Help squaring up shapeoko XL

I use my Shapeoko to drill holes and hexagons most of the time. I had a piece come up on me a couple months back and break some vee wheels on the z axis. Since then I have fixed all broken parts, re tightened all of my belts and cleaned my tracks, but I am still having some issues with my shapes being true (ie. circles are slightly oblong and hexes are not totally straight).

Does anyone have a definitive guide they use for truing up the machine? I feel like this is the last thing I have tried other than tramming my waste board.

Or is there something I’m missing that might help get the Shapeoko machining true again?

Thanks for the help!

If there was enough force to break the v-wheels in your Z axis, there were probably a lot of other lateral forces happening at the same time that could have pulled your rails out of true.

I’d start by loosening all the bolts in your Y and possibly even X axis, and probably also your waste board, and bring the gantry all the way forward, then tighten the bolts in the forward part of the Y axis, and then push the gantry back all the way and repeat the procedure for the rear side of the Y rails.

Then do the same for your X. Then tighten down the wasteboard. If this doesn’t resolve the issue, it’s possible that you’ve warped the rails in the accident. In that case I’d reach out to Carbide3D.

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Use a trusted square (I used a Starrett combination square) to check between the left and right y extrusions and the x extrusion.

I ended up clamping a 1-1/2” thick block of wood to the x extrusion extending down towards the table to make using the square possible.

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Thanks for the feedback, guys. I will give these a go. I’m hoping it helps because, even though it’s not off by much, its very noticeable on the shapes.

Measure across diagonally. Then measure the opposite side diagonally… Both measurements should be exactly the same. If not, the longer one needs adjusting to add to the shorter side until both are the same length diagonally. Finally, use a quality square and check trueness of Z axis on each side of bracing. They have to match too. I have an ANET A8 3D printer I constantly have to readjust. I also use this way of measuring on construction projects like building a 16 x 16 shed, a porch, and a deck., furniture and more. It’s simple and it works. Worse comes to worse, loosen every screw and start from the beginning. My way tells you if your square before you start unscrewing anything. Hope it helps.

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