Aligning X to same spot on both Ys (first time)

Before I turn the unit on for the first time, I want to clarify something I didn’t see any instructions for: How do I ensure that the two sides of the X gantry are equidistant along the Y axes? Does the machine self-align the two sides, somehow, or do I need to manually screw it back to the maximum limit on each side to ensure a common starting point? Does this ever fade over time? With the limit switch on only one side, is there a way that things auto square up or do they just not drift?

I suppose another way of asking the question, is that assuming a perfectly square installation of the legs, how do I ensure that X is perfectly perpendicular to Y?

Hey Rob,

There is a squaring tool available in gsender to help you approuch what you’s trying to do.

The axis can become unsquare, by binding, slipping or black magic. I never used the tool, for I feel the method will not reproduce the exact same result every time you do it.

Instead I run my y axis all the way back untill the steppers protest. (You can do this by hand if you don’t like moaning steppers.) Because I use my machine to create jigs, it does not matter much if the machine is perfectly square or not. The jig will be perfect alligned to the machine, and that is what matters. All it takes is making the y steppers hawktuah and the machine is back to jig squarness.

Some people might see this as rough and dirty, and I wont denie that, but I do not make avionic turbo blades. I produce woodwork on a relative sloppy machine. (matra) Close enough is good enough. (/mantra)

Is running the machine all the way back hard on the anti-backlash nuts? That’s what I was most concerned about, rather than some stepper motors knocking.

Thanks for the gSender reference. I’ll see if that makes sense for me, but your option seems perfectly adequate in the near term.

I tend to put the machine into slowmo mode when getting at the end of the line. But if you like to be sure, nothing wears too much, one can always do the last part, turning the leadscews by hand untill they turn no more.

HAving sensors might force you to, if you don’t want to keep turning them off ‘n’ on every time you feel the need to “square”.

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