My S3 came Friday and I got it all put together before going to bed. Saturday morning, I started testing, etc. and there are a few things I discovered that really should be fixed in the documentation.
Number 1: where is “lower left?” Well, I made the assumption that “lower left” (as stated in the Hello World docs) would be the home location. It is not. Lower left is the opposite corner from Home. That simple thing would have saved me some anguish and looking to make sure I hadn’t put the connections upside down.
Number 2: The limit switch setup simply doesn’t work as described. The instructions say to enter $22=1 and then do a $h and it will start going through the home sequence. Afterwards, it says, go into settings and change False to True. That did not work for me. When I sent $h, absolutely nothing happened. It was only by accident that I discovered that after you do $h, you need to go to settings and make the False to True change, then go back to MDI and enter $h.
Number 3: (and this goes along with number 1) During the build, it was sometimes difficult to understand which direction was being referenced. Is right as looking at the machine or is right really starboard?
Otherwise, I am so far very pleased with the build. I haven’t had a chance to make any firewood yet (historically, the ultimate destination for a lot of my woodwork), but maybe today.
The homing stuff is strange because there are multiple origins / reference points:
- machine origin — this is where the machine stops at after homing, 5mm in each direction off the homing switch positions
- table origin — the lower left, which is not explicitly set to be 0,0, but may be easily set so using rapid positioning
- stock origin — where you probably want to set it, which has to be done manually unless one sets up work coordinate systems.
Suggest http://carbide3d.com/docs/tutorials/tool-change/ — comprehensive tutorial covering homing, job zero, and creating a repeatable offset
Welcome to the community!
The assembly instructions are a work in progress…More time and energy on the machine as you are seeing.
The toolchange Turotial WillAdams pointed out is the stuff! It was one of the first things printed it out and use it as a checklist as I get more familiar with my XXL. …Tons of help and support here, search will find most things, but everyone is ready to help!
As to making firewood…those days are numbered…I’d say you will have to be buying it soon…there won’t be much coming out of your machine as you get to know it! Don’t forget you can make non-ferrous hardware too! You can get completely away from off the shelf!
Well, as for the firewood. As a hobby, I build crokinole boards (crokinoleworld.com) and my plan is to use the S3 for some new options for customers. It’s going to be some time before I’m ready to do that. I have too much to learn of the basics right now. The Tool Change tutorial explained some things. Interestingly, my father was a machinist who ran a Warner & Swasey 2A turret lathe in a shop that made very high pressure valves. I worked there one summer as a teenager (1970 or so) and saw him create some stuff that was utterly astounding. I have a lot of his tools (mics and gauges and stuff) but very, very little of his knowledge. I remember one time they were having a difficult time figuring out how to make a specific part. He looked at the drawings and proposed all they needed to do was bore out the chuck a particular way. He had that knack.
100 Beautiful boards-am am partial to veneer/Marquetry and Parquetry-but the painted ones were terrific as well! I had not heard of Crokinole until you posted this-Thanks! Tradesmen became Craftsmen-still happens here…Those that did/do-including uyor Dad-are awesome, and almost unbelievable in their abilities!