Can anyone tell me if installing the Inductive Sensor Kit will allow me to square up the gantry to the rails?
Hi @dbraz77,
The inductive sensors won’t change anything to do with squaring the gantry.
I have experimented with a few ways of squaring (after the mounting procedure) and have arrived at the following method that seems to work for me. I use the 1/4 to 1/8 collet adapter as a “probe” of sorts to do some alignments.
- Install some manner of long(ish) low(ish) fence at the left edge of the bed.
- Ensure this fence is parallel to the Y rail (easiest is to actually use the mill to actually cut a face on it, but you can also use the router to run back and forth along the face of the fence and ensure a consistent gap using the router itself before securing it firmly)
- Place a known good framing square (note - not all framing squares are square - be sure to test!) against the fence.
- Lower the router to just above your wasteboard, so that the collet adapter (in my case) is low enough that the framing square can’t pass under it.
- With the router near your fence, pull the framing square against the fence and against the collet adapter.
- While holding the framing square gently but snugly against the fence with your fingers, jog the mill to the right to near the end of your framing square.
If the mill is out of square, you will either see it open a gap away from your framing square as you move right, or push the framing square. At this point, manually turn the right lead screw to move the router in the direction that it should actually be.
You then have to repeat this process once or twice more because the distance you move the right lead screw isn’t quite as far as you need (due to the geometry of things).
Using this method I have managed to get reliably square 30 inch by 30 inch cuts, and I can “dial it in” again pretty quickly if I pull a boneheaded move like stalling out the Y axis.
Hope this helps! I feel like some pictures might help but I don’t really have time to do that right now, sorry about that.
ed
Thanks for the response.
I figured that was the case. I like your method, easier than what I’ve been doing. I was just jogging the router over a scrap piece of wood and using my engineering square to check for square but after accidentally running the gantry into the end supports a few times, I was looking for an easier way to re-square the machine.
What I did today was add a couple of adjustable hard stops where the gantry meets the end supports so all I need to is run it to the end on purpose to re-square the machine.
@dbraz77 Another option that worked very well for me was to use the built-in squaring function of gSender.
I’m still using UGS, maybe time to change to gSender…
@gwilki I have had problems accuratly measuring for the built in squaring function - it gets me close, but I still find I’m not quite there for large (30 x 30) surfaces.
I have been considering putting adjustable hard stops - @dbraz77 do you have any pictures of what you installed? I was thinking of just drilling and tapping holes in line with the Y plates, and using a machine screw and back up nuts to set the stops.
I had some adjustable stops (first pic) but I found it difficult to adjust them to the gantry (not enough space in between the adjustment bolt and the gantry), so I just tapped a thread to take a machine screw so I can adjust from the outside and screw towards the gantry. I didn’t use a lock nut but wrapped the bolt with Teflon tape to hold it in place. (last 2 pics)
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