Y1 and x rail problems

too many baby steps, wanted to use fusion 360 because i used it a few years ago just for drawing some simple things, now i have been trying to use cam and it is just not working for me right now. I have been watching as many resources as possible. I am tying a simple enough project, a threaded waste board for the shapeoko, maybe i should just do it using carbide create and carbide motion, but i am trying to push myself to use the other software because i know down the line i will want to do more involved work and will need to use the more complex software

It’s probably best to get acquainted with the Shapeoko while NOT also taking the steep Fusion360 learning path, Carbide Create and Carbide Motion are excellent tools for new Shapeoko users.

This being said, I have enjoyed the Fusion360 CAM tutorials from Autodesk, but they do require watching long videos.

The video series that really kickstarted my interest in using Fusion360 is that one, but it’s about the CAD part, which you already know.

And while I probably shouldn’t post a link to the competition, this intro to Fusion360 CAM sounds like a good way to spend 12 minutes to have an overview of the CAM module for casual CNCing.

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so i am running the machine right now, i am doing a washboard and i managed to tod the bigger holes, but now the machine stopped moving at about 42.3 % progress, i paused the job and hit start again, but the machine will not move. could it be that there is something wrong with the g code? do anybody have any idea of what might be happening?

Every time that sort of thing has happened to me, it was when I turned off (or on) some piece of equipment on the same circuit (for instance, I shut off my air-blast pump and had the same thing happen). Basically some sort of EMI/spike/line noise thing confuses the controller and it goes out to lunch. Was anything like that going on?

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@salonuel89, chances are this is what @RickT mentioned: EMI causing loss of communication between the Shapeoko and your computer. The #1 culprit is static, and the usual remedy is to (better) ground the machine frame, the router, and the vacuum hose. A few other tips here.

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Possibly try a solution with the following?

Thanks for your answers. Maybe it had something to do with other equipment running. What i did following the event was, to stop the work, reloaded the file, i did not remove the stock being cut (thankfully) the zero points remained the same and i restarted the job and basically after that it worked just fine, however this time i did not have the dust collection on, just in case, however working with MDF and not having dust collection is not very advisable, i ended up with a big cloud of MDF dust surrounding my garage. But the important thing is that the job was finished. Today i will do some more work on the shapeoko an see if i run into the same problem again. Thanks for all your suggestions and i will definitely keep all of them in mind when running the machine again today.

that sounds like you want to make sure grounding is done well… like the hose etc…

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please make being safe your #1 priority. MDF dust is NASTY, very dangerous for your lungs.

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I was using a respirator as i always do with any other project and had my home made air purifier running all night just to make sure. Thanks for the advice.

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:+1:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

I just turned the dust collection off to see if it had something to do with the machine stopping in the middle of the job, but after yesterday i will have it on all the time specially when working with MDF

Another less messy test you can do to investigate the source of the EMI is an “air job” (i.e. artificially set Z zero way above stock surface, and run it)

  1. do the air job with the router on, vacuum off
  2. do the air job with the router off, vacuum off

If you don’t get disconnects during 1, chances are it was the vaccuming, and your best bet is then to ground your vacuum hose.

If you get disconnects during 1), but not during 2), you should look at grounding your router mount/body.

This being said, sometimes EMI investigation is not so easy, it can come and go and hide in dark corners waiting for that really important job to occur again. Grounding everything will only help anyway. If you can reproduce the problem frequently enough, it’s 50% solved.

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Awesome, thanks for the suggestion. I will do that over the weekend when i have more time available, thanks for all the help guys, all the info you are providing is most valuable to a newbie like me.

HI, i am trying to add the whiteside 6210 spoil board surfacing bit to the carbide create library, but it is not really letting me do that, how would you go about doing that? It does not give me the option of inputing the whole number 6210, which is the bit number, and it also puts the bit as a 2 flute.

for the number pick something < 100… it’s an internal reference not the part number

I added mine by cloning the bit 201 and changing both the diameter, speed and depth of cut… and give it number 99…

Thanks for the info, i will do that now

hi guys, another day another another discovery with the machine. Well what i have found is related to the y1 and y2 carriages, the thing is related to the v wheels, the thing is that when i turn the eccentric nuts to get the v wheels to have contact with the rails when the carriages move to the back of the machine the top v wheels no longer have contact with the rails, does that make sense to you? then when i move the eccentric nuts and the lower v wheels dont have contact with the lower rails the top v wheels do have contact with the top rails but not over the entire length of the rail, i dont even dont how to explain it anymore, it is a mess. Does this makes sense to you guys, has this happened to any of you? any advice? Does it have to do maybe with the rails? Should i loosen the screws and try to put both rails at the same height? could this be the issue?

Please check that the Y-axis rails are level and parallel to each other.

Once they are, loosen the top V-wheels on the gantry and the bolts for the extrusion, then push down on the gantry and re-tighten the bolts you had loosened.

When squaring things up always work from large to small and work systematically.

If you have difficulties let us know at support@carbide3d.com and we’ll do our best to work through this with you.

i have put together many tools before, like jointers and table saws, i work construction, but maybe cnc machines appear to be out of my league, the machine has so many parts that have to be parallel for it to work properly, but when i put everything together apparently there was no room for play as everything went together really tightly. So forgive me for asking and i really hate to ask you because i dont want to appear to be an idiot, but please tell me how can i make sure that the y axis are parallel to each other, because i already loosen the screws and there is really no movement at all up or down. I really suspect that it might have something to do with the v wheels because when i manually turn the v wheels for one moment it rotates free and the next one it catches the rail, but like i said before once the whole gantry moves to a different position it is a completely different situation