Just purchased my Onefinity and I’m trying to decide how I’m going to set up my table. I’ve been thinking about getting a QCW to attach it to. I’ve looked through the instructions, how does the QCW attach to your table? Am I missing it in the instructions and videos? For the guys that have gone that route do would you buy the QCW again, or just mount the 1F to your table and make your own spoilboard and T-tracks?
Thanks,
Doug
My QCW just sits on the surface and it not screwed down. I wouldn’t buy the QCW for just the T-tracks again because I prefer threaded inserts for clamps over T-tracks. I made a double thick wasteboard that covers the tracks and only use threaded inserts now.
Steve,
If you had to is there a way you would attach it to your table? If I can’t attach it to a table it wouldn’t be worth it for me.
Thanks
I could install a long screw into the table inplace of a bolt on each if the corners. The machine is hevy. It isnt going to slide around in you or move without a lot of effort.
Hey Doug,
the advantage of the QCW frame is that it includes the Any Surface Leveling Feet which allows to adjust coplanarity of the machine. If you bolt it down to a tabletop, you cannot use this feature anymore.
Setting Rectangularity and Coplanarity of a gantry-type CNC machine is important, otherwise all your workpieces may result in having no right angles (being a parallelogram instead of being a rectangle) and not being flat (but twisted).
Before such a machine is ready to use, it is therefore necessary to make sure it is 1. rectangular (“squared”) (bar gauge) and 2. coplanar (“not twisted”) (fishing line method).
Surfacing the wasteboard does help nothing if the machine is not accurately rectangular (“squared”) and coplanar (not twisted). All your workpieces including the wasteboard will remain a parallelogram and have a twisted surface if you didn’t ensure that steps 1 and 2 are done accurately.
Furthermore, if rectangularity and coplanarity are not perfect, the Y movement can block or have “hiccups”.
You may however use other methods to ensure coplanarity, e.g. height-adjustable casters on your table’s feet.
The QCW Frame has some disadvantages though. It is rather expensive and reduces the X/Y workarea because there is an area at the front where there are not wasteboard slats. At home position (X=0, Y=0) there is no wasteboard under the milling bit.
There is a the “Parallelogram” thread on this forum but it doesn’t really cover the QCW situation that much. I thought that I had bumped mine square by loosening the screws of the cross members and pressing it square with a ratcheting tie down. It worked great for a while but eventually it shifted back to the same ‘out of square’ position it was in. It’s like the natural position that the QCW wants to take is just out of square.
The QCW just sits on top of the table. Any suggestions? I can’t seem to find anything about how to adjust the QCW itself.
Thanks,
Jim
Hey Jim,
sorry, I don’t have any experience with the QCW frame because I did not yet assemble mine yet. I am not sure if I will use it at all, probably just for testing since I plan to weld a sophisticated machine base from steel profiles instead. But I would say if the QCW frame is not “square” (rectangular), then you have a problem.
Maybe you can tweak the holes in the four end cubes. If not, I think in the end you would try to solve it by disassembing everything and filing the ends of the beams so that they end up “square”. Or send it back until you get a “square” one.
Jim,
I'm not help as life has gotten in the way and I have not finished up on my table setup yet. I did wind up purchasing a QCW as I found one on the market place. I assembled it, and it is square and plum when I checked it sitting on my table. I am still not sure if I will use it or not but will hopefully figure that out here shortly. I would talk to 1F about your QCW and see what they say first.