What Noob Stupid Mistakes Have You Made?

Seriously... some time I think I’ve got cotton wool instead of a brain.

Was trying to figure out why my perfectly prepared and painted stock was ruined when my CNC engraving design went off the top edge. Went back and checked my design... nope, looks fine... the stock was measured and cut exactly... so what was the problem.

Yup, I’d prepared the stock my cutting this one piece in two but not exactly. I needed my stock piece to be 325mm deep and the offcut was only 290mm... and I had picked up and prepared THE WRONG PIECE... so when I ran my job the v-cutting bit almost hit a screw when running out of stock. DOH!

So what’s your noob-stoopid mistake while using your CNC?

Not exactly a noob error and I've been at this a long time so the list is long but I'm Forever forgetting to Zero Z Dro after finding the material surface. What's worse is I've got touch plate or probe but can't be bothered to use them because I can usually set it quicker manually..:stupid:

Not installing limit switches or soft limits before starting to play :emptiness:

Actually think to today's while setting up a machine was a good one.??? . . . Couldn't for life of me understand why Mach3 wouldn't Reset.! . . E-stop was set and I'd pushed the momentary Reset switch for drives.???? . . . took me a good minute to realize I hadn't actually turned on the power to control box..:hysterical: :hysterical:

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Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

Actually think to today's while setting up a machine was a good one.??? . . . Couldn't for life of me understand why Mach3 wouldn't Reset.! . . E-stop was set and I'd pushed the momentary Reset switch for drives.???? . . . took me a good minute to realize I hadn't actually turned on the power to control box..:hysterical: :hysterical:

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Well you have to turn the power on to your brain first:toot:

I did something similar. I couldn’t get the touch screen on my CNC monitor to wake up... then I realised I hadn’t booted the computer yet.

Sometimes it’s the little and simple things that cause the most problems.

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Originally Posted by Clive S

Well you have to turn the power on to your brain first:toot:

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In my defense, I'd only had 1 cup of tea and no Hobnob's so my brain hadn't fired up yet..:whistle:

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Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

Actually think to today's while setting up a machine was a good one.??? . . . Couldn't for life of me understand why Mach3 wouldn't Reset.! . . E-stop was set and I'd pushed the momentary Reset switch for drives.???? . . . took me a good minute to realize I hadn't actually turned on the power to control box..:hysterical: :hysterical:

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I like to call this kind of fault "Finger Trouble'. Often embarrasing but it's the cheapest and simplest kind of 'fault' to fix.

Most stupid mistake was to edit the .ini file in LinuxCNC v2.8 to set up auto-racking on my twin motor machine and then some weeks later run 'Stepperconfig' to change the acceleration. Took me all morning to realign the gantry.

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Originally Posted by Kitwn

Most stupid mistake was to edit the .ini file in LinuxCNC v2.8 to set up auto-racking on my twin motor machine and then some weeks later run 'Stepperconfig' to change the acceleration. Took me all morning to realign the gantry.

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Well for the benefit of others I think you meant pncconf if you used a Mesa. But anyway stepconf and pncconf should never be used after the initial run as it will overwrite the hal and ini files. Ask me how I know?

Haven't seen the DAMHIKIJKOK abbreviation for a while now although it applies to quite a few of my posts. Most recent was carefully setting XY on my router to the corner of my last piece of good-quality ply and forgetting to hit the zero axis buttons on Mach3. Ended up with a very nicely cut gear wheel for the clock I was making with a neat half-inch slice missing off one side...

I was on a roll last night...

I put a z-0 setter on my table so I can use the table as my Z zero. Ran it and it worked fine... the. Put a piece of ply stock on my table and I usually hit “Return to Zero” to check that everything is set... but now my Z zero is one the top of the table, not the top of the stock and... CRUUUUNCCH as my v-bit is rammed into the ply....

Luckily it hadn’t damaged the v-bit and the area where it went into the wood is 20mm away from where my part is cut... but I had to run homing and set up the coordinates again... all because I changed my Z zero location.

But then, I don’t know what I did, all my macros and keymaps and other setting for UGS just went POOF! I have no idea how I did it. Luckily I keep a backup of the settings but then found out that the macros have to be backed up separately... and I hadn’t done so.

So all my routines (including the go to Z zero one that got me into trouble earlier) will need to be manually put in. :sorrow::sorrow::sorrow: Hopefully today will be better.

Forgetting that you set the cutting start depth at Z -10mm and watching the machine try to rapid plunge a 1mm bit through 6mm Alu plate.

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Originally Posted by Clive S

Well for the benefit of others I think you meant pncconf if you used a Mesa. But anyway stepconf and pncconf should never be used after the initial run as it will overwrite the hal and ini files. Ask me how I know?

