I have my LowRider up and running now and have managed to print the crown (Test-Crown-12mms) downloaded from this site.
I have been trying to follow the instructions to generate my own gcode for the same crown again using Estlcam II from the 0102.dfx file, again form this site.
I have followed the instructions carefully but when I load this up to my LowRider and press start the tool just bottoms on the z axis.
As it is working ok with the test file, it must be something I am doing either in Estlcam II preparation or how I have set up .
First thing to check is that your z steps are right:
Home Z
Measure between the threaded rod nut to the top of the stepper
Use the LCD to move Z down 50mm
Measure between the threaded rod nut to the top of the stepper and verify it is 50mm.
Next confirm you are zeroing Z correctly - how are you doing that at the minute?
The controller settings should not matter at all to you because you are not flashing your controller with Estlcam.
What could be the problem is that in the Basic Settings the “Feed unit CNC programs” and “Feed unit Estlcam” are different. I think the way it is setup now you are saying that it should move 15mm/s in Estlcam, in the Gcode it writes 15mm/min. Might be a start at least.
Thank you for getting back to me. I have measured between the threaded rod nut to the top of the stepper by using the LCD to move Z down 50mm. I did this 5 times and got an average result of 50.07mm.
I am quite new to this so want to be sure I understand what you mean by saying “Next confirm you are zeroing Z correctly - how are you doing that at the minute?”
At the moment I just press the home button on the LCD and let all the axis’ home themselves. Should I be doing something different?
Thank you for getting back to me. I have used the premade gcode test crown file, it works perfectly. I did the drawing of the crown about with this file.
So when you home everything it sets x and y as 0,0 and Z as 200 - up out of the way.
The thing you have to do next is tell the machine when the tool or pen is touching the top of the workpiece/page - THAT is Z at 0
How you do that depends on if you are using a touch plate but essentially you move the z down so it’s touching and then send a command to set that as 0
The command is G92 Z0
This can be sent using the terminal from the lcd, from software or included in the starting script of your gcode file
Thank you for getting back to me. I did this and it certainly stopped the machine crashing into the work piece, but it only made a couple of short moves then locked up. I ran the premade gcode test crown file, and again that works perfectly, so I suspect it’s a problem with how I am compiling the gcode file in Estlcam II.
In all fairness I would certainly like to understand what I am doing wrong, then at least I can gain a better understanding of CNC work. Saying that I can use Fusion 360 reasonably well so would this be a better alternative to Estlcam II?
Thanks. I was thinking about using Adobe Illustrator to Adobe Dimension. I just happen to have these programmes on my pc with my photoshop subscription
