Trying to cut a 17" circle but it only will cut 14.5. How do I cut a larger circle?
You will need to add a spoilboard to make this cut — the Y-axis cutting area includes the overhang cutting area at the front — you will also need to use a tool which is small enough to leave the desired circle.
The waste board is 24 x 38 on the XL. Moving the router to the front of the machine it comes within 2" of the front wasteboard. Moving the router to the back of the machine it comes within 7" of the back wasteboard. So if you take the 2"+7" - the 24" wasteboard only give you 15" of cutting area. That is the problem of cutting a 17" round?
The router comes past the front of the wasteboard by about 2". You’re gaining that 2" back… You should add that back to your cut area.
A Shapeoko 3 XL has about a 16" x 32" cutting area. Part of the 16" is off the front of the machine. The MDF baseboard is attached to the frame and is not really meant to use as your spoil board. I have created a document that discusses making an optimized s spoiboard. When you send the configuration from CM to your machine C3D does not allow the jog function to go all the way to the mechanical limit. Plus for some time they have reduced X travel to accommodate the Suckit dust collection that the ears protrude beyond the sides of the Z carriage. You can send a configuration that makes the X and Y limits increase but only up to the mechanical stops of the machine. Take a look at my Spoilboard Considerations document. The supplemental spoil board sits on top of the factory base board. It does reduce the Z limit by about 3/4" but most people seldom need the full Z height. You need to periodically surface your spoilboard because of wear and tear. When you surface the spoilboard you want to surface the whole surface. If you use the factory base board and you surface it you will get ridges along both sides and the back. Plus surfacing the factory base board you run the risk of running your surfacing bit into the steel front bracket. With a 3/4" MDF spoilboard you are above the front steel bracket. Even if your spoilboard is not the maximum cutting size you can have your project hang over the edges as long as the gantry side brackets do not collide with it. You can also have your project hang over the front. Also your cutting area must be withing the maximum usable area but areas not cut and not in the way of the gantry is acceptable.
spoilboard_considerations.pdf (1.3 MB)
Here is an example of an XL optimized spoilboard I made for an XL I had.
optimized_xl_wasteboard_03162021.c2d (2.1 MB)
The c2d file as made with an earlier version of CC so you may need to update for a more current version of CC.
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I just got my machine running yesterday and have been learning with a sharpie. I figured it was a good way to learn before diving into the hard stuff. I found the reason that I came up short also is I was using rapid movement and that is why it came up short. I just moved it manually to the front and you guys are right it goes past the waste boards. You guys are awesome for helping a someone just starting out with the Shapeoko 4 XL.
Thank you for the info on the spoil board.
Lance
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