Does anyone have any suggestions for how to find the exact center of a circular stock? Since I don’t have a lathe and occasionally need circular parts, I wanted to try and see if the Shapeoko could handle this task. Obviously it’s not the best tool for the task, but it’s what I’ve got.
I’ve got a Carbide style touch probe and am running CNCJS as my g-code sender. I looked for a macro to do this but it looks like it would require some additional javascript to accomplish and I honestly don’t feel like fiddling with that. Anyone got suggestions for a simpler solution?
Depending of the size, roundness of the stock, and precision needed, there are a number of ways.
–Use a centering head on a square (or a center finder tool)
–Set the material up in the machine and us the machine to find the center. You do this by eyballing the middle in both x and y, then scan ONE axis, say the x, to one edge, set zero, scan the axis to the other edge, and halfway back is the middle for x. Then you do the same with y (or, go to x center, scan y to an edge, and move the radius back)
A macro to find center will probably do it this way.
By circular stock you mean, round bar? This is my setup. It’s a self centering lathe chuck. You can put a large washer in it and use “center of a hole” macro to set x and y zero points.
Bart, that’s basically what I’m trying to do, except with a 3d printed ER20 style collet. Do you have a link to your hole center macro? I was never able to find one online for CNCJS.
