Spoilboard flattening (solved)

Hey Tom,

thanks for uploading the file. It is not larger than the Woodworker workarea and produces no limit error. So you got to check that you zero x and y axes at machine coordinates x=0,y=0. This can be done by pressing the little house button on X and Y axes.

  1. The error photo you posted above does not show the situation that you should have. Can you post a photo of the error that appears now?

  2. Can you also please post a photo of control page with axes positions, absolute, and offsets, after homing and zeroing/probing.

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Sorry Tom I should have read you previous post. Looks like that’s what you’re doing already.

Hi Tom, That Easel screenshot looks like the origin is actually .5 to the right and .5 up from zero. Try changing it to 0,0.

William - I redid it to move inward if the actual size was the root of the problem. My rationale was that the flattening bit is 1/2" greater in diameter than the vbit used for establishing the machine boundaries. Just trying everything I could think of to solve this problem. The interesting thing is that this file worked on my X50 4 months ago without error. My son’s new X50 is the problem. I’m trying to sort this out and someone suggested that it may be firmware 1.2.1 which came pre-installed on his new cnc.

I won’t be back there until late afternoon, so I’ll recheck everything again.

Tom

I will send the details over later this afternoon when I go back there to check it out.

Thanks,

Tom

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Hey Tom,

You don’t need to take this into account. You can use the maximum workarea, since there is some reserve around the boundaries, which you can also flatten with the larger radius of the flattening bit (see also: → Cutting area location :pushpin:).

But anyway, your file, which flattens a slightly smaller area than the workarea, is fine and does not produce an error when I try to reproduce your issue. The error must be in your homing and zeroing procedure.

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Thanks. I won’t be able to address this until late afternoon, but will recheck zero and home position.
Thanks again,

Tom

Hi Tom, sorry I was out of town yesterday, your file looks fine to me. I think the problem is cause by the origin (zero) on your machine versus your program file. In other words when I look at the screen shot of the error, it shows X 0mm but absolute X 410.683 with an offset of 410.683. Which means your job X origin(zero) is set in the middle of the machine in the X axis (can’t tell for Y as I don’t see it). When I look at your NC file it looks like the job origin (zero) is at the bottom left. Here is the math behind it. 410.683mm + 783.320mm (30.79999 inch of your file) = 1193mm.

Try this procedure:

  1. Home the machine, make sure, Position, Absolute, Offset shows 0.000 with State showing Homed.
  2. Load your flattening bit.
  3. Set your Zero on the flattening bit only.
  4. Push play.

You should have no errors.

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Sorry Tom, forgot to specify, Step 3. Set you “Z” zero only on the flattening bit only.

Pierre:

Thanks for your note and the details. I originally had the work origin set at lower left, then when the error messages first appeared and I couldn’t correct, I redid the file using the center, then went back again to lower left.
I had intended to go back to my son’s house yesterday and recheck everything, but we attended a funeral for a friend’s son and the reception lasted a very long time - so I’m going back there late afternoon today.
I will double check x,y zeros (again) and I did set z zero from the top of the wasteboard last time.
Hoping to clear the errors and get his first spoilboard flattened so he can begin his journey into the cnc world.
Thanks again for all of the help from you and others. I’m a few months into cnc (got my X50 in Oct), and didn’t have any problems with this same file on mine.

Tom

Hi Tom, the other thing I would check is: on what Firmware version the machine is running? If it is anything beyond 1.0.9 and less than 1.2.1, this might be part of the reason, I know these version where buggy and created several weird issues. You might want to update to 1.2.1 (see the thread on this, better than me trying to repeat incorrectly the whole story). If you did update to 1.2.1 Firmware make sure you did the step 11 in the procedure:

I did have some homing inconsistent behavior, once I did this… so far so good…

Pierre - my X50 came with ver. 1.1.1 installed (Oct 22). I got the message a couple of weeks ago to upgrade to 1.2.1 which I did without understanding I had to reflash the SD card. I did read a lot of comments from people saying it was unstable and I really should reflash and install 1.0.9 - which I did.

My son’s X50 (arrived Feb 15th) came pre-installed with 1.2.1. In fact, I did question this firmware release as a potential problem initially when I posted about the flattening file.

So, here’s my plan - using your advice and confirmed by others, I will:

  1. Home machine
  2. Zero x & y in lower LH corner
  3. Zero z at top of waste board
  4. Confirm absolute zero positions, etc.
  5. Run file

If I get more errors I will post same. If it runs, we’ll be happy, but I’m not certain we will have done anything differently to have success than originally.

I will review the configuration resets above and keep this information handy if needed.

Thanks again for reaching out and sharing.

All the best,

Tom

Pierre - quick question - are there other “custom” settings that I should consider for the X50? I’m assuming the probe dimensions are correct as provided by Onefinity, but are there others to adjust?

Tom

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Hey Tom,

Sorry to hear this.

As said above, your file with the workpiece origin at the left lower corner is fine and…

Should you simply home the machine and then probe Z on machine bed, and then start the program you uploaded above, I see no reason why it would not run without error.

yes, a real trajedy. The son was only 27 yrs old. Died Superbowl Sunday evening. Had a stroke then massive heart attack. No prior indications of a problem. An athlete and very active in the gym (daily). The doctors said it was the ‘widow maker’. A widow maker is when you get a big blockage at the beginning of the left main artery or the left anterior descending artery (LAD). They’re a major pipeline for blood. If blood gets 100% blocked at that critical location, it is usually fatal. His parents are devastated. We’ve known him since a baby. What a trajedy for sure.

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Hey Tom,

very sad to hear this.

It can hit any of us, always. Good if you live today and that the important things are important to us.

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Hi Tom, step 2 is not really required. Home, then Z probe only and run.

Sorry to hear about this passing, my sympathies.

Thank you Pierre. I’m headed over to my son’s house this morning and will give it a go again. As a sanity check I ran the file on my X50 (using the original setup). No warning messages and everything ran just fine, as it did when I initially setup my system. All of that leads me to believe that it may, in fact, be the firmware (his came preloaded with 1.2.1). If I get error messages today, then I’m going to reflash his controller back to 1.0.9 and see what happens.

Tom

Good luck Tom, before flashing the firmware, I would recommend you home the machine first and check your screen when you home, it should be all zero. I’m running on 1.2.1 and so far it is stable, it’s essentially 1 0.9 with one or two small updates.