bill.young
04-12-2001, 09:33 AM
In another thread on table surfacing, a good point was made about uneven work surfaces. If someones whole table is out of level, then truing the surface with your ShopBot is probably the easiest and best solution. If it's a warped workpiece that's hard to hold flat or a surface that's curved on purpose that's causing the problem, though, then somehow mapping that surface might be the way to go.
I've come up with what I think's a simple method for doing real-time surface sampling. It has the ability to vary the cutting height as you're cutting, and also the ability to write the coordinates to a file and then using that file to modify your cutting heights. It's not designed to do intricate surfaces like a probe, but with some thought it might be able to do some of that.
The advantage to this method is that you don't have to remove your router bit and it doesn't require an extra Z-axis or acc. channel in your control box; just a proximity switch and some hardware store bits and pieces. Instead of trying to explain how it works here, I've posted some information, sample ShopBot routines, and pictures of a prototype on my web site at http://www.seasidesmallcraft.com/follower.htm
Here's the catch. The prototype works pretty well, but I don't really have the time to go much further with it at the moment. If anyone thinks it might be helpful and wants to work on it, especially the programming end of things, be my guest. At the bottom of that web page is a link to a todo list of things that I think need to be worked on.
Have fun, and feel free to email me at seaside@esva.net (mailto:seaside@esva.net) if you have any thoughts or questions.
Bill
I've come up with what I think's a simple method for doing real-time surface sampling. It has the ability to vary the cutting height as you're cutting, and also the ability to write the coordinates to a file and then using that file to modify your cutting heights. It's not designed to do intricate surfaces like a probe, but with some thought it might be able to do some of that.
The advantage to this method is that you don't have to remove your router bit and it doesn't require an extra Z-axis or acc. channel in your control box; just a proximity switch and some hardware store bits and pieces. Instead of trying to explain how it works here, I've posted some information, sample ShopBot routines, and pictures of a prototype on my web site at http://www.seasidesmallcraft.com/follower.htm
Here's the catch. The prototype works pretty well, but I don't really have the time to go much further with it at the moment. If anyone thinks it might be helpful and wants to work on it, especially the programming end of things, be my guest. At the bottom of that web page is a link to a todo list of things that I think need to be worked on.
Have fun, and feel free to email me at seaside@esva.net (mailto:seaside@esva.net) if you have any thoughts or questions.
Bill