Finding exact center

CNC Machines Shapeoko
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I need to find the exact center on a 5"x5" stock so I can center a circle that I am carving on it. Once this is cut I need to flip it over and carve the other side hence the need for the immediate center.

Thanks in advance

2

Assuming the stock is relatively square, draw diagonal lines between the corners. The intersection of the two lines is the geometric center of your blank. This can be copied to the other side.

Careful with X/Y plane rotation while flipping if your design is clocked in anyway between the sides. You’ll also may struggle with realigning the stock square to the CNC coordinate system after the flip. For this reason, a better method is to use dowels and holes to make a poor man’s flip jig out of your extra stock. Datum pins to bump your stock against may work too, but will require your stock to be quite precise dimensionally not to skew the work.

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3

Thanks for the quick response. I tried to do that
but the snap to grid won’t let me start or end at the corner of the stock. It is forcing me to use an intersection point on the grid. Make sense?

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Turn off snap to grid, or drag things so that the desired intersection point is at a grid point, then put things back or change the grid so things line up.

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Thanks Will. I actually realized that after my last post. Stupid on my part I was going with old/incorrect information that you couldn’t turn snap to grid off. I did that and I think I’m fine now. Thanks a lot.

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I apologize if I’m telling you something that won’t help, and there are many options to do this, but I’ll tell you my favorite when machining both sides of a part. I design the part and put a couple of dowel holes (for use with dowels, such as 3/8”) in the part when I machine the first side. Then, when I remove the part from the table, I mill the dowel holes into the wasteboard. Put a couple of short dowels in the holes, flip the part over and push down onto those dowels. Then, machine that other side and it will be perfect. Again, I apologize if this doesn’t apply to what you are doing. If it doesn’t make sense and you need pictures, let me know. I can give out files too, but they will be vectric files.

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Thank you. It certainly does apply and I will give that a try as well. Thanks again

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