Purchased a XXL and a custom table for it to sit on from a friend - very little use. My first project will cutting a juice groove in to a end grain cutting board.
Is there a tutorial or list of things I should check/do to get this setup properly?
Thanks
Probably not a good idea to cut your teeth on that nice cutting board. Grab a piece of MDF, carbide create, carbide motion and experiment.
That is my plan. I should’ve been more clear and said that the juice groove will be my first real project once I get up to speed.
Make a square in carbide create and cut the square out and then measure the square to make sure what the machine made and what software told it to do lined up.
Check belt tension, v-wheels, loose bolts.
Have a good plan for dust collection.
Do a fun project or two.
Check for square eventually, also tram the router.
Do more fun projects.
Since the XXL is used check the GBRL version first. Update if necessary to 1.1f so the current CM will work with it. If you already have the 1.1f then send the confirmation for the Shapeoko 3 with ZBelt/Z-Plus and/or HDZ depending on what Z axis you have. You could check calibration (search the forum) so you cut circles and not ovals. Check the v-wheels for tightness and belts for condition and tightness. Make sure the machine is square by measuring an x ac cross the bed and adjust as necessary.
Attached is a document I wrote for making an optimized supplemental spoil board.
spoilboard_considerations.pdf (1.3 MB)
All the documentation should be at:
As noted, always do test cuts in scrap/inexpensive stock.
If you have any questions, contact us at support@carbide3d.com
If the machine won’t connect using a current version of Grbl because it has 0.9 get CM3 from:
https://carbide3d.com/downloads
which will allow you to use the machine for now.
If you wish to update contact support@carbide3d.com and we’ll work out what is needed to.