I’m a total beginner with a Shapeoko 5 Pro 4x2. I only have a few projects under my belt, and they all have been relatively small in size. Now I’m working on a project and would like to make it as close to 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide as possible.
Was wondering what is the maximum stock size and maximum project size my machine can handle without tiling the project?
Also wondering if people can weigh in with work-holding recommendations at maximum stock size, I’m thinking the T-Tracks might not be available if they are completely covered by stock?
You can measure the space between the Y rails. Looks like 53"
The work envelope (max distance the axes travel) is listed as 48.7 in(X) x 24.53 in(Y)
Workholding will depend on the project. If there are areas that will be cut out, you can use screws directly into the spoilboard, or into a sacrificial extra layer that is clamped down.
If the entire job needs to be clear of holes, vacuum table or 2-way tape (or tape & CA glue).
I just picked up a 2’ x 4’ piece of 3/4" plywood and it fits on the bed. I could definitely screw it to the waste board, might even be able to clamp to the edges of the t-tracks.
My design is currently 46" x 22", I could always shrink a little if I need to.
Going to test cut on the plywood to verify the design before using more expensive wood.
In this situation, should I manually jog the spindle to all four corners and mark the limits?
Am I better of using the center of the stock as 0, or pick a corner?
I made my wasteboard the size of my machine travel so I can surface it in one setup.
Before that, I manually machined a line at the limits with a vee bit.
Zero position is mostly arbitrary. I typically use front left.
If you have something that needs to be centered on varying sizes of stock, then use center.
On flip jobs I’ll use the same physical corner for both sides, so front-left becomes back-left if I flip front to back.That way both paths are measured from the same corner.
Did you create a rectangle in Carbide Create that was 48.7 x 24.5 and run it as a job, or did you manually spin up the spindle then jog using the controls in carbide motion? Is there another way to do that?
I did it manually. Typed in M3S18000 in the MDI, then jogged the machine all the way forward & left, jogged Z down to -0.010 below the table & moved it around until it hit the physical limits.
That was back when you could jog while the spindle is running with CM. Now I’d have to use Gsender since CM shuts off the spindle when you jog. You could MDI the cutting as well by just typing in the motion commands.