Adventures of a Newbie - Tips for the first timer

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Just finished assembling my new woodworker, touch probe, suckit and hose boom. Also made my first cuts - surfacing my waste board and adding dog holes and Matchfit dovetail tracks. I’m posting this so newbies like me know what to expect and maybe save some headaches.

Assembly
This thing really is absolutely beginner-friendly!!! Took me about an hour and a half or so to assemble the machine, install the touch probe, Suckit dust boot and the Rowdy Roman hose boom.

  • First newbie tip - watch the assembly videos on the Onefinity youtube channel while you are assembling everything. They are really idiot-proof and will save you time and heartache. Also, watch Rowdy Roman’s hose boom assembly video even though it’s pretty simple to put together.

  • When I first plugged in the game controller it did not work. I rebooted the onefinity controller (the big black box with the estop) and it worked fine.

  • Homing: I am one of the folks who had problems with my Y not homing correctly. I followed the Onefinity video on tunning the Stall Homing and it seemed to correct the problem. There were still some intermittent homing issues but a controller reboot typically sorted it out. If it continues to happen I will reach out to support.

  • Setting up dust collection - If you got the Suckit and hose boom or even if you plan on using your own set up make absolutely sure that you jog the router all the way in each direction, through the middle, do loopty loops and everything in between to catch any places where your router power cable or hose can snag. I didn’t do that and my router power cable got snagged and it peeled some of the rubber wire shielding off.

Touch probe - As others have mentioned….Make Sure You Attach the Magnetic thingy to the Collet before probing. As long as you do that this thing is awesome. I can’t imagine trying to manually set the machine up accurately each time during a multi-tool cut.

  • Connecting the Onefinity to your network: I have a Wifi Mesh system and thought I would be able to connect no problem as I have never had connectivity issues in my workshop with other devices, However, as mentioned in the Onefinity Video, the Raspberry Pi wifi is very week and I wasn’t able to connect. So plan to either add an extender or resign yourself to transferring files on a thumb drive, which actually isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Caveat - the USB slots on the Onefinity controller are close together and it can be a struggle to cram multiple USB devices at once. I had to arrange the game controller, my USB drive with my files and the USB plug from the touchscreen, in just the right order to get them all to fit.

  • The Touchscreen: Holy smokes it’s small. If you are old and half-blind like me definitely plan on getting a bigger screen and keyboard. The only real difficulty I had with the entire process of setting up and using the Onefinity was trying to see and touch everything on that tiny screen. Ultimately with a pair of reading glasses and slow deliberate touches I was able to manage but I am definitely upgrading.

  • Making your first cuts (probably sufacing your spoil board):

    • On your CAM software: Make sure your feeds and speeds are what you want them to be for the tool and material.
    • Make sure you set up depth of cut and your stepover is what you want.
    • At the table: Make sure your router is set to the speed you want.
    • Home the machine and probe (or however you set up for your cut if you don’t have a probe).
    • Make sure you turn your router on and dust collection if using it. (If using MDF have a mask with filters…even with dust collection this stuff is messy!)
    • Hit the play button and have the Estop button handy in case something goes wrong!!

Enjoy watching your first cut!!

Hope this is helpful to someone. If anyone sees any mistakes or if I did something that is not safe or smart please point it out…I am, after all, a newbie. Thanks!

19 Likes
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Good write up! Hits some of the same things I ran into. Thanks for taking the time to document!

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Incredible summary here! I’ll probably print this and leave it near my machine when it arrives :slight_smile:

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Thanks Roberto - great write up. I had to adjust my stall current a couple times before the issue was fully resolved. Both X and Y. But no problems since.

-Tom

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Thanks for the kind words guys. I intended this to be a more in depth walk through and I really should have waiting till today to write it. But I finished everything up last night at 1:30am and wanted to get most of it out while it was fresh in my mind.

One of the other things I wanted to mention was about adding an enclosure. If you want to manage dust and noise in the shop it is definitely the way to go. If you will be working a lot with MDF or if your shop is in your house and the noise is an issue it’s almost a necessity. My workshop is a 1200 sqft basement that was unfinished when I purchased the house. there are two levels above the basement and you can hear the router running on the opposite side of the house on top floor with the basement door closed. It’s more of a dull whirring sound and not bad at all but i’d rather not hear it at all.

Also, the touch screen knocks off the mount really easily if you bump it. I will be figuring out a better mounting solution that puts it out of the way as it’s default location puts it in the way and makes it really easy to knock off. Same thing with the touch probe. There is a 3d printing file and I am printing a holder as I type this. So if you have a 3d printer make sure you get the file and print one out. If not they are for sale from I think Rowdy Roman or Ben Myers or both.

And lastly making a place for the game controller, if you have one, to store when not in use makes it easier to keep things out of the way. These are all things I hadn’t thought of or prepared for until I was using the machine and kept knocking stuff over and trying to figure out where to put the game controller when I wasn’t using it.

Overall, best money I have spent in my shop . I love this thing and can’t wait to start manufacturing stuff.

Happy CNC’ing

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Thanks Roberto - there was another post about changing out the mount:

-Tom

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Thanks @cyberreefguru I am going to be building an enclosure and will replace the screen with something larger. My eyes and fingers can’t stand that screen anyway.