hello I have a shapoko 5 pro 2x4 machine and I am trying to get the cutting area and then mark the center of that so I can surface my spoil board after i patched it. Are there any videos or instructions to do so? I feel kind of dumb that I do not know how to do this already.
I recently did this.
but because I’m an idiot who can never leave well enough alone, my machine has been modified twice over:
- Gantry Shift:
- Custom spindle and mount:
Basically one would:
- create a new Carbide Create file — a 25mm x 25mm working area would be fine
- launch Carbide Motion, connect to the machine, initialize, then click on “Position” to toggle to “Machine Position”
- Jog around and use the Rapid Position points to move the machine around and create matching drawings of the machine structure in the negative coordinate system of Machine Position
https://cutrocket.com/p/646b89e7aca13
may be helpful, or see:
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There are flattening files on cut rocket for your machine, Kevin B posted them there for us to use.
The manual option is to manually jog the machine around the 4 corners and get the dimensions in Carbide Motion to create your own pocket tool path for flattening.
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And make sure you record them in Machine units (preferably mm, it gives round numbers)
I think one problem is that i am using aspire to do my design work and I am having trouble translating between that and carbide create. Also I seem to be having trouble understanding exactly what i am supposed to do to get these measurements.
Please provide an example of a simple project which you are having difficulty with and we will walk through it with you.
Note that I worked up a project from beginning to end at:
does that get you started?
EDIT: @Tod1d is correct ! The Min max are where the limit switches engage.
I corrected my misleading post below. Sorry about that !
On my SP5 2x4
I opened Carbide Motion to get the machine extents and watched the coordinate display.
The xy zero point is the upper right corner per the limit switches
The Min/ax are just that AFTER initializing the machine.
The next set inside are the Rapid to … coordinates. Note the NE corner is 0,0
Note it will go 10 mm further +Y than the NE position.
It will go 11 mm further on the X+ than the NE position.
The waste board extents are below.
| Zero @ NE rapid position | ||||||||||||
| MIN/MAX | MIN/MAX | |||||||||||
| NW | N | NE | ||||||||||
| X | -1226 | -1216 | -608 | 0 | 11 | |||||||
| Y | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | |||||||
| W | C | E | ||||||||||
| X | -1216 | -608 | 0 | |||||||||
| Y | -231 | -231 | -231 | |||||||||
| SW | S | SE | PROBE | |||||||||
| X | -1226 | -1216 | -608 | 0 | 11 | 11 | ||||||
| Y | -612 | -542 | -542 | -542 | -587.325 | -612 | ||||||
| Waste Board | ||||||||||||
| X | -1212 | -1.25 | ||||||||||
| Y | 14 | 14 | ||||||||||
| X | -1212 | -1.25 | ||||||||||
| Y | -622 | -622 | ||||||||||
What translating between Aspire and Carbide Create do you think you need? Or do you mean Carbide Motion?
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How does the SP5 move past the limit switches? Mine are at hard stops. I could maybe get a few thousandths by adjusting the switches.
I initialize the machine, then as Will suggests, click on the word “Position” to change it to “Machine Position” (This is not obvious)
Then I just jog the machine to the opposite hard stops (Front, Left, Down), Using a feeler gage or paper to avoid losing steps, and mark down those numbers (without the minus sign).
That is the physical limits of the machine. I wrote these on the front of my enclosure.
The physical center would be half of each of those numbers.
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thank you all for the advice I called carbide 3d support and we got a tool path to work. I still need to figure out why it worked one way and not the other but I will do that over the next few weeks. thank you again for your help.