I need some guidance for calibrating my Root 4 lite.
I did a dry test to check the traveling distance.
When sending the code X100 and Y100, both axis will travel 10 cm. I measured the distance and these were correct.
My next step was to mill a square of 10x10. I measured both sides but only the Y-as was correct, X-as came 2 mm short. (see pictures). Does anyone have an idea how to fix the X-as?
My settings were:
Spindle speed: 10.000 rpm
Traveling speed: 1000 mm/min
Depth per pass: 0.5 mm.
Given you’ve already calibrated the steps per mm value.
I would consider the following:
Spindle speed seems too low for wood.
What type of spindle are you using?
I would take deeper cuts and then follow up with a clean up pass on the part with a step over of roughly 0.3mm
Hi Pete, thanks for your reply.
My spindle is a cheap one: Machifit ER11 Chuck CNC 500 W.
Today I performed the following test:
- Made a 20x20 mm square in Thinkercad
- Loaded the SVG file into ESTLCAM
- Fixed speed for X and Y: 500 mm/min
- Depth per pass: 0.3, 1 , 2 and 3 mm
- Tool: Carbide End Mill 3.175 Mm 4 Flute Frees
Conclusion: Only equal side square with setting: 500 mm/min at 0.3 mm.
I think you are correct. The spindle speed is too low for wood.
Although, for non-professional use, it is good enough for some DIY projects.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to build your machine!
You should be able to do better with that spindle, I’m sure. maybe a straight flute endmill will do the job. failing that, maybe a spindle upgrade in the near future?
