New to CNC & X-Carve. Alignment issue & questions

X-Carve Troubleshooting
1

Hello,
I recently purchased a used X-carve machine . New wasn’t an option since shipping to Canada was ~900$ and borders are closed for pickup right now. I manage to only find one within 12 hour drive radius, so i picked it up knowing very little about them. the seller said he changed it to a gshield and change the clamps & basebaord(not sure what it’s called).

Question 1: I hear about gshield upgrade, but cannot find what it actually is?! What is it, what is its purpose and why would anyone get it over not having it?

I’ve done a few projects through easel which is going well so far. but i noticed that the cutouts don’t appear to be square. I joint all sides of my wood pieces, i put a square down on my board and ensure it’s square to the clamping rails but the lines don’t come out straight in the end. I’ve uploaded some pictures to help show what i mean.

I’ve also uploaded pictures of my equipment, since I don’t really know what I have, maybe someone can tell me? lol

what’s the spintle toggle switch for in the pic ?

any help/guidance is greatly appreciated!

Thank you

20200522_213917
20200522_2139173920×3016 1.08 MB
20200522_213945
20200522_2139452436×3336 700 KB
20200522_214029
20200522_2140293024×3900 1.03 MB
20200522_214113
20200522_2141134072×2648 1000 KB

2

You should check that your X axis is square to the Y makerslide. You can tape a tape measure and measure from opposing corners and see if the measurements are equal. Make sure after you home the machine, that it is still square to the Y makerslide. Adjust all your V wheels too.

I noticed that there is flex in the X axis after homing and that the distance to the riser plates isn’t always the same after homing. I saw in one video where a man made a couple alignment fixtures to get the axis squared up before the motors were engaged, which would help out a great deal. Once the motors are on, they both move at the same time and rate.

3

Thanks for the reply, what does home the machine mean exactly?
What is the riser plate?

(when i mean i’m new at this, i mean really new)

4

The riser plates ( they call them end plate I guess) are at the front and back of the Y axis makerslide and connect it to the extrusion at the bottom.

Homing the machine utilizes a switch on each axis that you send the carriage to. It sounds like you may not have them.

Either way, you should ensure the x axis is the same distance from the front end plates manually.

plate
plate976×696 452 KB

Homing switches are especially helpful if you’re using jigs or carving repetitive project types.

https://www.inventables.com/technologies/x-carve-homing-switch-kit

5

I don’t have any switches or any sort of wiring going towards those plates on all 4 corners.
I’ll have to search videos and hopefully find something to help.

i think my Z is off too, the last piece of wood i engraved was deeper on the left hand side than the right hand side (about 1ft away, it was 1mm less deep), the wood was jointed so it should’ve been perfectly flat too, but it’s been doing that on a few pieces.

Is there a general maintenance video on this machine for upkeep? the replacing brush in 611 dewalt was useful (already had to do that). This tool is awesome when it works properly, I’d like to keep it going that way as much as i can with proper maintenance.

6

I found these two videos helpful:
Tune Up the x-carve and X-Carve service & test

There’s also one by Paw-Paw where he used two sticks to square up his machine, Squaring with no math. This worked nicely for me.

1 Like
7

thank you!