shark without sagging. Once you have found it a home, beware, IF you move the Shark it very well may change how it cuts, so if you have any ideas of moving the Shark to some storage spot and then back to your work table, forget about it. The base frame of the Shark is far too weak to be moved around like a chop saw.

You will need the following to do this set-up:
1. A dial caliper that can measure to a .001 of an inch. If you do not have one you could use a block of wood and a feeler gauge.
2. A short piece of dowel that can be mounted in your router rather than a bit with sharp edges on it. I would suggest that you round the end of the dowel so it has an end like a ball nose bit would have. See LevelFrountsupport1 On next post.
3. Two pieces of 1” x 1” x 1/8” x 28” long aluminum angle rails “L” shaped to replace the two ¾” inch plastic rails that originally supported the top as it come from Next Wave.
4. Three pieces of ¾” x ¾” x 1/8” x 28” long aluminum angle rails “L” shaped to stiffen the deck.
5. Fifty ¼/20 bolts ½” long and 50 nuts for the bolts, to replace the original bolt that holds the table to the support rails. ¾” long bolts will do if you are unable to find ½” long. I found plain old nuts worked just fine.
6. Eight ¼/20 bolts 1.5 inches long. These will be used hold the two new aluminum deck supports to the Shark base. The nuts and bolts that original held the deck will work fine here; you do want to use the locking nuts here.

Start
1. Level the table using a good level. Once the table that supports the Shark is as level as you can get it to be, remove the 10 deck rails that make up the Shark Pro HD deck. Again verify the base of the shark is level. This time use the blocks that sit on the base and are higher than the HDPE base of the Shark. If need be, use wood shims to level the base. (My table has a bit of a wave in it. If you do use shims be sure to also support any gap along the sides!) See LevelBase 1-3. THIS IS a CRITICAL STEP. The two Y rails that the gantry rides on must be level and fully supported from both ends as well as the middle. The gantry will not track properly and you will never be able to get the Shark to make good cuts over a large area. The Y base rails must be level side to side and front to back. Again this is a critical step. This is also a good time to inspect that the Y coupler is tight and to lube the Y worm screw, rails and bearings.
See LevelBase 1-3

2. Remove the four bolts that hold the front and rear HDPE support rails which secure the deck to the base. Mark one end of each and also whether it was from the front or back of the Shark. Lay the HDPE rail in the “L” of the 1 x 1 x 1/8 aluminum rail. Mark and drill the 10 hole that are used to hold the deck and also the two hole that hold the support rail to the Shark Base. Measure 3” from the center of the new support rail and drill two more holes to add more support to the new aluminum rail. See LevelFrontSuport1. DO NOT drill any new holes into the HDPE Shark base at this time. You may find it is useful to elongate the 4 hole in the new support rails so they can be moved up or down a few fractions of an inch.

3. Using the 1½” bolts and nuts that were used to hold the deck to the HDPE support rails, mount the two new aluminum support rails using only the original 4 holes do not drill any new holes just yet. Leave the bolt a little lose at this point. Be sure to use a washer under each nut to protect the HDPE base.

4. Using a dial caliper See LevelFrountSuport1 lower the router until you get a reading on the gauge. I found +10 worked well. If you will be using a wood block and a feeler gauge be sure you have a few .01” space above the block and the dowel probe. This is required if you find a point that is too high. The first measurement will be in the front left corner. Once this is done set XYZ to zero. Move the router 25” to the front right corner and measure the height of the support rail.
Be careful when moving the router not to slam into the frame. Go slow at the end of the each move.
Adjust the rail up or down until you have the same measurement as you had on the left side. Once you have the same reading on both ends of the front support rail, tighten the two end nuts that hold the support rail. Recheck your measurement to make sure nothing has changed when you tighten the nuts.

