Squareness and Calibration of Joe's 2006

[PhillyCyberJoe]

Hey folks,
It's been a really long time since I've posted here, but I have been diligent with keeping up with what's going on here at the zone....I even have emails sent to my Blackberry when new postings arrive.

I've been using my machine for all kinds of small project and really enjoying the whole process and the resulting outcomes. I have now finally moved to what I built the machine for in the first place, which is building guitars. I have successfully machined a guitar body and neck which really starts to address the need for better tolerances and precision. I think with my experiences so far, I am finally developing a more critical eye toward "exactness" and would like to pick your collective brains on squareness and calibration.

I suspect that my machine is pretty close to dead on, but could use some tweaking here and there. For example, I have had some problems with jerkyness while moving in an arc going toward -X and +Y. I was cutting out a pickguard for the guitar and the edge had a very fine serrated look instead of a nice smoothness.

Having said all that, my question is to see if anyone has put together a written guideline for squaring and calibrating the machine. Perhaps someone has already put together a definitive toolpath for checking precision with suggestions on what to adjust for a particular observation etc.

Like I said, I may have had calibration problems all along but as I get better at this hobby, I seem to be becoming more exacting and demanding of the results.

I would really appreciate if someone could give me some suggestions for sure fire squareness and calibration.

Regards,
Joe

[PhillyCyberJoe]

Hey folks,
I'm kind of surprised that I got no replies from the post right above. Maybe it was too lengthy. Let me try it this way...

Does anyone have a detailed writeup or description of how they squared and calibrated their Joe's 2006?

Thanks,
The "other" Joe

[bkboggy]

I used right angle clamps when I was putting stuff together (gluing and bolting stuff together) to make sure things are square. Other than that, I think it's just a lot of manual calibration until you get it right... heh

[calgrdnr]

Hello O Joe, search Buzzes build I believe he talked /typed alot about alignment and calibration. I just tinkered alot till I got mine where I thought it was good enough . Maybe I should check it again . I did notice wear on my pipes so I am sure it is time to check everything again . Guess I might have to look at Buzzes build alos

Good luck Kent

[PhillyCyberJoe]

Thanks bkboggy and Kent. Yes, I did go back to Buzz's build log and got a lot of good info there. I was looking to see if anyone else had any additional info and insight.

I didn't always see this problem but as I mentioned before perhaps its just because I've learned to be more aware. I guess its also possible that something moved or shifted over time.

Thanks again guys,
Joe

[robertmonroe]

I'm new to CNC started a couple months ago but I've been doing woodworking and guitar building too for over 25 years.

My neighbors bought a Vortech router approx 2x 4 feet I noticed when they first started running it anytime the machine performed an arch of any type the machine would shake and chatter a lot. I thought this machine really sucks because we were only doing 1/8th inch cuts on MDF.

Afterwhile I noticed that it was only on archs that this would happen so I asked the guy that owns the router if we could call vortech and tell them about this.

The problem was a setting on Mach3 as soon as we changed the CV mode angle the entire problem went away and now tha machine runs butter smooth.

[PhillyCyberJoe]

Hey RobertMonroe,
Congrats on your purchase of David's original Joe's 06 and welcome. We've all watched David's build from the start and I know that you have a great machine there.

I guess I thought that I already addressed the CV issue but your reply seems to indicate something else; i.e. CV angle. What I did was to go into Mach3 General Config and just make sure that "Constant Velocity" was selected under "Motion Mode". It was already set that way and I thought that was all I needed to do. Are you saying that something else has to be done to set the CV angle?

Thanks,
Joe

[PhillyCyberJoe]

Hey folks,
RobertMonroe got me thinking about the CV settings in Mach3 and how they might affect jerkiness in the gantry. When I started this inquiry, I assumed that my machine was not squared properly and that is why I posted the question initially.

After researching the problem a bit, I found something that seems peculiar to me. None of the CV settings seemed to make any difference on my machine UNTIL I selected Plasma mode in the CV Control section of the General Config. Just making the selection CURED my problem.

I guess I shouldn't question what seems to be working perfectly now, but I don't understand the logic. The machine couldn't be any smoother on the curves and arcs, which is where I had the problem.

So, here is a shout out to RobertMonroe for putting me on the right thought process....you made my day.

BTW...I have started installing the "sliding knot" cabling to ensure that the gantry is rock solid. I probably don't need it now, but it certainly can't hurt.

I hope this new discovery for me will help others on this forum with similar problems.

The "other" Joe

[robertmonroe]

Plasma mode is correct also set cv angle to 45%.

This is what I was told by the support guy from Vortech. The tech said Plasma Mode just works better and it does. Set the angle to 45% on the CV mode.

I bough a CNC kit for my 2006 from Motiontek

I ordered the KIT311XYZ

Here is the link.

http://www.motiontek.ca/Retrofitkit.html

I got my Hitachi coming in too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=180336826573

I like that kit because it has the 1/4 & 1/2 collets.

[BobF]

PhillyCyberJoe,
Did you ever do anymore for alignment?
I decided to check my machine today and went around measuring. Like you, I really haven't done anything to it since the build. When it was assembled, it was "good enough" as someone said above. Now that I have run it for a year or so, and I am a lot more critical (lost the "wow it works" feeling), I want to go back and adjust everything so its squared up as perfect as I can get.
Any of the rest of you that have become more critical, lets turn this thread into the ultimate guide to tramming a Joe.

[PhillyCyberJoe]

BobF,
Yes, I did a lot more to ensure squareness with a heartbreak along the way. My focus was on how perpendicular the gantry was to the x axis. I measured from the gantry to the machine end piece and did that on both sides. There was a slight difference which I tried to fix with the gantry adjustment screws. Apparently, I torqued down too much and cracked the end piece of the gantry torsion box. Long story short, I had to take the gantry off to fix the broken piece.....lot of work. While I had it off, I made sure that all of my bearings would ride on the rails with no tension at all. I adjusted all of the bearing holes by filing a bit so that the bearing was closer to the peak of the angled aluminum. This really made a huge difference. Very little adjustment was needed to square the gantry to the table. While I had everything apart, I also installed 4 pulleys in case I decide to go with the sliding knot gantry stabilizer.

Another lesson learned, which should have been obvious, was that its best to square the gantry to the table while the X drive screw is disconnected. Otherwise you are fighting against the force of the screw in the AB Nuts. Then as the last step, I adjusted the bearing block on both ends of the X axis to make sure I had no potential for binding.

It was a lot of work for a simple adjustment, but my confidence level is much higher even with my newly developed, more critical eye.

Hope this helps,
Joe

[robertmonroe]

I too want to calibrate my Router as best possible and I am intrested in implementing the sliding knot gantry stabilizer. I agree a comprehensive procedure outline or even videos would be a great help.

Is the sliding knot gantry stabilizer worth adding on?