CNC Stepper Calibration 

Thanks for your video, been having troubles with my Oxcnc. Thought I was doing it right but your video showed it is such a simple fix. Cheers from Australia!

Hi Charlie, thank you for making this tutorial and for sharing spreadsheet. It’s saved me a lot of “head scratching” time. Really appreciate it! 👍

I have owned my 1000mm for a month. Your videos are very helpful! Thank You for sharing Your skills and knowledge!

Charley Thomas I want to thank you for sharing your spreadsheet for the calibration. I had nothing but problems with my Z axis cutting to deep. Thank you for sharing. It is appreciated. Brian

Hi, mr. Thomas I had a lot of trouble calibrating the step motors. Your spreadsheet was the solution for the problems Many thanks for this Sorry for my bad english and Greetings from holland

Just received your rail end plates and the craftsmanship/packaging was flawless. Just odered your touch plate kit for a great price to make accurate 3D casting patterns. Appreciate the time you take to help the new guys out!

Nothing 'trivial' about accuracy. Thank you for clear, well presented information. And the spreadsheet:-) Do not understand the thumbs down people - seriously.

Hi Charley, Your video was enlightening and very useful. Thank you for sharing.

My friend, I am very happy with my router after you have applied your calibration method, thanks so much for sharing your expertise. I am sorry for the google translator...😊👍

Thank you for the video! Nothing is to trivial if you are looking for decent accuracy. I don’t want to program a circle cut and get an octagonal cut. This looks pretty easy to do and will come in useful in my current setup. Thank you again.

Thanks Charley you have no ideal how much you helped me. I was at my wits end. Your video put things into simple terms.

I have had many requests for the spreadsheet. To make it easy for anyone to get please go to www.triquetra-cnc.com and look for the link on the lower left side of the home page.

Thank you so much Charley! I've been trying to figure this out for days, your spread sheet and video is what I needed.

Hello Charley , thanks for the video .... it really helped me to calibrate by diy cnc plotter ...i was struggling to get it right for using the plotter for pcb etching which requires a good calibration and precision... thanks n cheers..

Thanks, just calibrated my C-Beam! Perfect now!!

This is nice. Thanks for the spreadsheet!

Helped me out alot! Thanks!

Thanks very much for this very informative video. it helped me out today as I was setting up my first ever cnc. had issues with it when jogging it to 1 inch it actually went an inch and a quarter now its dialed right in thanks to you, I would have never figured it out if I didn't find this video.

What a practical way of explaining things. To the point explanation

thanks for showing us your method used to adjust the travel

The benefits of a CNC is accuracy. . . .so to not calibrate is a waste of $ Thanks for you help ;)

Charles, thanks for the video and spread sheet. It works like a charm!!

Tks a lots...congrartulations for you channel

thanks Charley this really helped

Finally my machine works fine ... Thanks for your guidance

Thanks Charley Starting the assembly process later today. Need to build the bench for it first. Hope to have my controller by the time I am done putting it together. Going to take my time and do it right.

Thanks Charley for the effort and yes it helped me.

Thank you, it is the best video for cnc calibration.

Thanks for the quick, easy, and no-nonsense explanation! Very well done. I am assuming you are not using micro-stepping with steps/mm so low? Are you able to do 3D (well, 2.5D) relief carving?

Simple , easy and well explained.....

That will help me a lot! Thanks for sharing! Hugs from Brazil!

Thanks for sharing, I like your attitude!

Thanks for the video. With digital calipers you could even approach muuuuch better precision

Very good video! Thanks!

Thank you for sharing the spreadsheet. Helped me a lot in calibrating my cnc machine.

