I have had some issues since I bought my Elite Foreman. Many of which I think were exacerbated by trying to be a perfectionist with any creations. I’ve been away for almost a year and am coming back with a new outlook. I looked at some of my older cuts and designs and honestly felt proud of them. I want to start fresh and make sure I go in with a better chance of success.
I have the Elite Foreman. I also have the QCW with the legs. Instead of writing a block of text, I will just number my process and questions:
- The floor that the CNC sits on is so uneven in one corner that the extendable leg fell out when trying to adjust for coplanarity. I added an inch thick piece of walnut under the leg and it seems to be strong enough. I just the fishing-line test and I was surprised at the accuracy I check both ways twice just to make sure. I think it’s safe to say that the table is coplanar.
- I plan to then tram the spindle. I have used Mark Lindsay’s youtube guide in the past and appear to get good results. Instead of using a piece of granite to set the gauge, I’ll be using a piece of float glass. One thing I will be doing differently though, is I will be adjusting forward and backwards tram using the legs of the x-axis. In the past I have trammed both directions using shims behind the spindle mount and that can be a little annoying.
- I will then surface the wasteboard. I had originally bought a Amana Tool 45527 4-Flute bit when I was just starting out and I burned that sucker up almost instantly. I then decided to get a Binstak 1” Slab Flattening bit at the recommendation of another CNCer. It works really, really good for flattening my sawmill boards so I will use that to surface the wasteboard.
This is where I plan on starting. If you have any additional ideas, please let me know.
Now for the part I have never figured out - My usual area for cutting is in the front left corner of the CNC (no reason other than preference). When I make cuts, I notice that the further right that the gantry goes, the shallower the cuts will become. It is unfortunately very noticeable. If I remember correctly, once the middle point has been reached, the cuts start to get deeper again. I don’t know how this can happen when the legs are all in the same plane.
My thoughts are that after surfacing and tramming, I can take a large piece of MDF (surface it first) and cut a large circle and see if there is any variance in the cut depth. But as I type this out, I don’t know if that will really work the way I think it will. To make things easier, I will reply with my results after doing them in the next few days.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and everything will be perfect 