So after receiving my machine, setting everything up today I wanted to surface the spoilboard. Opened carveco maker and continued to make a surfacing tool path. It was suppose to only take of 1/10 of an inch per pass.
After probing xyz it started off center and it took off .20 inches on the first pass. After fiddling around I figured what I was doing wrong and corrected.
Turned off the machine and started over. Probed for xyz in the same place and same way and started the project. It plunged down an additional .20 inches and started the path. I figured and looked at things and noticed I still had enough spoil board so I let it continue.
After about the 5 pass it plunged even deeper and hit QWC screws and then I blew a breaker. The router was smoking and is shot!!!
Can someone explain what I did wrong? See attached photos.
When surfacing my spoilboard I don’t probe X or Y only Z. My spoilboard program on the Journeyman covers the complete 1220mm X and 816 Y and so it starts from machine home. Need to probe the Z to set the highest point of the work area surface though.
Not sure what model you have but the surfacing program looks like its for a smaller model.
Sorry about the response, it was bed time and I wanted to acknowledge your response but I will attempt to better answer your questions:
I will post the files today so you and the group can look at them. It is funny I had issue with using the Onefinity.ngc file on carveco and ended up using the masso.nc instead. Lesson learned - I am totally new at this.
I proved xyz with the metal thingy yes it is a CNC “technical term” for me - I am a newbie. At first I did z and it would give me a probe error for x&y. So I did x&y first then z not far from the homing point. I then moved x&y to the homing point then proceeded to run the program. It was to cut .10” but it was more like .20” or more. The first try it was off center because x&y were not zeroed out - I am a newbie. Second try I did everything as with the first try but this time I zeroed out x&y and it started the program. It went to the center and I was happy!! Then it started to cut and it went another .20” or deeper than the first cut. I looked at everything and I had enough spoilboard so I let it run. I am a newbie and I was proud of what I had accomplished. I started using a new program, I bought the Cadillac of CNC’s, I set it up and it was surfacing my spoilboard - WOW I am good I swear I heard a stadium full of people cheering me on - or so I thought. So you can imaging the Makita router at 3.5 cutting almost 1/2 inch of MDF at 50” per min it was kicking a lot of dust. Must dust collector couldn’t keep up and the suck it boot was down all the way and still had almost 3/8 of clearance between the original surface and boot. So while I vacuumed I bent down to vacuum some dust then everything went black. I looked up to see my router smoking and my bit deeper than it was suppose to be. I flipped back the breaker so I could see and all the cheering went to booing like at a WWE wrestling event and my hopes and aspirations were sinking like a lead ballon. So I did the right thing and jumped that air pump like a Jack rabbit in heat to keep my lead ballon afloat, cleaned up the MDF mess and machine, ordered a new router, took some pictures and most importantly jumped on this forum for answers - I am a newbie afterall, even Edison was a newbie….
So I hope you can all understand what happened. I will jump on my laptop and start another post with both the carveco art file and tool path file for you all to look at and give me your feedback.
I will look at all the links you sent and all the others as well since my “new” router will be here on Wednesday.
Today I plan on replacing the spoil board then relaxing and watching and reading everything the forum has sent me, then again tomorrow and everyday until the router arrives.
Once again THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR INSPIRATION AND HELP!!!
Hi Dan, I don’t have the Elite so I’m not familiar with the Masso controller but you could try taking a piece of 2x4 and zeroing the Z off of it with the metal thingy (touch plate). That would set your Z 1.5" above the spoil board then when you run the program it would be safer to unplug your router but the X,Y, Z would run through the gcode and you could watch the Z value and maybe see at what point it is dropping too far without actually cutting the spoil board. Kind of a practice run to check for errors.
the height of the 3-axis Touch Probe (and its X and Y dimensions) are already subtracted in the default probing settings of the Masso Controller (when part of an Elite machine). So if you want to just probe Z, you use it like told in the video: Upside down, and the workpiece zero will be set to the top of the workpiece. So if you have a g-code program that tells the machine to mill 0.2 inches lower than workpiece top, then it should do exactly this.