5. Clamp a deck rail or a board that has been milled flat to the front rail. See LevelFrontRail2. Now drill the two center holes into the base and tighten the center bolts. Remove the clamps and deck rail and verify that the front support rail is FLAT end to end. See LevelFrountRail2

6. Now that you have verified you have the same measurement to the probe on both ends and have also verified that the front support rails is
FLAT, move the router to the center position and take a measurement. If you do not have the same reading as both the ends do, it is because the gantry is leaning forward because of the weight of the router. What I did to correct this problem is clamp a board to the rear of the gantry to prevent it from leaning forward when the router is in the center of the X movement. See Gantry Sag. If you still do not have a good reading add several paper shims between the board and the gantry in the center to raise the router up. Yes I know this is a stop gap and at some point I will add a better support. See GantrySag


7. At this point you should be able to take a measurement anywhere along the front support rail and be no more than ± .002 out.
8. Replace deck rail 1 and 10. Hand tighten the hold down bolts. (If you are going to add the center support rails be sure to also have the 3 bolts required to hold center support rails before you bolt them down.) See Rail1and10
Move the router to the left front corner and take a measurement from the deck to the probe reset XYZ zero. If you move the router to the front right you should get about the same measurement ± .002. Now move the router to the left rear corner and take a measurement. Raise or lower the rear support rail until you have a good measurement. Sung up the bolt a little (tighten the bolt enough to hold the rail sung) and move the router to the right rear corner. Again raise or lower the support rail until you get a good measurement on both rear corners (Hint you should be able to add shims under the deck rail and the HDPE base to raise the deck up.) This can take some time to get right. Once you have a good reading on both ends tighten the two end bolts and remove any shims.

9. Once you have a good measurement on both rear corners and also both front corners, clamp a scrap board with a straight edge to the rear support rail. See RearSupportRail (Oops I only have a pic showing from the front). Now you can drill the 2 center holes into the HDPE base. Add the bolts and tighten all 4 rear support bolts. Again be sure you have washers under the nuts. Do not over tighten the nuts and damage the plastic base. Check the measurement to all four corners. See RearSupportRail

10. The three 3/4” aluminum rails used to support the underside of the deck will go a long way in making the deck a lot sturdier. In the past I have read were NWA has advised that any time you use a hold down clamp the toe and foot of the clamp should be on the same deck rail. This is still good advice. But at times it works out that the work piece is on one deck rail and the clamp is on another. Without the 3 supports under the deck it will deflect when you do this. The 3 rails under the deck will spread the load from the clamps to at least 2 other rails. It also will insure all 10 deck rails are flat. These will also be 28” long. Place the original HDPE deck support rail in the “L” of the aluminum rail. Drill one hole and verify it is far enough from the center of the “L” to allow you to tighten the nut that will be used to hold it below the deck. If your hole is too close to the angle you will not be able to tighten the nut. Once you are sure your spacing is OK drill all ten holes in each support. You will need to cut off the lower portion of the corners to allow the gantry to pass freely under the table without hitting one of the new rails. See Top Deck Support 1&2

11. Mount the three deck supports. See Spacing. Once you have your rail spaced tighten the bolts that hold them to deck rail 1 & 10. At this point I found it easier to place all the bolts in to the support rails and add the nut but leave them all loose. One at a time replace the deck rails and tighten the five bolts that hold it to the frame and the center support rails. If you look at photo. Rail1and10 you will see I have arrows on all my aluminum rails pointing to the left. You don’t want to get half your deck plates on and find that you have one facing the wrong way. See Spacing

12. With the deck secure to the base again recheck the measurement to the 4 corners. If you are lucky, you should still be within ± .0025”. Now you need to check the center side measurement. Move the probe to the left side center and take a measurement. If it is showing the deck is low i.e. the caliper reeds say .005, carefully add a wood shim or paper shim to raise the center of the Y Rail. Move the probe to the right side center and again take a measurement to the deck. If you were real careful when you did step 1 you should be right on with the center side measurements.
Good luck I hope this can help you setup your Shark.

Nothing much is new here, all these ideas can be found in older posts on this web site. This I believe is the first time two user worked together to put it all in one file. Much thanks to the great Down Under Wolffie who cleaned up my typos and merged all the photos. Which I could not get to post inline with the doc so I will attach them in the next few post.
Attachments
LevelBase1
LevelBase1
LevelBase2
LevelBase2
LevelBase3
LevelBase3
drueth
Shark Pro Plus HD
new to CNC 12/2012

drueth
Posts: 208
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2011 7:09 am

Re: Set up and leveling Shark Pro HD

Post by drueth »

Photos fro above post
Attachments
GantrySage
GantrySage
LevelFrountSupport1
LevelFrountSupport1
LevelFrountRail2
LevelFrountRail2
drueth
Shark Pro Plus HD
new to CNC 12/2012

drueth
Posts: 208
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2011 7:09 am

