New user here and not real techie. I went to âToolsâ and loaded the waste board surfacing code. Had to watch some third party videos on probe setting which didnât really help and eventually homed the unit as I assumed all the messing around with probe, it was needed, although unsure. Anyway never did get the zero probe to work with a surfacing bit, I used it upside down and had the dimension set to 25mm as it showed 5mm in the config I think, but when starting the spindle just went down about 5mm. My original issue though is it seems the waste board surfacing program loads itself on top of the last one and what the workspace shows is a quadrant with waste board in the upper right corner. I ran it for a few seconds and the spindle ran down the right side and tried to go further right, I think indicating it saw the job outside of the work area. Thoughts? Oh, another item, I like the dust shoe but it gets knocked off as it hits the rail when near the left side. Iâll probably have more ?âs soon. I must say I knew there would be a bit of a learning curve but I do feel like some of the programming I have to do could have been easier with a little more info in the initial setup as well as keeping the tutorials and videos up to date with latest iteration being sold.
Thanks, Mike
I should add that I recently purchased the Altmill 4x4 with the 1.5kw spindle along with their computer.
A surfacing bit (assuming it is a fairly large diameter bit) will never work with the Auto zero tool. It might work with a plain plate assuming it is properly set up. No matter, it is (IMHO) better to do a manual zero for the z height. Get the bit close to the stock you want to surface, set your z step to a very small amount, take a step down and see if the bit rotates freely. Repeat until it no longer rotates freely and back up one tick. Set this as your Z zero position.
Now as far as the surfacing goes, the routine starts at x/y zero so bring the spindle to the location that you will designate as 0/0 and then set that location by zeroing x and y. The surfacing routine lets you enter the position diagonally opposed to the 0/0 position ⊠if you set the x and y coordinates as 100/100 in the surfacing setup, the mill will surface the area between 0/0 and 100/100 (plus the radius of the surfacing bit)
I have no idea what the 5mm is that you are talking about nor do I know what you are talking about when you say âloads itself on topâ.
Anyway, you need to set the step down - make it no more than 0.5 mm and the total distance to shave off ⊠if you say 1 mm here it will do two passes of 0.5 mm.
You then tell the tool to calculate the tool paths and then tell it to feed that into the main visualizer. Raise the bit maybe 20-25 mm and hit the âgoâ button. The cutter will go down some distance (but not quite to zero Z), the spindle will move to x/y zero (that you previously designated), will drop down to z zero minus your step down amount and the surfacing will begin.
Oh yes, if you are attempting to cut anywhere close to x zero or x maximum, you will likely damage your dust boot.
I donât know if there is a tutorial by sienci on surfacing, but if there isnât, I think it sjould be with complete noobs in mind. I personally think that surfacing a complete machine bed is a waaaaay to risky project for newbies to learn about oopses. A too large bit might run into the machine, a lot of alarm can be triggered and on top of that, one can break a perfectly new dust boot. This can make any starting captain feel he bought a sinking ship. Not a good start to a new hobby at all.
I truely am grateful that I opted for smaller wasteboards. Though I ran into problems surfacing those smaller boards, it at least kep me away from breaking stuff (apart from my first router.) It unintentionally set me on route to not havi g a wasteboard at all and use an alternate way to level my projects out, but that is a topic on its own. Here is not the place.
What I am trying to say is that I feel your frustration regarding having the first project feel like a must do and must succeed thing while you might feel not capable or confident enough to have a project that big and that âfail-is-no-option-ishâ
Know that it isnât. You can leave the machine bed surfacing, for a future you that has a few hours of cnc under the belt and try out some smaller projects to get those hours. The first projects can be simple pine wood signs clamped down on the sides. The actual sign will need to be say 10cm smaller that the whole material.
Here you can practise some surfacing using eyeballed xy zero at the centre of your material, keeping the bit clear from the clamps. (The design is 10cm shorter than the material and the xy0 is centre so the chance to bleep this up is marginal) If you still manage to bleep this up, only a clamp or two will be clipped (I bet youâll be standing there with your hand on the estop.)
When your surface job is done, you have the material flat to all axes and it will be ready for whatever you have in mind.
I progressed towards using strips of pine as my wasteboard, with my machine-bed still being untouched after the 4 years I have my cnc working.
A tutorial for surfacing a complete altmill-bed should indeed be a step by step one with explicit warnings and maybe even footage covering what not to do and why. I think itâs the most important âmake or breakâ tutorial that is looked for once someone realises things are getting real and starts pulling hair out of places they didnât realise they had hair.
Thank you for the input. I did figure out how to zero without the probe but referring to my previous comment, since I could set thickness of the auto zero tool in gSender, 25mm, I assumed it would allow for it, but it seems it only likes what was originally programmed. As to the rest, I will keep giving it the old college try until I get it figured out.
Thanks for seeing through the dust so to speak, and realizing Iâm pretty green in this world, and laying down some thoughts that will hopefully keep me out of trouble.
At one point I did have some boundaries set, permanently I thought, that kept the spindle just in the 4x4 area but have since lost how I did that and now its back to starting at its original home place. I have watched many tutorials but they all seem to skip some important details by making assumptions I guess, that theyâre speaking to an experienced CNCâer.
I will take your advice and hopefully save myself a lot of angst.