Instructions for machining components using the

AXYZ CNC milling machine

Room cnc router - g17b at Grand Parade

FABLAB BRIGHTON 2018

1.Setup material and clamp

Make sure machine is off!

Clamp material, ensuring that sacrificial material is underneath your material, and make sure
your material is square and lined up with the sacrificial front edge.
2. Setup machine
Twist Emergency Stop to check it's out and not activated.

Press the green button to turn on the machine.

Seek X/Y origin - YES - press enter to start.

Start spindle (may take time to warm up).

Timer counts down 10 mins whilst warming up spindle.

If you want to the stop the 10 min warmup, press the RED button on the keypad which has
the spinning disc on it (NOT the emergency stop!).
Use ruler to measure the distance the clamp protrudes e.g. 20mm within the edges. Subtract
this from the job size measurements (the clamps at the back don’t matter).

Press ‘F’ and 3 and enter to set XY, then move the gantry manually using the 2 (towards
back), 4 (left), 6 (right), 8 (towards front), 1,3,7,9 (diagonally).

Note that +- will speed up or slow down the movement of the gantry.

After you position XY to where you want 0 to be correctly, then Press ‘F’ + 3 and enter again
to set the XY as zero. Check that the zero for X and Y is where it should be.

Note that ‘F’ and 13 will take the gantry back to XY 0.

CHANGING TOOL/Ensuring it is in correctly section?????

Press ‘F’ and 84 and enter.

Set Surface: move the gantry down (use an appropriate speed! Using +-). Spin the spindle
by hand as you move the gantry down using increments (very small!) until the cutting tool
just starts to press into the surface. ​A phone torch light from behind the tool can be useful
here​. Then press enter.

Lift bottom: move the gantry up and over away from the edge, then down to your lower z limit
to about half way through the sacrificial material. This will restrict the machine to that depth.
Note that when you’re there, z should be lower than our maximum cut depth -18.5mm we set
earlier. Then press Enter to accept that value. Note that when prompted for the lift bottom,
you can press ‘F’ and then enter the z-bottom limit manually (this might be needed if you
can’t actually move the gantry down because the workpiece is in the way).

Lift top: set the top limit well above the work surface (about 20mm) which is clearly above
the 6mm safe z. Press Enter when done.

Press ‘F’ 13 and the machine will move to 0,0 some distance above the workpiece.

Then bring the guard down by turning the switch dial to the left to bring it down. The machine
will hiss at you like it is tsking at your bad jokes.

3. VCarve Pro software (to generate tool path).

Start - Programs - V-Carve Pro.

File - Open (find .dxf file).

Job setup:
Measurements should be the size of your board or cutting area not the full machine
dimensions

Width: X 1000 (if there is nothing blocking X)

Height: Y 980 (needs to be clear of the clamps at the front which are in the way)

Material (Z): 18mm (from our own measurements). Make sure that you zero the TOP option
(the top radio button).

XY Datum Position: UNCHECK Use Offset (it will go to 0,0), and make sure you select the
BOTTOM LEFT option.

Units: mm

Design Scaling: keep the option unchecked.

Modelling resolution: Set to STANDARD, and Appearance: SOLID COLOUR.

Click OK.
2D view control
Switch to toolpaths tab (it’s the last icon on the right).

Toolpath Operations
First option/icon is Profile Toolpath.

Cutting depth
Start depth: 0mm
Cut depth: add 0.5mm to the depth of your material e.g. 18.5mm for material thickness of
18mm. This allows the cut to go beyond the material so it will go into the sacrificial material
below.
Make sure the ‘Show advanced toolpath options’ option is selected.

Tool
Select - Metric - End Mills - 6mm
Keep the default settings but could play around with cutting parameters and slower speeds.
Click OK

Machine Vectors
Direction: Outside/right, Conventional
ALLOWANCE OFFSET: 0
Vector startpoint: leave unchecked

Layers

Need to consider outside vs inside cuts - for profile cuts and pocketing - TBC

Last pass
Don’t tick separate last pass - would improve quality but requires changing tool.

Tabs
Constant number, start with about 6.

Tick add tabs to tool path

Length 6mm (length should vary dependant on part size)
Thickness 2mm (thickness should vary dependant on board thickness)

Select the drawing on your drawing view, then go to Edit Tabs, press Add Tabs and then
move the tabs on the drawing to where you want them

SafeZ - is the same as Zjog in fabmodules - 6mm.

Type name of file

Click Calculate

Warning pop up - incase you don’t have sacrificial layer warns it would cut into machine.
Click OK

Then press Preview All Toolpaths and it gives you a rendered view and animation of the
piece and you can see the toolpath.

Press close.

Select the profile (we called ours Profile 1).

Click on Save Toolpath which is the 2nd from the bottom right.

Keep the options unchecked (relating to output), then for the post processor chose the AXYZ
Arcs (mm) (*.nc) and select Save Toolpath/s.
4. AXYZ DNC software - sending toolpath to
machine
Click on AMC File Mode and Select File (find your .nc file saved from step 3). Click Send
File.

5. Cut

Go to the CNC machine and press the yellow folder button (top left) which will cycle through
the files to be machined, and find your .nc file (but don’t do anything yet).

Turn on the muck sucker extraction.

Then goto the CNC again and hit the Green IO button on the keypad (NOT the main green
ON button).It will move to the ‘Lift Top Height’ if you are then happy with the setup press the
 Green button again to start the job. It will start! Then make sure you close the gates, put on
your PPE and stand behind the gates.

If need to pause the job at any point press Red keypad button (not Emergency Stop) Press
Green keypad button to start again. To cancel a job once paused press F9.

If there is an emergency hit big red Emergency Stop button.

6. Aftermath
Once the cutting has finished, turn the machine off, gnaw at the part like a beaver with your
two front teeth until you’re able to take a full bite at the part like an apple, or you can cut it
out with a chisel and hammer if that’s easier.

From our comb, here’s a table of fits we achieved with the 18mm ply:

Comb slot width Comb slot width, n=6 Fit type Notes
(as drawn mm) (as measured mm)
 17.00 17.12​±0.05 Forced fit High interference shrink fit requiring
considerable force to assemble with a
mallet

17.25 17.38​±0.04 Driving fit Medium interference requiring light

tapping to assemble with a mallet

17.50 17.69​±0.07 Press fit Light interference assembling can be

done by pressing by hand

17.75 17.92​±0.07 Location fit Very close clearances for precise

accuracy requirements, which can be
assembled without force

18.00 18.11​±0.04 Sliding Minimal clearances for high accuracy

requirements, which can be easily
assembled and slide together freely

18.25 18.36​±0.05 Easy Moderate clearances with a bit of play.

running Use when you have minimal
requirements for accuracy

18.50 18.64​±0.09 Loose Larger clearance which rattles, for use

running where accuracy is not essential

And here’s an image showing how the fit for one of the comb slots was tested with another
piece of 18mm ply.
On machine:
Centre X/Y: Function 3
Rate: +/- button
2,4,6,8 to move (1,3,7,9 move diagonally)
Function 3 set

Set Z: Function 84
0 and 5 up and down
Function 84 set

Open toolpath software??

Drawing:
Import DXF file
Export as R12 Lines and Arcs
Make sure your drawing avoids the clamps.

Switch to toolpath tab:

Start cut: 0
Cut depth: 18.5mm (material thickness + half mm)
Metric: 6mm end mill

References and useful links

1. CNC design guide ​https://www.engineeringclicks.com/design-guide-cnc-milling/
2. Online design feedback for CNC parts ​https://www.plethora.com/how-it-works