Hello all. First post here. Just completed my first Lowrider 3 build and have had great success up till now…
I am using Estlcam, and the lowrider 3 is equipped with a jackpot board (everything bought from V1).
I have successfully cut out the struts as well as a few other items, but on the latest attempt to cut out a torsion box table, I am having the problem that I have not been able to troubleshoot myself.
After jogging machine into the desired start position and beginning the job, it probes just fine. After probing though it will appear to begin running toward the start point, but will overshoot and continue until the steppers start ratcheting as the machine is “out of bounds” off the mdf spoil board.
I assumed it was a corrupt file or I failed to select a proper “Zero” in Estlcam so I rebuilt the file again and verified all was correct. It continues to produce the same failed result. I looked at all my settings in setup and they all look good to me and have worked fine in the past few cut jobs so I am at a loss as to why it would act this way?
Can you post the gcode file, or the first dozen lines at least?
Hey Dreufus,
Here are the files I have tried… the lines of code are on my phone, but only have horible partial screenshots.
[Files removed]
looking at your gcode and its first move is to X12610 Y10271… That makes me think you might have imported into estlcam using the wrong unit of measure. Did you import something that was designed in mm as inch?
When you did your cam did the colored lines show up super tiny in estlcam? Another thing you can do is enable the grid. I usually set mine at either 25.4x25.4 or 304.8x304.8. So that gives me a grid of 1" x 1" squares or 1’ x 1’ squares. Either way I can easily get a visual if my part is looking the right size or not.
Thank you Jonathan! Not sure why I overlooked that, but that was it (Newbie here). I imported the file in MM and it works just fine now. I am implementing your suggestion to apply the grid as a double check that the object size is correct.
Thanks again for the quick fix!!!
No problem at all. I only knew to look for it because I have made the same mistake a few times LOL. Glad that got you taken care of!
Someone once told me, ‘ time is a flat circle’.
Glad you got it sorted out!
Also, and this is a more advanced bit of knowledge, you can input the dimensions of cuttable area of your table into your config.YAML file, and there in the file are options for enabling hard stops and soft stops. Enabling this means that once you home your machine, it will know the actual bounds of your cuttable area, and instead of crashing and crunching, it will simply come to a stop if you try to drive it outside the bounds of the cuttable area. If this is enabled, then, if your G-code cut file tries to drive it outside the bounds, you might get confused by its lack of cooperating with you, but at least you wouldn’t have that annoying crunching-crashing thing happening.
Nice looking build! Welcome to the V1 community.
I’m pretty sure this has happened to 100% of the people here at least once.
Not me. 
That’s the nicest looking LR3 build I’ve seen yet! Nice work!
I concur, that’s a super nice looking LowRider!!
That’s only 2 types of motorcycle riders. Those that have laid down their bike and those that will.
I unfortunately am in the first group, for both CNC and Motorcycle’s LOL. I will say I would much rather move the CNC beyond limits than lay down a bike again LOL
I quit riding before I hit the 2nd group. But I keep toying with the idea of starting up again. I’ve definitely bounced my machine off the physical stops a couple times.
Do it long enough and like you said, its not if its when. It happened to me early on. I got super lucky, and it was my own fault for being stupid. Riding right after it had rained. In stop and go lunch time traffic. Was in the center of the lane where all the oil is. Traffic stopped much faster than it had been. I grabbed a hand full of brake and the bike just basically came out from under me. Was only going maybe 20 mph. Helmet never touched the ground. Had a little road rash and was sore for a few days but all in all it wasn’t bad at all. And I fixed everything on the bike for about $500 lol. Not bad for a HD Road King lol. This was also back in about 2004ish when things were a LOT cheaper than they are now lol.