question re: finding surface

[optionman]

ever since i have had my cw i have never been able to load a project normally in order to carve. i always have the machine measure (#7 on keypad) the board first, then when its finished measuring (and the board is all the way to the left as looking at the keypad) i load the project and the machine then prompts me for the bit, tests the bit against the plate, and then tests for the carving surface.

do to the location of the board after measuring, the machine never actually tests for the surface on my intended carving piece. it is ALWAYS testing the 3.5 inch end piece rather than the corian work-piece. since it is very difficult to exactly match the heights of the corian work piece with the end piece, my question is what can i do to have the cw test the surface of my work-piece before beginning the carve. hundreths of an inch can make a big impact on something that's only .15 deep at max.

[liquidguitars]

hundreths of an inch can make a big impact on something that's only .15 deep at max.


I hit the stop key when bit is looking at the sleds deck at indexing. hit "03" to jog to place. then you can move the location of the bit index via the arrows to the center of your corian work-piece. Done.

as a side note I like to add more then 3.5 to the end of the sleds as it's better in the long run.

LG

[cnsranch]

You'll get a couple of responses to your post, but I'll give it a try -

Assuming I understood you correctly, a couple of things need to be done differently.

You should insert the card into the machine, turn it on, go to project menu, select your project. Then the machine will ask you to load your board. It will measure the board at that point, ask you if you want to stay under rollers, center on board, cut board to size, etc. Then, ask you for certain bits, determining length of bit, will touch the bit plate, check surface of board by way of the bit touching it, etc for each bit that you need to complete the project. I don't have my manual, or machine here so you'll have to look into the specifics of the following -

Your machine will auto jog to a part of the board (the location is at its choosing) to touch each bit for depth/surface settings. However, you can go into the menu and set the machine to manually jog to touch. If set manually, the machine will ask you to use the arrow keys to tell it where to touch. That way, you control where the bit touches, so that it won't touch to an area that's already been carved, or to an area of your carrier board that's higher than the piece actually being carved. You only have to jog to touch once - the machine uses that point of reference throughout the carve, so make sure you're not jogging to an area that will be carved.

I do not know how to re-set your machine to its default settings, sounds like you've got some settings entered manually, or at least, you're loading your board and having the machine measure it "out of sequence".

Hope this helps.

[Amonaug]

To set to manual jog
0) options
5) user options

Use arrow keys until you get to manual jog and press enter to set it to "yes"

As for placement of the touch position, doesn't matter if that area will be carved or not. It will only use that position on the inital bit set-up before carving. After that it just has that information stored.

[cnsranch]

Kevin

Doesn't the machine still go to the bit plate and then touch the surface each time you change bits during a carve (my short term memory is fine - what was I talking about?)

[Amonaug]

Kevin

Doesn't the machine still go to the bit plate and then touch the surface each time you change bits during a carve (my short term memory is fine - what was I talking about?)

No it'll just touch the bit plate then carve with that bit using the info it got the first time as to where the surface is/was.

I use manual jog all the time and use the center of the board as my touch point. Just my personal preference.