First a bit about accuracy..... An error of say 5 thou in 4 inches will translate to 15 thou per foot. The longer distance you can measure will in itself minimize TOTAL inaccuracy. 15 thou is right at 1/64th an inch or .381 mm. Also how you have the speed and ramping set up for your steppers can affect the accuracy too. Too fast of a ramp up or too high a speed setting WILL cause steppers to loose steps. Get these settings right before setting the axis movements. There are many videos on you tube on how to do this. Most common are ones showing to set them in Mach 3. IGNORE the part specific for that controller as the setting procedure is the same. What is different is HOW you modify the settings for your controller. Another thing that can affect overall accuracy is dull bits, bits dug in too deep, and to high a travel speed. In addition, keep belts, lead screws, and bearing surfaces clean. These can cause underpowered steppers, common on many small cncs, to loose steps. The steppers must not loose steps to maintain accuracy. I recommend using one of those digital calipers. They will . work Dull bits, bits dug in too deep, and with both English and metric. Clamp it down in such a way the body WILL NOT move and at the same time allow free movement of the slider. Rulers can work but its IMPOSSIBLE to eyeball anything to the degree you can get with the calipers. Dont expect to get anything closer than about a 64t of an inch or half a mm using a ruler. Use a bit of 1/4 or 1/8 rod in the chuck instead of a bit because if the bit turns somehow, the reference point will shift due to the fact the flutes are usually a spiral shifting the contact point. Use one of the common digital calipers you can find most anywhere, the longer, the better. A 6 inch one is most common. You should have one anyway as they're very handy for a multitude of uses such as measuring the real thickness of materials. Stock wood is almost never the thickness its sold by. If you have the real material thickness then just set the maximum depth of cut a few thou short of the thickness and you wont ever chew up the spoil board. The procedure is exactly the same, other than how you make any needed corrections, for all CNC controllers. What differs is HOW you modify the settings. You will find how in the instructions for your controller. Clamp the calipers down solid where the body CANNOT move, but allowing freedom of movement of the slider. somewhere where you have double the length of the calipers to allow clearance for the slider part. I use English but its the same exact procedure for metric. All that changes is just numbers. Now open the calipers up a bit and position that bit of rod close but NOT touching the fixed jaw. Next slide the movable jaw against the rod and ZERO the calipers display. Make a move about an inch shorter than the range of the calipers. The actual movement can then be easily read off the calipers display within half a thou of an inch. Use a 1 inch dial indicator for Z and make your movements UP. With the X-carves, and possibly other controllers, you got to do a bit of math to figure out how much to adjust the value for the axis. Wth mach3 that I use on my home brew its completey math free. It has aneat utility built in where you tell Mach 3 how far you want to move. When it finishes a box pops up asking you how far you actually moved. I simply put in what shows on the caliper display and it makes the needed adjustment, one reason among others, why I DID NOT NOR EVER WILL go with the type of controller the X-carve, along with several other small Cncs. Now that you have made your corrections simply manually run the spindle back to the starting point and repeat the above again. 3 or 4 times and you should be able to get down to say .0005 inch.

Thanks, just what i needed!😊 Got some problem with my Y axel😕

Outstanding from one old hobbyist to another, THANK YOU all these wippersnappers talk to fast and leave steps out. The Spreadsheet was Gold. I can read and understand that perfectly I plan build one myself. Is this App still about I may go see after this. I have converted muy old Dremel Drill Press to a Mini Mill with manual X and Y Tables but am putting in a CNC Controlled Z axis to better manage and control cutter depth. I am machining old Model Train Chassis to adapt Digital stuff to them. I can do it manual but the Z height on this Dremel Drill Press is not really controllable in a consistent way. Thanks for the help I go it now. Dennis in Virginia Any way you can change that hat. D

perfect, that's what i was looking for

Gteat vid. Just bought the triquetra.

Hi Thomas, thank you, very very much!

good work

I laughed when you said 'like, comment, subscribe, I don't care.' HAHAHA

Very helpful! Thank you!

Hi Charley, thanks for the good video and explanation. (I'm not so good with software) all this I did not know, so thank you so much It looks like 3D printer software I have seen now (I have two 3D printers) I have no CNC(not yet) I want to make one myself. I have an Arduino with a CNC shield and 4(more) stepper motors. I have Arduino software, GRBL and Gcode Sender. (It was said to me that I had better take Mach3) I'm still looking for simple (free?)drawing software to send to the Gcode sender. (Name plates and PCB will probably be my goal) Regards from the Netherlands. Rob.