And you should be able to see in the g-code file that the Z commands just don’t go lower than that (Z-0.2).
What seems to be missing here is an introduction on probing with the Masso Controller with the Onefinity 3-Axis Touch Probe (correct me if I’m wrong).
Be aware that when you read the Probing pages in Masso Documentation, they are of general information which means they deal with different types of probes.
To be sincere, I find the videos made by Onefinity for the Original Series
are much better than those EP 13 Onefinity CNC - ELITE Series First Cut-style videos. The first/above mentioned are very professional, because the host tells a prewritten script, and there is a meaningful cut, while on the latter the person speaks not like a speaker nor do they follow a script but rather just goes for it. There does not seem to even exist a script (and what has a garbage truck noise to do in such a video?).
Hi Aiph5u,
Thanks for the, as always, very thorough and thoughtful response. You are a major contributor to the forum and always give great details and advise in your answers.
I agree with Chris thanks for the thoughtful and informative information
I will definitely will be doing more scratching-my-head or as you call research…lol
1 Like
Aiph5u
(Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))
18
Hey Dan,
I cannot see that the g-code is the cause of your issue. Unfortunately I have no experience with the new Elite machines, their stepper motors nor the Masso G3 Touch controller. On the Standard Series with the open-loop steppers and the buildbotics.com-derived Onefinity controller, I would point you to the documents already linked above:
It would do no harm to have a look at them though to see what different causes such issues can have. But with no experience with the Elite machines, I can only refer you to Elite users who have experience with that issues or to support@onefinitycnc.com.
Note that when you probe Z from the top of the workpiece, the g-code takes this as the workpiece zero, however if you probe Z again but on a point that has already been milled away, it will take the new height as the workpiece zero height and will mill subsequently from this lower position.
Dan,
After looking over the gcode you posted I agree with Aiph5u. The surfacing program only goes -0.1" into the surface. The 2 inch grid program alternates between -0.1" and -0.2". I was also thinking about how you said you probed multiple times. Were these all from the uncut surface? Or did you probe the cut surface? If you were to probe the cut surface it would just keep cutting deeper and deeper each time.
yes it is a CNC “technical term” for me - I am a newbie. At first I did z and it would give me a probe error for x&y. So I did x&y first then z not far from the homing point. I then moved x&y to the homing point then proceeded to run the program. It was to cut .10” but it was more like .20” or more. The first try it was off center because x&y were not zeroed out - I am a newbie. Second try I did everything as with the first try but this time I zeroed out x&y and it started the program. It went to the center and I was happy!! Then it started to cut and it went another .20” or deeper than the first cut. I looked at everything and I had enough spoilboard so I let it run. I am a newbie and I was proud of what I had accomplished. I started using a new program, I bought the Cadillac of CNC’s, I set it up and it was surfacing my spoilboard - WOW I am good I swear I heard a stadium full of people cheering me on - or so I thought. So you can imaging the Makita router at 3.5 cutting almost 1/2 inch of MDF at 50” per min it was kicking a lot of dust. Must dust collector couldn’t keep up and the suck it boot was down all the way and still had almost 3/8 of clearance between the original surface and boot. So while I vacuumed I bent down to vacuum some dust then everything went black. I looked up to see my router smoking and my bit deeper than it was suppose to be. I flipped back the breaker so I could see and all the cheering went to booing like at a WWE wrestling event and my hopes and aspirations were sinking like a lead ballon. So I did the right thing and jumped that air pump like a Jack rabbit in heat to keep my lead ballon afloat, cleaned up the MDF mess and machine, ordered a new router, took some pictures and most importantly jumped on this forum for answers - I am a newbie afterall, even Edison was a newbie….
(touch plate). That would set your Z 1.5" above the spoil board then when you run the program it would be safer to unplug your router but the X,Y, Z would run through the gcode and you could watch the Z value and maybe see at what point it is dropping too far without actually cutting the spoil board. Kind of a practice run to check for errors.