Title says it all. I just finished building my lowrider and am super excited to start making some chips. The problem that I’m running into is that every time I try to generate my own gcode, the router takes sometimes up to 20 minutes to start actually moving, meanwhile the steppers are humming and and making sounds as if they are trying to move the machine. The test crown file works fine, and I even tried copying it’s starting gcode over to my own files but I’m still getting the same results. This is especially frustrating because I followed the guide to the letter. Any insights would be greatly appreciated- I’m probably missing something pretty simple.
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Did you confirm you are outputting the correct units from your CAM program? It would also be beneficial to upload your gcode for the veteran forum members to have a look.
The units should all be correct, I’m using Estlcam V12 with all the settings from the startup guide. Apparently I can’t upload files as a new user, so here’s a copy paste of my gcode. Thank you!
;Project Diamond
;Created by Estlcam version 12 build 12.135
;Machining time about 01:55:38 hours
G90
M03 S3000
G00 X0.0000 Y0.0000 Z0.0000 F2400
G00 Z5.0000 F900
;No. 1: Engraving 1
G00 X80.6215 Y78.9565 Z5.0000 F2400
G00 Z0.5000 F900
G01 Z0.0000 F300 S3000
G01 Z-1.0000 F300
G01 X150.0002 Y8.1148 F6
G01 X279.1195 Y139.9573 F6
G01 X221.4596 Y191.8852 F6
G01 X78.5407 F6
G01 X20.8805 Y139.9573 F6
G01 X80.6215 Y78.9565 F6
G00 Z5.0000 F900
G00 X0.0000 Y0.0000 F2400
G00 Z0.0000 F900
M05
What controller are you using? That gcode looks problematic either way.
It’s missing all the settings. See milling basics.
I’ve never seen S defined outside of an M3 command.
That is using a feedrate of 6 mm per minute which is incredibly slow. You probably can’t even see it move at that speed.
What do your tool settings look like?
It looks like your rapid speeds (G0) are set ok (XY 2400 mm/min, Z 900 mm/min), although, if it’s FluidNC, it’s ignoring those.
Notice that even Estlcam says this is going to take almost 2 hours for something that should probably take closer to 2 minutes.
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which might explain the humming. The steppers are moving, just suuuuuupeeeeeer slooooooooooow.
The test crown moves pretty sedately really, and it’s feedrate is 720mm/min. You’re moving at 6mm/minute. Break that down into per second and it’s pretty much glacial.
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Yup, @jeyeager nailed it. Your tool settings in EstlCAM seem to be set for 6mm/min, which works out to 0.1mm/sec. At that rate, you won’t see any motion in real time.
Thank you everyone! I’ll try tweaking some settings and see if I get different results and report back. I really appreciate the help!
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Good news! It was my feedrate after all, I was running waaaaaaay too slow. I knew it was going to be something super simple like that lol. Thank you everyone for all your help!
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