Meditations on Calibration

A few of the short cuts I’ve attempted haven’t worked out too well, and some reworking has been required. Another of these such ‘learning moments’ has come from cobbling together a pair of motor brackets from a couple of stainless steel construction brackets. The brackets are certainly tough, and extremely difficult to drill, and my poor attempt to make them work means I’ve attached my motors poorly to my frame.
I’ve had a rethink and have come up with a calibration procedure theory.
If using a frame with a top bar, then mounting the motors a specific distance apart can be reasonably simple. Then using geometry it should be possible to draw a perfect triangle from motors spindles to point-zero in the middle of the workpiece. By then placing a 1/4 or 1/2 dowel peg and hole at exactly this point we can then place the router collet onto this peg, attach chains and then run motors to tighten chains. hit measure, swap dowel peg for cutting bit, calib z-axis and off you go.
Any thoughts?

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What issues have you been having with the short cuts? We’d be happy to help with any issues you encounter.

I am assuming you are referring to the new triangular kinematics calibration routine. I like the simplicity of the peg. However, a single peg would not provide enough measurements to solve for all the calibration variables. Additionally, the current calibration routine incorporates the sled weight, chain weight, and how much the machine is leaning backwards. Using the peg method would prevent any of those parameters from being measured, as the peg would be supporting the weight of the sled.

Good ideas, and I like that you’re thinking outside of the box! Keep them coming!

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