Complete noob here, but fascinated with the prospect of purchasing, constructing and using a LR3 to cut full sheets of 3/4" plywood to construct custom poker tables.
I do have a question about the X and Y references. In my (limited) experience, when viewing the X/Y plane on a computer screen, X axis is L to R (horizontal) and the Y axis is up and down (vertical). I have designed all of my parts in FreeCAD such that most parts are centered on the origin, with the wider dimension of the table being along the X axis and the narrower dimension of the table being on the Y axis. This is pretty much needed to view the elliptical table surface fully on a rectangular computer screen. As a result, all of my X and Y references for the table are fixed with X being the major axis.
LR3 seems to be the opposite, with the X axis by necessity being the narrower dimension, and the Y axis being the longer dimension. So will I have to redraw all of my designs with a 90 degree transformation (means that the table would appear with 90 degree rotation on the computer screen, and would need to be zoomed out to fit fully on the screen), or could I simply connect the stepper motors differently so that the Y axis motors respond to X axis movement commands (and vice versa).
Or am I completely misunderstanding something here?
Broadly speaking In 3 dimensional CAD and CAM X is left right, Y is forward and back and Z is the vertical axis (lathes are different) and this is the way 3D printers have carried it on.
The important thing is - no you don’t have to change a thing with how you design or rewire anything. When you come to lay out parts to cut on a CNC you can move and rotate them to fit your work area.
Thanks for the response. When I mentioned up and down, I was referring to the computer screen, so yes, I understand that the Y axis is forward and back (further and nearer), and the the Z axis is up and down (when looking at the XY Plane from the top).
I think that you are saying that I should still lay my parts out in FreeCAD the same when designing and virtually assembling , and rather than modifying the LR3 motors, I should just lay out the parts for the Path workbench to fit the LR3 orientation of wide axis being Y and narrow axis being X. Is that correct?
Yes that’s right. If you have multiple parts there are apps like https://deepnest.io/ which will lay them out for you to make the most efficient use of your sheet.
Are you using freecad for cam as well? The CAM step should let you rotate the design before assigning toolpaths.
The LR3 has dual Y motors. It would be more than rewiring them to swap them. You need to change the firmware to dual X.
The decision is a bit arbitrary. The initial thought is you would be standing at the “foot” of the machine and so X is left to right on the smaller axis. It shouldn’t be a huge headache. But if it is, you can change the firmware.
Also, just to be clear. Positive Y is away from you. Positive Z is up.
Thanks @jeffeb3 . Yes, I will be using Freecad for CAM, but I’m still on the learning curve with it, and haven’t gotten to the Path workbench yet. My question probably would have been answered there if I had taken a few more steps on that journey before falling into this particular rabbit hole!
Thanks for the info about the dual Y motors and the need to change firmware if going down that path (sounds like I don’t need to go there, so probably won’t).
And yes, positive X is right (East), positive Y is away (North) and positive Z is up. Got that, thanks!
I know @DougJoseph has his x and y swapped on his machine and has the few parts needed to make that happen and I believe the firmware changes needed as well
On the other hand it’s simple to change it in cam. At least in estlcam it is. I know nothing about freecad
Yep, I swapped my X and Y axes on my LowRider v3, and edited the firmware accordingly, and the process included making it so my new Y axis could home to the new location (which is the opposite of how it homed when it was the X axis). This process was not difficult, and I’m glad I did it.
The whole process was discussed and documented here:
and the printed parts for the homing switch are available here:
@DougJoseph - Thanks for that information! It looks fairly straightforward to switch the X and Y axis (including changing the homing), so I may go that route as I go through my upcoming build. I also like several of your mods, including the cable drag chain, which I am also considering implementing as part of my build. Well done!
