paul_z
05-30-2010, 06:41 PM
I noticed some ridges on the side of cuts that had multiple passes per cut.
In the past I have used a digital level with 0.1 degree resolution to square up the Z axis but the results were barely acceptable.
This time I made sure my router body was parallel to the Z axis. Then I made an extremely simple jig out of a piece of 1/8" music wire. I bent it twice so that I could see how close the end of the wire was to the table. The longer the horizontal section of the jig is, the more accurate the results will be.
I mounted the wire in my 1/8" colette and rotated it by hand, I was able to see immediately that the z axis needed to be rotated slightly in both the x and y directions. It only took a few minutes and I was done. The ridges in the multiple pass cuts are gone and my small parts are much more accurate.
Now for the obvious question ... how accurately does the wire need to be bent? Amazingly, it doesn't matter!!! Any point (such as the far end of the wire) revolved around the cutter axis is in a plane perpendicular to that axis.
It's the best (and cheapest) jig I ever made.
Paul Z
In the past I have used a digital level with 0.1 degree resolution to square up the Z axis but the results were barely acceptable.
This time I made sure my router body was parallel to the Z axis. Then I made an extremely simple jig out of a piece of 1/8" music wire. I bent it twice so that I could see how close the end of the wire was to the table. The longer the horizontal section of the jig is, the more accurate the results will be.
I mounted the wire in my 1/8" colette and rotated it by hand, I was able to see immediately that the z axis needed to be rotated slightly in both the x and y directions. It only took a few minutes and I was done. The ridges in the multiple pass cuts are gone and my small parts are much more accurate.
Now for the obvious question ... how accurately does the wire need to be bent? Amazingly, it doesn't matter!!! Any point (such as the far end of the wire) revolved around the cutter axis is in a plane perpendicular to that axis.
It's the best (and cheapest) jig I ever made.
Paul Z