is there an easy way to square a gantry?

[15mgtar]

I have 2 motors and ballscrews on the y axis and the problem is they always run! so they are not squared. Is there an automatic or easy way to do this? because I hate cutting wood just for measuring the squareness.

[Aryantes]

If you have a motor on each side of the gantry, you can set up home switches, one for each axis.

Square the machine once, mount the home switches in the proper locations (will take some trial and error most likely) and then tell your software to home whenever you start up the machine.

It is well worth the few dollars for the switches.

There have been a few threads on limits/home switches on this forum so shouldn't be too hard to find.

[15mgtar]

Thanks Aryantes, I was thinking about using switches too but worry about the accuracy of the switches that's including proximity sensor. I'll look into the threads.

[ger21]

If your using steppers, and the machine frame is square, just drive the gantry up against the stops and it'll square itself. If it's out of square, use shims. This is how I home/square my machine.

[15mgtar]

are you serious Gerry? I don't want to do that with my machine I got stupidly oversized stepper I'm afraid I will destroy my ballscrews and something else might bent, and my machine frame is far from square.
btw how do you connect and configure the Y axis that got 2 motors? I'm still lost.

[CarveOne]

Originally Posted by 15mgtar are you serious Gerry? I don't want to do that with my machine I got stupidly oversized stepper I'm afraid I will destroy my ballscrews and something else might bent, and my machine frame is far from square. btw how do you connect and configure the Y axis that got 2 motors? I'm still lost.

Yes, Gerry is serious. Under normal minor misalignment conditions.

If your machine is "far from square" (by how much?) then you need to align it mechanically before doing anything else. A serious out of square condition could be putting unnecessary strain on your ball screws anyway due to binding.

One end of the gantry should not be ahead of or behind the other end of the gantry even if the ball screws are not connected.

edit: You wouldn't slam it into the stops, just go up to the stops and then nudge it into self alignment.

CarveOne

[MrWild]

There used to be a poster named NC-Cams and he had been making a Zone cross reference list and FAQs but he passed away and the data was lost with his passing. I've saved some posts for my own references, but nothing like his store of knowledge. Here is a way to square your gantry and keep it square.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showpo...&postcount=102