Re: Set up and leveling Shark Pro HD

Post by drueth »

More photos for above
Attachments
Rail1 and 10
Rail1 and 10
RearSupportRail
RearSupportRail
Last edited by drueth on Fri Jan 04, 2013 8:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
drueth
Shark Pro Plus HD
new to CNC 12/2012

drueth
Posts: 208
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2011 7:09 am

Re: Set up and leveling Shark Pro HD

Post by drueth »

Still more photo for above
Attachments
Spacing
Spacing
TopDeckSupport1
TopDeckSupport1
TopDeckSupport2
TopDeckSupport2
drueth
Shark Pro Plus HD
new to CNC 12/2012

jeb2cav
Site Admin
Posts: 1524
Joined: Thu Sep 30, 2010 7:04 pm
Location: Kentucky
Contact:

Re: Set up and leveling Shark Pro HD

Post by jeb2cav »

Thanks Drueth and Wolffie for the great post and pics.

gordread
Posts: 175
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Onoway, Alberta
Contact:

Re: Set up and leveling Shark Pro HD

Post by gordread »

This is great. I will definitely be doing this.

GR

LeeWills
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Oct 27, 2013 5:05 pm

Re: Set up and leveling Shark Pro HD

Post by LeeWills »

Tip for getting your pictures to merge with your post:
After adding your photo, yu get the message "Place inline"
Bring your cursor to the end of the last line in your post, click Enter.
When you click "Place inline" the picture will be where you want it.
CursorPlacement.png
Picture sits here
Regards
LW
If you can't blind someone with science, Confound then with B***S***

rungemach
Posts: 460
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 8:24 am
Location: Sarasota, Florida

Re: Set up and leveling Shark Pro HD

Post by rungemach »

If you are going with new aluminum supports for the extruded table sections ( a must do modification) , it may be worthwhile to re-arange the extrusion sections to put the narrow extrusions in the outside spots , leaving all the middle extrusions as the wider ones. on the wider extrusions, use the center bolt slot to mount it to the new aluminum bar, so that it pulls down evenly and does not tip, as they can do if you use one of the outer bolt channels.

This will help if you go to a wood slat system that bridges adjacent extrusions together. That system gives you the opportunity to bridge all the sections together with the slats, plane the top of the slats flat using the shark, and still have the maximum amount of open channels in the aluminum extrusions for clamp bolts.

WayneK
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Dec 15, 2013 12:28 am
Location: 80123

Re: Set up and leveling Shark Pro HD

Post by WayneK »

Sir, I am having the same problem with my CNC Shark Black Diamond Edition that I bought in December 2014. I appreciate your posting the details of your solution. Did this solve the problem for you?

I have also noticed that without the three (3) 3/4"x3/4"x1/8" Al flat angle supports you installed that when I pull down with clamps told hold my work to the T-rails in the table, the various sections lift up and distort the T-rail table top. Did you solution fix that problem as well?

In order for me to use this plan to stiffen and level my CNC router Al table top I will need to elevate the table top at least ½” higher than its current position to provide adequate clearance between the moving gantry and the three (3) ¾”x¾”x1/8” AL flat angle supports underneath the extruded Al table top. Because I will have raise the whole table top ½” I decided to use two (2) 1 ½” x 1 ½”x ¼” Al flat angle supports at the front and back of the extruded Al table top. I will add two ½” T x ¾” W x 28” L shims at the front and back supports when leveling the table top.



WayneK
Attachments
clamps distort T-rail sections
clamps distort T-rail sections
need to raise T-rail top to get enough clearance between bottom of T-rail top & moving gantry
need to raise T-rail top to get enough clearance between bottom of T-rail top & moving gantry

rungemach
Posts: 460
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 8:24 am
Location: Sarasota, Florida

Re: Set up and leveling Shark Pro HD

Post by rungemach »

It seems that the newer sharks have less room under the table for reinforcement.
You could use something like 1/8" thick aluminum strip instead of the angle. That should give you enough room for the bolt heads.

However, If you are going to use a spoilboard on the tabletop anyway, consider using a wood slat arrangement that also locks the adjacent sections together as well as allows you to keep the center channel free for clamping. I originally had the under the table bracing bars, and found that the slatted table did the same thing for strength, so the under table bars were no longer needed. I suggest hardwood such as oak for the table top slats rather than mdf.

more info here..

http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.p ... 6&start=10

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