So, long story short I had to move the Journeyman downstairs to the shop. Upon setting it up, I ran into a few things. Mostly, I could not get it zeroed without getting over/under errors. Then came a surprise - on one of the reboots, all I had left showing on the console was the X axis and it would not home - even for X. I looked into the motors setup and discovered they all had “X” selected. There was no “Y” and there was no “Z” and not even a slave motor to make one motor’s work eazee. All “X” with identical settings.
Since the display had recently refused to go anywhere but 640x480 (another story - related to the display mount) I flashed the SD card, went into the system and “Reset” for the Journeyman so the 1616 parameters were correct. I also enabled the spindle. Green squares and rectangles everywhere! Yay! Thinking that light at the end of the tunnel
was not a train, I drew up a file for a new spoil board. Very bare bones - just 9 through holes (peck drills) to fasten it to the table and 9 countersinks (pockets) to be sure the heads of the screws are buried deep enough to keep me out of trouble.
This is what the preview looks like and what I’m expecting:
Did you resize or move anything after you created the toolpaths? The toolpath and the design would then not match.
BTW, instead of a peck drilling operation, consider using a profile cut with a smaller bit and specify a “spiral” ramp. That will clean out the hole without banging the tip (which is flat and not designed to drill) against the spoilboard and forcing a scraping cut. Use the same bit for the pocket for the outer hole.
For example, with a 1/4" center hole through cut and a 1/2" outer hole to 3/8" deep, using a 1/8" endmill create a spiral ramp profile to do the through holes and then a 1/8" pocket 3/8" deep. To speed it up (marginally - this doesn’t take that long), do the pocket first and then define the profile with a 3/8" starting depth and material thickness ending depth.
No - nothing moved. When things do get moved around, I always recalculate all the paths.
Thanks for the reminder on peck drilling. I don’t think this is related - all 9 countersinks are off of the center of the through holes by the same amount.
You’ll notice that the holes themselves are perfectly round. If they were ovals, I’d suspect the 1616 revs didn’t get adjusted. But they are circles and the revs are set at 16. I’m stumped.
HEY! Onefinity wizards - wanna jump in here? Sure could use your help.
When cutting a pocket to make a countersink the bit enters at exactly the same place and exits at exactly the same place on each hole?
The bit, leaving the hole, leaves its dust opposite the exit point in exactly the same place on every hole?
The dust falls into the thru-hole in precisely the same amount in each hole, leaving the same amount in the same configuration in the same place on the rim of every countersink?
This dust behaves this way regardless of DC settings - Apocalypse through Zephyr?
This creates the ILLUSION that the countersinks are off center.
If you vacuum out the holes before sounding the alarm you will find that every hole and every countersink is just where it should be?
I expected this sort of failing to start showing itself at 66.At 65, it has caught me entirely unawares. Apologies for the false alarm, and thanks Derek and Jim for sending help my way.
