Hi everyone,
New to the forms here. I’m a manufacturing engineer and have had my shapoko xxl for about a year now. I have learned a lot from the community forms, Instagram, YouTube etc. and thank everyone who has gave their input.
Shapeoko upgrades:
HDZ
Steel belts
Proximity limit switches
Aluminum threaded table
Problem:
Repeatability after turning machine off and back on. There is very good repeatability on the side that the limit switch is on, but the further you move down the x axis the more error you find. This makes sense due to minor twist in the x carriage. I have tried to move the HDZ to the center of the x and push it back an inch or so before starting the machine to get it to it’s most ‘natural’ position, but it hasn’t got rid of the problem. When the stepper motors turn on they sometimes jump before locking into their nearest position. This inaccuracy has made fixturing somewhat of a headache.
Proposed solution:
Add a second limit switch to the left side of the machine. I believe the reason this is not used is because you don’t want to induce twist that is not already there. Many users, including me, don’t take the time to get the machine perfectly square (even though I watched Winstons tutorial), so having a non adjustable 2nd limit switch may cause problems. Although, having a proximity limit switch that can be easily adjusted may be the solution. Off the top of my head, this could be done by adding shims (or tinfoil for the savvy users) between the limit switch and it’s mount and then manually sliding the x carriage until the red lights go off at the same time. I could get this setup, but don’t know the coding side of things past g code (or Arduino).
Carbide3d let me know if you have thought of anything like this or if it would be easy to somehow code this into the board. I have fixtures for different parts across the whole table and it would be nice to be able to start the machine, run it over to it’s known global coordinates and start the program. Knowing as it moves across the x axis it will continue to accurately cut parts relative to the previously machined fixtures. This could make the machine as repeatable as much more expensive equipment.
If anyone else has any other ideas that could increase repeatability across the whole work table let me know.
Thanks,
Nick