BitSetter - "Zero All" - Project cutting in mid air

Just to preface everything: I’m pretty green at this. The Computer part, I have pretty much down pat. I’m only using CarbideCreate at this point in time. I’ve updated all of my software to the most recent version (as of today 4-Aug-21). I’ve made a half dozen decent projects without the BitSetter. They turned out OK. Today’s exercise has me scratching what little hair I have off the top of my head.

I have recently purchased and installed a BitSetter. The install went perfectly. Carbide Motion recognizes it and when prompted for a tool change, operates as expected. By this I mean that when I start up a project, I get prompted for a tool change. My #201 bit is already installed. The Shapeoko (XL) moves over to the bit setter, drops down the Z axis until it touches, backs off a bit, then re-probes the height of the bit. All of that looks good (to me).

I then go ahead and use the JOG functions to set the center and z=0 height of my project board. I reset my zeros like I used to do before the BitSetter. In this case the project expect zero to be in the middle of the board. I then load a .nc file for my project. When I start running it, it prompts for a bit change. I click resume and the machine cycles through the discovery of where the bit tip is. I spin up my router and press resume.

This is where things go funny. The project starts running at the appropriate (approx) X coordinate. The Y coordinate is the one equivalent to the BitSetter (off the edge of the XL at the front of the machine) and Z is certainly NOT the top of my piece of wood. The router start cutting in thin air.

I’ve tried changing the sequence of what I am doing, no change. Any hints on what I’m doing wrong? I did search the forum for solutions but I didn’t find anything comparable (or didn’t search deep enough?). If someone could point me in the right direction, I’d appreciate it.

Many thanks,

Jacques

Hi @Jacques and welcome to the community,

by any chance is the bit hovering at a distance above stock surface that is the same as the stock thickness?

I’ve re-run the file. The Z seems to be at the height of the board. So, it looks like the Z and X coordinates are correct. It is just the Y coordinate which is about 20cm forward of where I set the project center to be. It is difficult to measure because by the time I press pause, the spindle has moved in the +y direction following the pattern to be cut. It “looks” like the Y coordinate is that of the BitSetter itself (forward of/overhanging the front of the machine).

Mmh. The BitSetter would not affect the Y in any way, so there is something else going on. Would you mind uploading your .nc file for a check ?

Love_Sign_Version_1_CC530.nc (908.9 KB)

Here you go. Thanks for having a peek. Hopefully it is something silly I have done.

The very first move in the file is going to Y= -224mm

to start cutting the bottom of the E letter. So 20cm south sounds normal ?

EDIT: another problem however is that the total extension along Y is ~450mm, which I believe is larger than the usable work area along Y on a Shapeoko XL ? You would want to rotate the piece by 90° to make use of the XL’s width ?

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I have not looked at your file, but I have two idea’s.

  1. For the router cutting in air, it sounds like your origin point when you created the gcode is different from where you zero it when setting up the origin on the machine.
  2. For the Y Location, could it be you have the wrong Shapeoko dimensions selected in carbide motion?

Brilliant! Well, you, NOT me.

I knew the size was going to be an issue so I drew it vertical with the intention to rotate it 90 degrees BEFORE i went to cut it. Well, the road to embarrassment is obviously paved in good intentions.

Thanks for finding where my brain messed up. Much Appreciated. I’ll rotate the whole things and try again. I am now 100% certain, that’s where I messed up. As they say: PEBKAC, the hardware is FINE.

Cheers

Jacques

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Yes, I was 90 degrees in the wrong direction. I was rotate the design before generating the G code and had a wee mental lapse. Sigh… Always the simplest things escape me.

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