This is becoming mind boggling to me. It’s been months since they delivered my journeyman and QCW and still very little updated info on how to properly surface the new 48x32 journeyman with the QCW. According to onefinity the max cutting area of the journeyman is 48.126 x 32.126 (sorry the pdf isn’t in front of me) or something very close to that. I created a surfacing operation in carveco using a 1” white side bit. I made the material thickness .75 and the dimensions 48x32. I set the origin in the middle as instructed by both onefinity and a video by a man named mitz on YouTube who everyone seems to say is a trustworthy source however his video is for a 32x32. When I try to run the file I get an error which I have attached below.
So what Am I missing here and why is there so little info on this topic despite it being a mandatory step as per onefinity and almost everyone else?
Would someone who’s not an idiot like me be so kind as to look at my file, determine the issue and also explain the error in the photo? I’m assuming it’s telling me I’m attempting to cut outside of the material area but my file and onefinity seem to disagree based on Onefinity’s numbers for the actual cutting area of the journeyman.
Please help!
I should also mention while the origin is set to the center, I did not move the router to the middle as I assumed it would move itself. Should I be centering it before starting and setting that as the new home position? If so how do I determine what true center is? One finite says you should make an X the move it to the center but I find that so be pretty inaccurate in practice.
So I guess I didn’t realize that homing wasn’t the same as zeroing. I’m told it’s bad practice to have your home also be the xyz zero but in this case does it make since to zero xyz at the home position because I’m surfacing?
I know that if I say put a 2ft X 1ft piece of wood in my machine that I need to zero it at the corner of the work piece, preferably away from the home position to prevent issues but in this one instance I’m attempting to surface the entirety of my cut capacity, therefore wouldn’t it make since that my xyz zero be the same as my home?
In the case of my file I set the origin to the center so would zeroing it in the bottom left corner create problems because the file is assuming origin is the center of the piece and not the bottom left? Or would it move to the center after zeroing based on the size of my design file?
Anyway as I said I think I have a reasonable understanding of it, I’m just confused about the process of the initial surfacing operation.
it is obvious that you don’t really understood the zeroing/homing thing and don’t have that much experience, but everyone started this way, keep on doing things with your machine.
At first you got to really read and understand what is explained under the links mentioned above.
Obviously you did not search the info, since it is there where I showed you.
Which file? I can see no file.
And what the error means is precisely addressed in the video mentioned above/below.
You say “I’m told that…” “everyone seems to say”, “as instructed by both onefinity and a video by a man named mitz on YouTube” and so on. A good practice is the practice in science:
If you mention a fact, provide the source of it.
– “…a video by a man named mitz on YouTube” - why didn’t you provide a link in your message.
If you encounter a fact, check its credibility by searching for other sources that support the same fact.
Also try to get good source of fundamental instruction for really learning CNC machining operation. Just watching what Youtube suggests next is not a good source. It is likely that in the end you will get some good info though, but you will need way too much time and you might encounter a lot of misinformation.
At the moment I can’t tell you some good WWW links for the topic because my good sources of information are german books for engineering studies and not web-based, but I’m sure when the Canadian and the US citizen in this forum will have their surfing afternoon (earth needs to turn a little further) they will provide you some good links.
So I found this a little annoying and after 3 days of toiling over it i have decided to make a post in the hope that it will help someone who is struggling like I did. So I have the Journeyman X-50 48x32, 48x32 indicates the max cutting surface, That is unless you follow the step-by-step instructions given to you by the Onefinity tutorial on YouTube, here is the link
If you are a brand-new CNC operator and you followed this tutorial to the letter Your machine would be set to 47 13/16” (47.8125) x 31 7/8” (31.8750). This is important information ESPECIALLY If you plan to buy the awesome waste board/spoil board FILES like I found on Etsy! Check out the following
(I had the T tracks added to this file and I think I have the best Spoil board out there, the only other modification I am adding is a series of 3 or 4 circles centered with radius’ of 6" up to 30" that i need for round projects.)
I realized recently that most of the files are going to be set on the “48 1/8 (48.125) x 32 1/8 (32.125)or the 48x32 nominal size cutting surface dimensions. So even after you decide to use the scale to project function It will leave you pulling your hair out! (don’t ask me how I know, LOL)
Now having said that I realized that you could always manually cut your spoil board with a track saw or table saw or any other cutting practice that you use in your shop but that was an oversight that I did not identify early enough nor did anyone who was trying to help me think it said ask me, So I thought it would be a great mention!
I really hope this helps and as always If I misspoke please let me know, I do not want to spread incorrect information…