Great video very helpful

It helped somebody out. Thanks

Thankyou fella your a diamond.

Hola buenos días.Un placer haberle conocido, muchísimas gracias por la información que me mandó.Un saludo Charley Thomas

Yaaaalp, thanks Charlie.

Thank´s helpful information.

Great video

Thanks for the great overview

Useful video - thanks for sharing.

nice...concise....simple....thanx

I am a newbie. i made my own machine. I have it up and running. using arduino,grbl.,ugs. Visulizer shows an item key chain that is 40mmx40mm. but machine is reproducing image 20 times larger. re calibrated doesn't help. what am i doing wrong? please help. thanks

Thanks sir you'r the boss

THANK YOU!!! How do I get a copy of the spreadsheet to calculate the steps?

Thanks !! Good job!!

Isso realmente me ajudou! Obrigado!

Thanks man it was a help!

thank you

Hey, its good enough 😊😊nice video.

Thanks Charley!

Is it best to start axis calibration with the full travel of the machine and work down, or small axis travel first? Oor does it make a difference? Very helpful video and thanks for your spread sheet.

Great thank you.

THANK YOU MEN!

Wow amazing, my machine precision. Thanks and gbu from indonesia..

The step calc feature is integrated in Mach4 😊

Thanks

good job Charley. how can i have that exel program?

Calibration not working in mach3 if it's required high speed from the motor

Thank You

Charley I tried to download the free spreadsheet from you site but there is no place to fill out my info to get the download. Your page may be broken.

Thank you Sir!

thanksssss

But after calibration, speed decreased, so now what value should be changed

thank you!

Good job, this is suitable for repeatability testing?

I replaced my woodpecker control board with a GRLB 1.1F board. The new board is off on the axis 4 to 1. I could correct by changing $101=800 to $101=3600. It appears excessive and I wonder if there is another issue. Board works well otherwise. Thanks

Charley, Can you do a video on calibrating the Z axis?

Thanks you helped

Hi Charley Thomas can you share a copy of your spreadsheet ? or your sell me a copy? Thanks and great work

yes very cool ,, thank you..

My problem is that I got it right but when I test it was short 0.4 mm

Thank you

well i liked and subbed so there ye go.Curiosity time,is the x carve arduino powered?. I'm building my own 3 axis bed and i might blag some sizes from it,drive stepper types ,spindle rating etc.

thank so much sir

Charley, I could not find the odd mounting piece on any of Harbor Freight's dial indicators. Do you have a suggestion?

spreadsheet download doesn't work, just says "oops something went wrong"

Hello, how do we make these settings in the estlcam program? Thank you.

I try to check the machine that I made, using the pen but whenever I try, I find that the pen rises to the top away from the surface of the paper

Thanks its help full. i am confused about EXCEL SHEET. Can you explain please

Can you explain to me how to tell the program the measurement of the machine and measuring the piece that I want to cut by the machine ... !!! ...................... And whether the numbers that I used it in this calibration you made will change when you start working using the machine .... I mean the numbers you used such as 290 mm Is it fixed or change later ... I ask you clarification

nice ........Thankyou Thankyou .ok

Hi Charlie, great video. I have a problem that when I return to zero, the z axis goes down and bottoms out and then starts to zero x and y, then goes up and stops. Any ideas? thanks Laz Australia.

Hmmm This is actually MORE COMPLICATED than Mach3 Calibration process. No spreadsheet and no recalculating. All you have to do is enter the actual distance traveled (error) and Mach3 automatically does everything. run the test again and Voila!! it's Calibrated.

Hola muy buenas tardes.Quería preguntarte que si las hojas de cálculo que si valen para Mach3 .Muchas gracias un saludo

when I am in UGS i do not see machine status so I can not tell how many MM per step I am getting. Any ideas on this ? Thanks Martin Texas

I am using tb6560 board...8mm lead scrow..........1mm g coad =2560.000 1mm running ............ but continuously not running so what to do......please tell me about this...