Pictures or video of the coplanarity fishing line test?

[Aiph5u (Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))]

Hey Gil,

by the way, if you want to send me a signal from inside a post, put an “@” sign (the Ray Tomlinson sign) in front of my username, like this: @gilbee.

Three points in space are always in one plane (a table with three legs can not wobble). So if the fishing lines touch, you got to first reverse the fishing lines so that the other is on top, and adjust the fourth foot in height until the fishing lines just touch in both situations. Which foot that is does no matter. Professional gantry-type CNC machines have adjustment mechanisms to adjust this, and the Any Surface Leveling System that only works with QCW Frame is the first system that provides this that Onefinity offers for their machines. Unfortunately not for the bare machine, that is sold without millling motor and without a machine base (both has to be provided by the customer).

On a professional machine, it looks like this:

Image 1: Sorotec FE-Line V2 Portal milling machine

Note that this machine is welded out of 10 mm thick(!) rolled steel profiles and the frame is annealed for stress relief with temperatures of 550 – 650 °C in a gigantic annealing furnace like shown here and here – and still needs to be adjusted for coplanarity because it is still not stiff enough to not be twisted if the workshop floor is not even (it never is) and coplanarity is not adjusted.

Image: A workpiece has been annealed for stress relief in a big annealing furnace at the Glüherei Magdeburg.

@gilbee

because on my surfacing pass, I found that the back right corner of the WB didn’t have an edge to it even though the rest did, so I was thinking there might have been a twist in the setup, but maybe the boards themselves are not quite right and had a low spot back there. I’m gonna make another surface run a little deeper and see if it works itself out.

If you manage that the four Y rails ends are in one plane (=machine is coplanar), this is the relevant part. It may be that your wasteboard is still not even. In this case you should remove material from the surface until all regions of the wasteboard are machined. On the other hand, if the machine’s Y rails ends are not in one plane, surfacing the wasteboard or the tabletop will not remove the twist.

Please forgive me that I did not provide a more detailed howto. I will do that with photos once I assemble the machine, I first have to move to another place before I can have the new workshop there.