Hey guys, having a blast with the lowrider2 so far. I tried the search function, but couldn’t get any posts or how to’s to pull up. My question is, when cutting larger projects such as a 2’x4’ rectangle panel, how can I set the router to utilize the factory edge of the plywood and eliminate the router having to cut the fourth side? I am sure it is in the setup, but haven’t found the answer yet. Thanks .
Super interesting question. I had to try to figure it out. You have to use “engrave” for open shapes. Then use manual selection to just pick the lines you want to follow. You can still make it a hole or part as well by selecting which side of the line to be on.
Neat!
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To set this up precisely though, you’ll need to make sure your origin is set right on the edge, and the edge is parallel with the machine.
A quick thing to do (using Ryan’s example project above) would be to make a separate gcode to:
- drill a hole at the origin
- drill two more holes the size of a dowel you own, who’s very “top” just touch the bottom edge of the finished product.
Then you push some dowels into those two holes, and align the workpiece up against them before clamping. You move your drill bit overy the origin hole you made in the spoil board, and reset the origin. Good to go.
Jeffe and Ryan, thanks for the responses. I like the dowel idea with the gcode for alignment. The engraving function makes sense as well, as my line of thinking was to use the part cutout and just let the router bit trace/parallel the factory edge, mimicking as if it was cutting the piece. I realize the tolerances are key. Thanks for the help.
You can also add in the origin and dowel locations in your CAD.
I’ve done something similar for predrilling holes for hold down screws. Imagine a big workpiece with a cutout in the middle, I would add some drill holes in CAD, then make a separate gcode to just tap those holes to ~2mm. Then I would run the hole gcode first, and use the marked location to predrill and install some screws to hold down the workpiece. Then I would run the main job, and the big pieces I cut out would stay put because they were held down by screws.
Ryan, isn’t there a touch sensor to start zero, zero from? Pick a corner, set it as zero X, zero Y coordinates and begin the cut starting there?
Not in this capacity. Really fancy ones probe multiple points to locate and orient. Just getting Zero is not enough. Dowels or a pre-cut rail will work with really good accuracy.
Kind of related to your question Mike, this is why I say Dual endstops are more complicated. As soon as accuracy depends on work placement of things get complicated really fast. For this threads example precisely locating an edge and making sure it is parallel with the machine (I’m sure it isn’t that important in this case), for others a flip runs into the same issues.