LOL. You could almost use this thread as an example of how AI is changing how some people learn and work desperately trying to find shortcuts. You can judge the outcomes.
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Hi Paul, thoughts from my own experience (about 3 years w/the Shapeoko 4, not the Pro):
- if I’m unsure how a toolpath is going to run, I paste it into NC Viewer, which lets you run the toolpath back and forth. It doesn’t model the cut, nor understand the tool choice, but can be very helpful for previewing a long/weird cut.
- dust protection for the bearings is king. I have a video on this forum about disassembling the bearings, a big pain as you’ve found. An accordion-style dust boot all along the rails, especially the X axis, would be awesome. Barring that, I made my own super-deep sweepy using the bristles from a garage door sweep. But if you notice any dust lying on the bearing runs, wipe them down and re-lubricate with Vactra; inspect often.
- the hardest thing for me has been to lower my expectations for always succeeding. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, something goes wrong, and with subtractive manufacturing with wood, one mistake and the piece can be trashed beyond saving. Hope for the best, expect the worst, and be happily surprised most of the time, lol.
Best of luck! --Richard
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One of the bits of wisdom which came out of the old Shapeoko forums was:
The great thing about CNC is that given a properly prepared file and nothing going wrong in the setup or cutting, the part will be cut correctly.
The awful thing about CNC is that a part will only be cut correctly if the file is properly prepared and the setup is done correctly and nothing goes wrong in the cutting.
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