Hello all, Do we have any forumers--totally a word--in South Africa (Gauteng) who could help a CNC newbie tram his LEAD 1010? I'm not new to the design work for CNC, but I'm new to the actual operations, and I'm frankly at a loss to go about it. As such, I'm looking for someone who can walk me through it in a hands-on, on-site way. Thank you! Michael
That's not the point Michael. Its like trying to learn how to drive a car with someone else behind the wheel. We were all in the same boat at the beginning and learning through discovery is the best way to deal with problems in the future. There are shed loads of tramming videos on youtube to help which is where others may well have directed you. If you have a specific fault, then everyone here will want to help you, but tramming is a process, best learned from online videos or websites.
Condescension maybe wasn't your point, but it was your message. Maybe you think everyone is a cookie-cutter replica of everyone else, but it's not reality. You have no basis for declaring the "best way" to learn on behalf of everyone, and you don't even understand basic statements; if someone "walks me through" driving, like I asked in my first post, does that imply someone else is at the wheel or that I'm at the wheel receiving guidance? Did you learn to drive solely by watching YouTube videos? You don't need to answer that, because before you learned to drive on your own, you had years of experience watching an expert handle the task, didn't you? Videos have their place, but they are not the entirety of training methods. Some people learn differently. Let's just leave it here.
Thanks, Craig, I had not seen that. It is a very good walkthrough of the principles and the relevant geometries to keep in mind, but, again, for a new person it is not actionable in obvious ways (that is, we don't necessarily understand how you do these things just on the basis of the brief paragraph on each geometry). Yes, I'd like to make sure the [plane] is perfectly [flat/square]. HOW do I do that? In my case, do I need to disassemble the machine and start over again, conducting particular checks at certain points along the way? Can I modify the relevant geometries after the build? I followed the build video made by OpenBuilds and checked geometries whenever the presenter checked geometries on-screen, but if you've never assembled a CNC from the ground-up, you don't have the experience to know if he's checking everything that should be checked or if the presenter's experience allowed him to eyeball things and know they were right whereas I'm sitting here mimicking him and can only hope I've been accurate. I've assembled things other people have made; I've built furniture and other objects I designed and cut and fitted by hand using hand tools, but I've never assembled such a precision machine before. I've made a fair investment in this equipment, for me at least, and I'm reluctant to do something, thinking I'm correcting an error, that renders the machine unusable, ruins some other part of the machine, leads to my terminal insanity, etc. Thanks, Michael
It's really not so much a learning process as it is a think it through process. What are the problems you're seeing?
Have you tried to flatten your spoilboard yet? Or better yet, flatten a scrap piece mounted on your spoilboard? If you have and there are lines showing that make it seem to be out of tram, take a picture and tell us which way was the x direction, and which way was the Y. We may be able to tell you which part needs to be tweeked with out taking the hole thing apart. I am about to o through this process myself because I am wrapping up a rebuild of my original machine. I tried my best to ensure stuff was as square as possible while assembling, but I have yet to test it to be sure.
Thanks, Rick for the general inquiry and Craig for the specific suggestion. I found just before last weekend that the fan that came with my BlackBox was DOA, so a new one is being shipped from the States. When I get it and install it, I'll run a couple flattening operations and check the results. Things that I did previously--before noticing the fan fault, were good in profile cutting but pocket cuts left noticeable ridges, but I can't tell you from memory whether they were X or Y issues (nor how bad the ridges were), as testing wasn't the point of the operation and consequently I didn't take notice of it at the time. I think I was just jogging the running bit slightly for a visiting friend who expressed interest. Anyway, thanks again to you all--including Christian, whose responses provoked thought, and not only consternation --for your messages. I'll try to pick this up again when my fan arrives in a few weeks.
