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?
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.