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Z-Axis Adjusting Knob

85 likes
770 opens
414 copies
2 comments
DIYTyler

Project by

DIYTyler

General Information

Quick project to make manual adjustments of your X-Carve Z axis much simpler.

Like this project Open in Easel®
Material Description Price
Birch Plywood

Birch Plywood

Thickness: 1/2 in, Dimensions: 8 in × 12 in

1

Make shape on computer

5 minutes

Came up with the shape I was after using sketchup, exported to .svg using the “Sketchup to SVG” plugin and imported into Easel.

Once in easel I used the interactive tabs to move some of the tabs on top of each other effectively decreasing the total number of tabs. In the end I wanted two tabs in a location that could easily be broken off.

2

Carve

5 minutes

Carved using the X-Carve equipped with a 1/8 bit.

3

Sand, paint and insert nut

5 minutes

Remove your carved knob from the rest of the board. Sand, paint if you want to and insert the nut that is on top of the Z-Axis motor pulley….nylon down into the knob.

4

Dowel Turning Pin

2 minutes

Drill and countersink a small section of dowel, add to the knob so you can quickly turn the know without taking your hand off it.

5

Re-Install

1 minute

Reinstall the nut and knob back to the top of the Z-Axis and you are done!

6

Watch and Learn

3 minutes

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Fred Sawtelle
Nice design, and it looks to be quite useful. Question: doesn't this throw off position-tracking? In other words, if Work Zero has been set and this is then used to manually move the spindle, the code-interpreting program (Easel, UGS, whatever) will not know that Z has changed, correct?
Fred Sawtelle
DIYTyler
If you change the height manually after you set the Z height it will mess up your cut. This is really for before/after cutting to manually move the head around if you need to.
DIYTyler