CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, March 05, 2025

Problem: My CNC does not seem to be 'square'

Woodworking Network: One problem that comes up from time to time with CNC machining is ensuring your machine is square. Here’s a troubleshooting procedure we recommend at our company, but it might be applicable to other machines, as well.

1 comment:

Eliza Krigsman said...

This has some great advice! Cutting out a rectangle (or the following few suggestions) to measure the diagonals is nicely intuitive. I’m glad the article discusses how to actually fix the problem beyond simply diagnosing it. I wonder how common it is that the gantry is out of square, as so many moving parts and so few static supports make it seem like it’s bound to rack. Aligning the motors to each other before each start up is a smart move, and is proactive - similar to how one should check another’s measurements before machining, or to check any other tool before using. I also wonder how quickly the pinion gears might wear down, especially if something is misaligned. As a matter of fact, I wonder that of most of the moving/sliding/etc parts involved in the CNC. Most of the CNC issues I’m remotely familiar with are digital, so it was nice to learn about some tips for the physical issues.