I got my M4 assembled yesterday, still working out how to attach the belts to my “frame” which is a 5x10 utility trailer, I hope to be calibrated and cutting next weekend.
I’m completely new to CNC, but do have experience generating models in FreeCAD for 3D printing, so I plan to use FreeCAD to generate g-code for the M4. But before I get into that, I’d like to make sure that it actually works as expected.
Most, if not all, of the 3D printers I’ve purchased have included a test print file, is there something similar for the M4? Just something simple like cut a 4" square .125" deep would be fine, just so I know the machine works. Then if my g-code doesn’t, I know it’s my fault…
I know there are g-code files available in the Community Garden, but they are generally more complicated that a simple “hello world” file needs to be.
Thanks @smarcus3 and @deanhuff for the suggestion, that will indeed be my first dry run and likely first cut.
Made more progress this evening, built the attachment points to go on the trailer/frame, planning to pick up a 4x8 sheet of Styrofoam tomorrow and plan to run calibration soon.
I noticed that my UI doesn’t match some of the screenshots I’ve seen on the forum, so I downloaded the latest maslow.yaml and index.html.gz, and now I have the option to define the frame in the GUI rather than updating the maslow.yaml file.