I’m getting a slight ridge… More than I’d expect to see when surfacing the baseplate from pass to pass.
I’m assuming a tilt error on the Z axis would be the normal cause of this.
Do I just check z alignment as in it’s current state and then redo a skim baseplate finish if that is indeed out of adjustment?
Are your passes left to right or front to back? To measure properly you need a machinist straight edge or a 2-4-6 block, or something ground flat, and lay that over your base plate and measure. After your correct you can re skim.
Left to right, I have a 123 block.
yeah so just stick your 1-2-3 with the 3 front to back and swing an indicator in your spindle and then add or remove shims as needed.
It’s in the instructions…with a video.
Yes I’m aware how to do the z axis alignment. I’ve watched the videos.
I was more curious if people have seen this and if the z axis adjustment is the correct course of action.
It is correct and typical, since you haven’t done the z axis alignment yet. But you have to surface the baseplate to have a flat reference to finish alignment.
I only did a partial pass on mine, did the shimming, then finished surfacing.
I wish the instructions would have mentioned something along those lines. Trying to take of minimal material to clean it up now. I was over 5 thou over 3"
I’m still really struggling to get a nice smooth surface on the baseplate. At this point I think I’ll probably put my vise on and see how flat it is. If I keep drinking around with this I’ll end up with no baseplate left.
X and Y compensation done. Both were very close.
Z alignment I’ve done and check several times now and I’m around 1 thou over 3".
I’m getting very frustrated that even extremely small cuts I just seem to make new little ridges.
some small amount of ridge can be difficult to avoid, what diameter tool are you using for surfacing? I would just do further testing on aluminum plate if you are looking for perfection, once you have it you can do a final surface of the base plate.
1/2"
Yeah I can’t keep whittling down the baseplate. Just going to move on with where I’m at.
Again another note that would be nice in the instructions so people like me don’t spend 4 hours trying to get the baseplate perfect.
Even a few tenths of a thou can show a ridge, but that’s really nothing to worry about. You’d have to get in to less than 0.001" shims to get that dialed out.
yep, really only an issue for tall parts and large dia tools
If you plan to mount a vice for most of your operations, then the vice will practically completely ignore (ie. filters, smooths) any effect from those ridges. The key is really just that they are consistent across the plane. The vice effectively spans the tops of any ridges and when clamped nice and tight, should be able to pass coplanarity tests with a DTI without issue.