Squaring a CNC Gantry Machine with Simple Tools and Math

In this video, I demonstrate a method for squaring a CNC gantry machine to a very high degree of squareness using simple modified tools and a bit of math. By increasing the size of the angles you measure, you can achieve greater accuracy.

However, when measuring absolute distances that are too big for calipers, we instead measure the relative distances or the delta between the diagonals of a square or rectangle. I show how to use CAD to visualize the process, some high school math to work out the triangles, and how to generate Python code to refine the results. This method is still iterative, but once you get the squareness down to sub 0.5mm, you can make final adjustments in software like LinuxCNC. In the end, my machine's squareness is between 90.0009 and 89.9991 degrees with a +-0.01mm delta on the diagonals. Let me know in the comments if you find any mistakes or ways to improve this method.

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Timestamps ⏱
0:00 Intro.
0:44 Accuracy results with this method.
1:40 Other methods of squaring a gantry CNC.
2:43 Advantage of this method over other methods.
4:05 Closeup of the caliper extension bracket.
5:29 Workflow of measuring the delta on the 2 diagonals.
8:37 CAD sketch and Python code visualizing how the offset is calculated.
13:15 First pass adjusting homing switches.
14:28 Scaling the value was necessary after all.
14:49 Second pass with 0.12mm of delta.
16:43 Third pass in Linuxcnc (software) 0.01mm of delta.
18:44 Final thoughts and what could be improved on.

#cncgantry
#squaringmachine
#simpletools
#math
#accuracy
#calipers
#deltadistance
#CAD
#highschoolmath
#triangles
#pythoncode
#iterativeprocess
#linuxcnc
#machineprecision
#squareness
#comments welcomed