This is my first post, so go easy on me. I am a new (2nd) owner of a gently used Elite Foreman but have used a much smaller CNC router for a few months now. Between my old machine and the hundreds of YouTube videos I’ve watched, I feel pretty confident that I have the basics down. (I have not set up the 1F yet due to work.)
My question is related to using the touch probe and squaring your work piece: If I intend to use the touch probe to determine my work origin (X/Y), does the X axis of the board also need to be perfectly aligned as well? Logic tells me yes, but I’ve seen some guys in videos that prefer to simply do a profile cut which means the work piece only needs to be close to aligned on the X axis.
Also, if the touch probe were slightly twisted because the board wasn’t perfectly aligned, would that not cause an inaccurate X/Y measurement?
does the X axis of the board also need to be perfectly aligned as well?
It depends what you are doing and how accurate you want to be.
If the outside edges are already finished and you want whatever is carved in the middle to be in line with the edges then yes you need to have the outside edges aligned to the axis.
How perfectly depends on you. Some people have lines on their wasteboard they line up to. Sometimes I use a compound square from the front of the wasteboard. Sometimes I use a dial indicator.
If you are going to machine the edges on the machine then you don’t have to be at all fussy about board placement as long as you have enough extra board to allow for the error.
if the touch probe were slightly twisted because the board wasn’t perfectly aligned, would that not cause an inaccurate X/Y measurement?
Yes this will cause error.
Again if you are leaving extra all around the board to machine off then it doesn’t matter much, but if you already have a finished edge then it matters alot.