Can someone help me with auto leveling with non conductive material such as wood

Alex_Krause · February 25, 2016, 4:09am

Can someone help me with auto leveling with non conductive material such as wood and plastic

raykholo · February 25, 2016, 4:19am

Put some aluminum foil down on the surface, hook it up as you normally would, and keep a hand on your emergency stop just in case

Alex_Krause · February 25, 2016, 4:23am

I had that idea I wasn’t sure if it would work wasn’t sure if foil was conductive enough to overcome any “noise” generated with the other components controlling the machine

jlauer · February 25, 2016, 4:27am

Aluminum is very nicely conductive and there are several posts back in the ChiliPeppr group of people succeeding with this method on things like slate to get a mapping of the bumps before milling.

Alex_Krause · February 25, 2016, 4:32am

Would I solder a lead to the foil like you did to the pcb in your video on YouTube @jlauer

raykholo · February 25, 2016, 4:34am

I’ve never been able to get a good solder joint on foil… I’d leave a little extra on one edge, fold it over several times so it won’t tear, and use an alligator clip.

jlauer · February 25, 2016, 4:35am

Me too.

Alex_Krause · February 25, 2016, 4:58am

I have some conductive wire glue I will give it a shot and let the community know my results

Phil_Aldrich · February 25, 2016, 11:47am

I made a device that probes a surface and makes the electrical contact in the device, not the surface. You have to get the offset calculated back into the processing of the gcode. John mentioned a way to use the offset settings to make it calc correctly. Let me know if your interested and I can post a pic of it.

Phil_Aldrich · February 25, 2016, 11:55am

As John said, if you go back in the posts far enough (not sure if they roll off after a period of time) you may be able to see the post I did on this.