Hi, I’ve recently purchased a Shapeoko xxl for fabricating custom aluminium parts (mainly from 6mm sheet). A key reason for my choice of the Shapeoko was the electronic touch probe which I’ve also purchased. I’ve got through the initial learning curve (mainly that Carbide Create’s automatic feed rates for aluminium are way too aggressive!) and have good results with single tool.
I’ve run up my first multi-tool job and everything is fine up to the point where Carbide Create says ‘change tool’. But the ‘change tool’ dialogue seems to stop you pressing the jog button. So there is no way to raise the Z-axis in order to physically change the tool, and no way to then zero the Z axis.
I watched the training video but it just describes using multiple files for each tool. I can’t find any documentation that says how to use Carbide Create’s tool change.
I see others have posted about this but not received any real answer.
I’m hoping that I’ve not just bought a nice piece of equipment with unfinished software …
It’s more a matter of hardware lacking a feature — the Nomad 883 works as you expect, since it has a tool length sensor — for the Shapeoko we recommend that folks use separate files for each tool as described at:
I was working on a holder for the Carbide 3D Probe which would allow it to function as a tool length sensor, but worried about the reliability of holding it in place and the G-Code programming was a bit off-putting, and I didn’t want to switch away from Carbide Motion.
Also, just a reminder too since I didn’t realize this at first, if you are just probing the z-height of your material, you don’t need a probe with aluminum. Simply attach one end of the cable to the aluminum and the other to your endmill and set the offset to zero.
Hi Will,
That doesn’t really make sense to me. I know that I need to reset the Z-axis when the tool changes - I just want the ability to do this. The software was obviously written with this in mind…
Its a real shame, because otherwise I’m impressed with my investment.
Please watch a video of a Nomad doing a tool change — after you install the tool it goes to the tool length sensor and measures, then continues the cut — it does this under the control of Carbide Motion.