How far can board sensor see?

[clayburgh]

I built a sled as per the instructions (side rails cut to 2.25 inches, 1.5 inches from rail to bed), and tried to measure it. I got an edge sensor error when measuring lenght. I turned the sled upside down, and it measured correctly. I thought that the formica on the bed was too dark, so for a test, I put another .75" bord with very light grey formica on top of the original bed, and tried again, with the same results. The new setup has the bed at .75" from the rollers. I did the sensor check and it showed a reading of 0. I placed a very white paper on the sled and at .75" got a reading of 12. My sensor seems to only see about .5 inches unless it is a very bright target. On a flat pine board, it shows over 100. Is this normal, or is my sensor near sighted?

Don Clayburgh

[Jeff_Birt]

A sled as you described would be used for scanning. When in scan mode the board sensor is not used.

For carving, the sleds construction is different. You may or may not have sides and you normally have a 3.5" wide piece of stock on either end of what you are carving to keep some part of the sled under the rollers at all times. The sides and/or the ends all have to be the same height as teh stock you are cutting.

[clayburgh]

Jeff, Thanks for the reply. That helps me understand it better. I will build a different sled for carving, and keep this one for when I get the probe.

Don Clayburgh:cool:

[rpringle]

Don,

I think most of us use a plane board cut carefully to be square and long enough to accomodate your carving plus, at least 3.5in on each end.

I hold the pieces in place with carpet tape.

Russ

[liquidguitars]

I am thinking it is just over .50" so once you get it up and running try tape/paper to cover all of the sled.

http://www.liquidguitars.com/assets/images/sledcoverR002.jpg


http://www.liquidguitars.com/assets/images/sleadtapeR001.jpg

I am playing with a idea of masking the sled with a formica sheet that can be removed before carving. hmmm...
LG

[clayburgh]

Thanks Russ and Liquid Guitars for the info. The diagrams and photos show what I was experiencing. The .5 inch was almost exactly what I saw. Now I will make a sled more suited to carving. I just did not fully understand the way the machine looked at the board at first, but now it makes sense.

Don Clayburgh