Sense check - smaller frame

If you “twist” the sprocket ‘left/right’ you can feel the ‘backlash’. You what it to be either on the sled side permanently, or in your approach perhaps on the slack side? 2kg on the slack side is good for me to keep my chains up and the weight on the sled. The worst you can up with is a ‘balanced’ chain system as the backlash will kick in depending on the positions of the sled on the sheet.

Not much progress this week as still waiting for Z axis slide. Motors/gears backlash loaded toward sled even though sled is not at full weight yet. Given my overlap system adding some friction and the effective counterweight load halved by pulley, I feel 4kg is OK.

Well have the z axis set up. Maybe an overkill but is nice and smooth.

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Ok, did first cut of test pattern. This maybe should be in one of the calibration threads but they are a bit high level for me. Prior to doing the test pattern, I had the sled set to physical centre of backboard and set as home. It had good repeatability - ie each time I drove it away, pressing home would return it accurately. After cutting the test pattern it returned to a slightly new home. I can probably live with that as I may redefine for different cuts.
one confusing thing is Z axis seeming to decide home and zero are the same. working on it

nice z axis

Thanks Metalmaslow. Can’t take too much credit as it is store bought. At the moment I feel all dressed up and nowhere to go. Seeing a lot of posts about migrating to webcontrol from Ground control. How necessary is that?
Next issue is how to get dxf or svg files to gcode. I am reading that I need a CAD/CAM program?

Seeing a lot of posts about migrating to webcontrol from Ground control. How necessary is that?

GroundControl is not getting any development on it. the underlying libraries
broke around the beginning of last year and no releases have been done since.

if it works for you and the accuracy is good enough, you can use it.

WebControl supports holey calibration, which seems to have better results than
the older calibration option and is being maintained/updated.

so in the long run, you will end up moving to WebControl unless someone figures
out how to get GC to build again with current libraries, but you don’t have to
do it immediately.

Next issue is how to get dxf or svg files to gcode. I am reading that I need a CAD/CAM program?

CAD is to create the drawing, if you already have dxf/svg in the correct scale,
you have done the CAD portion (you may opt to import it into a CAD program to
tweak it, but fundamentally you have done the CAD step)

CAM takes the drawing and turns it into gcode (things like what is your cutter
dimension, which side of the line to cut on, how fast, how deep, how many
passes, etc)

David Lang

Thanks dlang. Very impressed with the active engagement with the forum. Looked at the youtube guide to installing webcontrol and my eyes started glazing over as I have been out of the PC world for 10 years. Will play with GC for a while.
Had figured out the CAD/CAM angle but just had to ask the dumb questions. Currently downloading Fusion 360 (I know it is a big program) to initially import some (CAD) files to convert (CAM)

the easiest way to use WC is to get a raspberry pi and use one of the pre-built
images for it.

using a pi also means a short USB cable which avoids a lot of disconnections.

David Lang

Thanks dlang. Fortunately I have a tame electronics engineer that I might coopt.

you can install webcontrol on linux if you don’t want to use pc. Not sure if it will run on macos. raspberry pi isn’t required.

Hi Orob

thanks but that would be worse. I bought a Windows laptop specifically for the Maslow as I did not want my Mac out in the dust.

Been a while! I’m glad there are still others building smaller/different frames.

It’s been over a year and I would guess I’ve donee 1,00+ hours of cutting - have not needed to recalibrate and am still using good old GC. Here’s a few things which stick out reading the rest of the above thread.

  • Single-flute upcut bits are awesome!
  • One of the biggest things I think that have helped me remain accurate is my top bar setup, specifically the way I supported my top bar
  • Running at the lowest RPMs, for me 11,000, is wise - it saves your bits
  • If your frame is as square as possible, your floor may not be level but just make sure your top bar is always level

Might sound like dumb stuff, but has worked for me.

@Alanc for setup, I found these directions invaluable for the calibration (I use the bolt together frame). I like GC and continue to use it, the way I got it to work was to force my computer to stay on Python version 2.7. This may help you - not sure - I’m not on Windows and the laptop I use is likely 14+ years old.

All in all, still loving my Maslow and eyeing the M2 with a little envy (I’m Bosh 1200 and the springs are starting to go).

Hope this helps someone out there :smiley:

Hi peteinkl,
Thanks for support. I have just managed to get the machine working with Fusion 360. It has been working OK but I have been learning to use Fusion. (In a small way). Have not yet cut anything in anger and in fact have been doing dry runs without a cutter which was very useful and saved a lot of wasted wood!
Have bought double flute up cut bits so they should be good too.

Fusion’s great, but they’re about to make life hard. If you just want to do some test cuts or simple stuff, I’d actually recommend Easel. Free, easy and works - just be sure to make whatever you set up go to 0,0 in Easel and that will be home in GC - it’ll make sense when you try it out. I usually move the sled to where the bottom left is and then Set Home keeping stuff in the middle as much as possible.

To be honest, I probably use Easel more than Fusion now I think about it. It has it’s annoyances, ut it sounds like you want to do some initial cuts and be impressed. Here, try this: Video: How to use Easel to generate G-Code for Maslow

Once you have, don’t forget to post it What I Made Today! :wink:

Hi Peteinakl
Thanks I might try. I am initially trying Fusion because we use it at work and my workmate is a guru but I guess I cannot bug him too much.
Have just been trying to upload image (of dinosaur) by converting from jpeg or png to def. Get image into Fusion but scale all wrong etc.
Keeps me off the streets :grinning:

Finally made first cuts. Very impressed with accuracy especially as I tested it at lower extremes. With a bit of help from my Fusion guru, we created nc file in Fusion from a clip art image.
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Not sure why photo did not load. Try again

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Playing with Easel as suggested. It is certainly simple to use so probably work with it for most simple jobs. Thanks for the tip

well what a year it has been. Have had some success cutting things with Maslow and been impressed with its accuracy etc until now! Making reindeers for Christmas and managed to cut two with no trouble. On the third one on second to last pass, Z axis decided to try and bore through the job and then not respond correctly to raise, lower and zero commands. Rebooting a couple of times seemed to fix. Cut another couple successfully then on last one, G code stopped and spindle parked about halfway through the tool path. when I hit go again, the machine decided to go directly to home cutting a nice slot through the reindeers head!