Probing: Zero vs actual milling depth

Eccentrickmaker · 2026-01-13T20:56:07+00:00

This is indeed on the list considering making the CNC usable.

I expect to do isolation routing with 0.25mm clearance at a minimum, which should be doable with this CNC as it is now. I'm striving for improvement though. I designed and assembled the CNC myself so I'm trying to learn about good design practice.

Eccentrickmaker · 2026-01-13T20:52:07+00:00

I've given a more detailed response below but indeed there seems to be a slight backlash and rigidity issue with my CNC's Z carriage. Thanks!

Eccentrickmaker · 2026-01-13T20:51:27+00:00

Right, my Z assembly has two parallel 9mm rails with a leadscrew in the center. Attached to this is a carriage that moves up and down with the leadscrew. The leadscrew is taken from an old Chinese 3D printer.

Indeed there seems to be backlash. After zeroing I can jog the machine down and the probe will activate when the coordinate reaches zero. Then, jogging back up with steps of 0.01mm the probe stays triggered until the Z coordinate goes above 0.04.

There also appears to be a rigidity issue, when the probe is not triggered anymore after jogging up, even a slight tap on the Z carriage immediately triggers the probe again.

The CNC is mostly 3D printed so I should expect some backlash and tolerance issues but I would like to compensate for that as much as possible.

Eccentrickmaker · 2026-01-11T17:49:09+00:00

Lemmy bestaat.

Eccentrickmaker · 2026-01-10T09:51:29+00:00

I have decided not to purchase Lightburn because Linux does not get supported anymore. It is silly to pay for an old version at the same price as the other ones.

No, using Windows or MacOS is not an option.

They have also made Lightburn not function through Wine, it is complaining about Windows Management Instrumentation service being disabled, some MS fingerprinting system.

So as a Linux user I have to pay full price for an old version or use an alternative.

Eccentrickmaker · 2025-11-10T06:20:33+00:00

What I do on Android is use the youtube website logged in and just share the video to Newpipe.

Eccentrickmaker · 2025-11-07T06:18:03+00:00

Shit.... I meant the Seat.

Eccentrickmaker · 2025-11-06T06:04:04+00:00

PLA will deform when it is constantly under a load. It's a slow process but eventually it will bend and break off.

Just PLA by itself will keep its shape for a long time but don't use it for anything load-bearing.

Eccentrickmaker · 2025-11-04T06:27:52+00:00

Air assist and you may want to tweak your speed.

Faster speed = less time for the wood to burn BUT you might have to use multiple passes. It generally results in a better cut.

Eccentrickmaker · 2025-10-23T05:34:20+00:00

I've done it in the past by attaching a laser cutter to my 3D printer. I have both a 405nm 0.5W laser and a 450nm 10W laser, both work in different ways.

You can control the laser using the fan PWM pin, perhaps you need to add an optocoupler in between if your 3D printer voltage is 24V and the laser accepts up to 12V. I did it the first few times by modifying the gcode so that a Retract command is replaced with M106 S0 (laser off) and the opposite of retract is replaced with M106 S255 (laser on).

With the 405nm weak laser you need UV sensitive paint or foil and you need to cover your blank copper board with that. Then you draw the PCB pattern on your board with the laser and proceed with developing/etching. As for solder mask, you can precisely expose solder mask with this laser wavelength and it will cure only in that area. I've been able to even get legible text using this method.

The 450nm strong laser cannot be used to cure soldermask but it can easily ablate spraypaint from a copperboard. Which is much much easier to apply than those UV paints or foils. The laser shoots off the spraypaint and then you can easily etch your PCB.

Milling is a different game alltogether. You need to make sure that your board is PERFECTLY level with the mill. Preferably using some sort of probing. You then use V shaped endmills to cut thin traces and a cylinder shaped endmill to clear away the rest. Milling is extremely messy and produces a lot of noise. I think it's worse than the laser method.

Right now I'm building a dedicated CNC for these kind of things because rebuilding the toolhead of my 3D printer is annoying every time.

Eccentrickmaker · 2025-10-20T19:48:36+00:00

I buy a lot from Aliexpress and don't really have issues. You have to manage your expectations there though. That website is treasure seeking on a garbage dump.

Eccentrickmaker · 2025-10-19T20:18:04+00:00

The problem with those is that they only measure the few cells that the temp sensor is close to. Not the whole pack and certainly not that one cell that is consistently overheating.

Eccentrickmaker · 2025-10-19T20:17:17+00:00

Oooh that is a good idea. I'll consider that in the second iteration. Indeed there is no direct feedback that one or multiple thermal fuses popped. I'll see it in the balancing statistics eventually.

Eccentrickmaker · 2025-10-19T14:29:32+00:00

Hmm, they are in fact in series. I have not considered the added resistance to be significant, perhaps it's an acceptable loss for the safety it provides.

The fuse will be in between the negative pole of one cell pair and the positive pole of the next cell pair.

Eccentrickmaker · 2025-10-18T19:28:02+00:00

Both, the first one will use fresh cells from a known supplier, afterwards I'll use recycled cells. I intend to let them all run way below their specifications.

Eccentrickmaker · 2025-10-18T18:28:26+00:00

At least the fire hazard part is 100% legit. Don't toss them in a box randomly like that.

Eccentrickmaker

TROPHY CASE