Is there anyone in the Southern Illinois area that can give me a little help getting my newly built LR3 running correctly?
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Post pictures and ask questions right here. There are guys all over the world willing to help you
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Hey brother, I just joined too. Did you do the discobot chat walkthrough yet in your profile? Iâve been trying to get mine built for almost a year. Itâs the software and wiring that Iâm terrible at. Haha
Iâm looking for like a beginners section with all the common questions, but canât find yetâŚ
I know thereâs some forums where it seems like every question is answered with âthatâs been asked before just use the searchâ.
Itâs not like that here; whatever point youâre at just say whatâs stumped you and people will generally be able to help,
That said, good questions get good answers.
Be specific about what your issue is and what youâve already tried/tested and what the results were.
âMy boards not workingâ could mean itâs not got lights, not connecting to the lcd, not running jobs or something completely different
And pictures also really really help.
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The docs have got first steps documents for everything up until your first crown/cuts. Did you check those out?
Beyond the simple getting-started section that Ryan provides, there is no beginnerâs CNC material. Machines builds are not all the same, and a variety of different tools are used in the software pipeline, plus individuals have their own perferred way of doing things. Usually, there are multiple different ways to approach any CNC project. With all this variation, it is difficult to make a tutorial. But here is a progression of tasks that builds specific skills in steps.
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Using a pen, draw the pre-made crown. The pre-made crown is a g-code file that, without any authoring steps, can be sent directly to your CNC. The pre-made crown as well as the crown vector file (used in the next step) here.
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Using EstlCAM (or the CAM tool of your choice), recreate the pre-made crown and draw it with your machine. Bonus points if your new crown is the 1) the same size, and 2) has the same starting point for the pen. For this step, you need to understand how to use G92 g-code to set the origin relative to your stock.
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Author and then draw a large rectangle. Make it take up most of your work space. Measure the diagonals. If they donât match, adjust the stop blocks and/or use M666 to make them match. This is the first place where you are required to figure out some vector tool to make a drawing.
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CAM and draw a vector file of your choice. There are lots of free files on the internet. The goal here is to not only draw the file, but to draw the file at the size and place you want. Restrict yourself to a specific piece of paper like 8 1/2" x 11" and have the drawing fill the page but not go over the margins. Not necessary at this point, but a bonus task is to author/use two different colors of pens. Hang the result on the wall (this is your first real project from your machine).
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Time to route some wood. Contour cut a square of some wood. Use Ryanâs suggested starting feeds, speeds, and depth of cut. I recommend using a 1/8â, single flute, upcut bit for this step. Using calipers verify the block cut is the same size as you authored. If you authored a square of 1.5â x 1.5â, your resulting square should be very close to this size. There are mechanical and authoring reasons why the wood might not match. Learn about finishing passes. I recommend you keep your clamp/hold-down strategy simple at this point. Use double-sided tape, or screw the wood to your spoil board. This is the shake-down of your machine and may require several attempts to get your toolpath correct and your machine working correctly.
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Watch this video about feeds and speeds, then author multiple squares from the previous step using different feeds, speeds, RPMs, and perhaps depths of cut. Your goal is to see how your specific machine performs cutting a specific wood/material with a specific bit. Figure out how you are going to keep your speeds and feeds notes for future work.
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Contour cut a few shapes using your selected feeds and speeds you selected from the previous step. Include a square and a circle, and again measure to verify you are cutting out the right sizes.
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Contour cut a wall hanging of some sort. Use a single piece of some sort of thin/cheap stock. 4â x 8â sheets of hardboard or underlayment are cheap. If your hanging uses a different wood than the previous step, you may need to repeat the feeds and speeds on this new wood. There are lots of free vector files on the net. Pick something fairly simple. Wall hangings are forgiving because 1) nothing has to fit together, 2) problems like deflection donât show, and 3) there are no bit changes. Note you may want to mirror your design so you are cutting from the back side. Assuming you are using an upcut bit, any tear out will be on the back side.
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With some scrap wood create some pockets. Create some rectangular and circular pockets and verify their sizes.
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Create a simple tray with a single compartment. This task will combine contour cutting and pocket cutting in the same g-code file.
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Design and make a tray for your router bits and any other doodads that you have next to your CNC machine. Bonus points if you do an irregular cutout for something like your wrench for your router.
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Create a simple box with a lid. Use pocketing and contour cutting. This is the first place where you will be creating something that has parts that need to fit together.
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Time to try v-carving. You will need a v-carve bit and a larger (at least 1/4") bit. Start by v-carving a simple sign or a piece of pre-cut wood. There are a few things to figure out here that you may not have had to deal with on the previous steps. First, your authoring needs to match the size of the pre-cut stock, and second, you need to figure out how to square up your stock to match your machine. After getting things set up, you likely will need to surface/face your stock. That is, having your router skim the surface of your stock so that the top of the stock is precisely aligned with the movement of the router. My early v-carving was given as greeting cards to family and friends, and was text and graphics on some pre-cut wood.
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Create a sign. Use v-carving, perhaps pocketing, and contour cut the sign from the stock. This is the first place you will be required to do a bit change where the work of the two bits must be aligned. Personally, I author each different bit as a separate g-code file, but otherâs author the bit change as part of a single g-code file. You will want to experiment with some scrap to figure out how you want to handle bit changes. Note that if you are going to paint or stain the sign using different tones, there are woodworking skills to be researched here. In particular, you need to figure out how to minimize the bleeding.
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Relief carve something simple. All the preceding tasks could be done with simple vector graphics, but relief carving requires some sort of 3D model. Some tools use STL files like are input to slicers for 3D printers. Other tools use grayscale height maps. You may want to use a ball nose bit. Start simple. Insulation foam board is a cheap and forgiving material to use in the beginning.
If you have problems with these tasks (or any other task) donât hesitate to ask questions on the forum. Specifics like pictures, bits, and speed and feeds are really helpful for answering questions.
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Thank you. This really pulled a lot of questions I had together into one linear understanding of all the posts Iâve read.
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thank you for this info. this is what i am wanting to learn.
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