[tnessamateur]

I purchased half of a machine that someone started building. after finishing the build (about %75 of it), i can cut and run G-code great. however my Y axis is out of square by about 1/8"/ft. the previous builder welded the gantry and the rails to the table, so i believe he did so out of square. I have read that it is possible to correct an out of square axis via mach 3. is this advisable? If so, can anyone point me in the direction of a tutorial perhaps? lots of searching with nothing that works for my machine. or is it better to try to correct the axis mechanically? the problem is tweaking the machine mechanically will be nearly impossible with how the gantry mounts are set-up. see attached pictures of the gantry mounts and the motors. i have a rack and pinion in the long x direction, and lead screws for z and y. all powered my NEMA34s. any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

[RCaffin]

I have read that it is possible to correct an out of square axis via mach 3. is this advisable?

I have never seen or read anything about that. In fact, the standard reply is always 'fix the hardware'.

Cheers
Roger

[R0bbie]

Hi,
It looks like you have rack and pinion on only one side of the Y axis.
If that is true I am afraid cutting square with this machine is not possible.

Regards,
Rob

[awerby]

If it's welded out of square, it seems the best solution would be to cut it off, square it up, and weld it back again. Either that, or cut it off and make some slots and holes so you can bolt it down and adjust it to square.

[CNCMAN172]

The best solution is to carefully cut the weld and square up the machine. It will never be right and you will go crazy if you don't fix it the right way. Save yourself a bunch of headaches and fix the source issue. If you can't weld get a friend of a nearby shop who can come over and correct the weld.

Russ

[plcamp]

The best solution is to carefully cut the weld and square up the machine. It will never be right and you will go crazy if you don't fix it the right way. Save yourself a bunch of headaches and fix the source issue. If you can't weld get a friend of a nearby shop who can come over and correct the weld.

Russ

The single drive is not doing you any favors, however as Russ stated the machine needs to be square and a re-weld is in order.

A second thought after looking a little closer at your first picture would be to preposition the gantry vertical support. This could be accomplished by simply elongating the mounting holes and correcting the location.

[109jb]

Not sure if you can do it in Mach3, but in LinuxCNC you can correct for the out of square in software. Have not done it myself, but it is possible because LinuxCNC has a kinematic engine that can do just about anything, including Scara robots, Delta machines, etc,

Here is a start.

Kinematics