Hey all, noob here. I have been trying to level the z, and seeing some issues I hope are just my poor craftsmanship in table building.
I averaged based on instructions in 4 locations. I am assuming what I have should be fixed by surfacing the spoil-board, but wanted to make sure I am not missing something. Appreciate any help from the wise!
I don’t think spoil board surfacing will fix an un-level Z. You have to first get Z level via Z0 or Z1 pulloff adjustment per the docs, and then level your board I think? I’m going through a lot of this still myself, but that’s how I understand it.
If you go to the “Z Leveling” section of the LowRider 4 Build docs you’ll scroll down a bit and see where you adjust the pulloff. Unless you’ve already done that, sorry if so.
This is from the docs:
To take this a bit further most Z accuracy critical projects have you surfacing your material so this step is not critical as that will get the surface as flat as possible.
I take that as surfacing your spolboard can help.
It would, but why mill away material if you can instead do it in software?
Leveling the Z axis should tilt both the x- and z-axis without changing their angle to each other, unlike on an cartesian 3D printer. You’re basically getting the x-axis as close as parallel to the spoilboard as reasonably possible.
Then you flatten to take out any bow, twist, misalingement in Y and the last of the misalignement in X.
Edit: Depending on the thickness of the spoil board, I would mill the last 0.4mm flat here.
I think my concern is the 1mm difference in opposing corners. I was under the impression I couldn’t fix that, without throwing other things out of whack. Its completely possible I am real dumb here though, this is my first time.
My concern was the 1mm difference in the opposing corners. I was thinking if i fix back left (lowest) it will throw out other areas, but I am completely new, so I could be missing something for sure.
You can fix the left to right with pulloffs. The front to back would require surfacing. What kind of work do you plan on doing? Tweak the pulloff and that’s plenty good for through cuts.
You can fix the 0.4 left to right.
The 0.6 back to front can’t be fixed with limit switches or pulloffs.
The 1mm diagonal, you have to split in two axis because of that.
This makes sense to me, thank you!
Which two corners would you recommend I use as the basis of pull off adjustment? Front or rear?
i cut my first strut plate, it cut through fine, but i noticed over the length run in Y, i was milling into spoilboard fairly deep in the front, down to nothing at the back end. Thats where I decided I needed to reach out to the forums.
Usually it’s done for the front which seems reasonable for your values.
I see it clearly now, thank you!
i will correct the .4, and then look into a surfacing bit and try to correct the front rear after I cut my second strut plate.
Thank you!
Better don’t use a surfacing bit in a trim router, they can’t slow down enough.
A dovetail bit or a stubby, larger endmill are the better choice.
Goad you chimed in, I had no idea! I purchased this bit when I bought the kit. Would it be favorable to resurface?
Glad you chimed in, I had no idea! I purchased this bit when I bought the kit. Would it be favorable to resurface?
It will be a very long job to surface with that 1/4" bit. You’ll want some overlap, so you’ll be getting between 1/8" and 3/16" complete surface with each pass (after the first one), so divide your whole surface by that and see how many passes you’ll need.
The reason dovetail bits are recommended is that the bottom cuts flat but is quite a bit larger diameter, so you’ll need far fewer passes across the surface to flatten it out. I’ve already got a dovetail router bit, so it’s an easy call for me to make, but I would buy one for this task if I didn’t already own one. You may want to “do the math” on babysitting the machine for the full duration of the surfacing job to decide whether it’s worth investing in one.
Something like this. This is the one I bought.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00002241Z?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2
I have that exact one as well.
For what it’s worth as Ryan says and Jason asked it depends on what you are going to do. I would make the minor pullback tweak but you really are not too bad out of the box. I used my LR4 for about 6 months and really did not have issues and got to know my machine.
I seldom ever use my whole work area.
I did last week decide to finally take a leveling pass. I bought this and was very happy.
https://a.co/d/03uHXT5d
My spoilboard is MDF and this actually cuts like butter. I kept the RPM to around 11-12k. I was surprised how easy MDF just cut away.
Note: Ryan offerers a longer dust collection skirt I recommend for this cutter. Print both the holder and skirts.
I appreciate the help!
While I am going to start small, I do have 3d carving ambitions eventually. I don’t think I will use the entire surface either, but likely a large portion for some projects I have planned. I also want to have surfacing capability for some reclaimed wood I have access to, so learning on my spoilboard seems like a good idea!