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I'm not posh enough to use a Mesa, I'm still using the cheap Chinese parallel breakout board I bought for my first ever 'proof-of-concept' router which was made out of MDF and used allthread for leadscrews. It's advice worth remembering though!

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Originally Posted by Neale

Haven't seen the DAMHIKIJKOK abbreviation for a while now although it applies to quite a few of my posts. Most recent was carefully setting XY on my router to the corner of my last piece of good-quality ply and forgetting to hit the zero axis buttons on Mach3. Ended up with a very nicely cut gear wheel for the clock I was making with a neat half-inch slice missing off one side...

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Oooooh, tell me more about your clocks and what software you use to design them? Wooden clocks was my main purpose in building a new CNC router, though I haven't made as much progress as I'd like.

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Originally Posted by Kitwn

Oooooh, tell me more about your clocks and what software you use to design them? Wooden clocks was my main purpose in building a new CNC router, though I haven't made as much progress as I'd like.

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Rather than clutter this thread with more random ratholes, here is a new thread where I can showcase the crap that comes out of my workshop. Waits for complaints about pushing useful stuff off the list - popcorn, anyone?

This thread as bloody Jinxed me.!. . Been at it again today. . . . Same machine this time while setting up tool changing wine Rack was manually jogging tools into holders to get X/Y coords for Macro then MDI to next location and repeat, note the coord's, switch into text editor alter macro and repeat everything went cushty..:yahoo: . . . . Then for some unknown reason with tool still in the last holder, I go and enter into MDI G0 G53 X0 Y0 . . . Anyone Spot what's missing.?? . . . . Well when you do just imagine what a 125Kg gantry powered by by 2 x 12Nm motors taking off at 30Mtr/min would do to a wine rack .:whistle::dejection:

Most of my 'mishaps' involve the milling machine. I spend 90% of my time in the workshop running my lathe, and the mill can go weeks without being switched on, so when it does, there is inevitably some re-learning required.

My most common mistake is still typing G0 G53 X0 Z0, then standing wondering why the Y axis hasn't gone to machine zero :whistle:
Which is often followed by zeroing the wrong offset...

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Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

Actually think to today's while setting up a machine was a good one.??? . . . Couldn't for life of me understand why Mach3 wouldn't Reset.! . . E-stop was set and I'd pushed the momentary Reset switch for drives.???? . . . took me a good minute to realize I hadn't actually turned on the power to control box..:hysterical: :hysterical:

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lol

Luckily I don’t make any mistakes. Anything you see in my videos are done on purpose to show you what not to do.

.. . think I got away with that one. :whistle:

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Originally Posted by routercnc

Luckily I don’t make any mistakes. Anything you see in my videos are done on purpose to show you what not to do.

.. . think I got away with that one. :whistle:

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Obviously..:whistle:

When our Maths teacher used to get caught out making a mistake on the blackboard, pupils would call him out on it, he would blush, turn around and grin and then say...

“Just testing!”.

It was like his catchphrase for when he screwed up... so much do that the whole class would join him saying, “just TESTING” along with him.

But of course he never got anything wrong. *wink*

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Originally Posted by NeoMorph

When our Maths teacher used to get caught out making a mistake on the blackboard, pupils would call him out on it, he would blush, turn around and grin and then say...

“Just testing!”.

It was like his catchphrase for when he screwed up... so much do that the whole class would join him saying, “just TESTING” along with him.

But of course he never got anything wrong. *wink*

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Nobody is infallible, although I did have a college lecturer who thought he was.
He tried to tell me I'd got some vector calculations wrong, as they didn't match his, and was revelling in the glory that I'd got something wrong, until he went through my calculations looking for my mistake, and realised there wasn't one.
I got told to sit at the back of the class and keep quiet after that :joyous:

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Originally Posted by m_c

Nobody is infallible, although I did have a college lecturer who thought he was.
He tried to tell me I'd got some vector calculations wrong, as they didn't match his, and was revelling in the glory that I'd got something wrong, until he went through my calculations looking for my mistake, and realised there wasn't one.
I got told to sit at the back of the class and keep quiet after that :joyous:

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Hehe, yeah, some teachers are really childish and petty. Our Maths teacher was just fun though and he never tried to say he was never wrong. I think it was him that taught me that if you never own up to mistakes then you never learn from them. A certain President comes to mind thinking about that. LOL. He’ll never learn.

Reminds me of that joke. Three friends, mathematician, a scientist and a politician get their brains valued for fun and are each given a cash value.

When the politician’s brain is rated as the one with the most value the scientist and mathematician are irate while the politician is preening.

Mathematician: “But I solved an impossible theorem! Why does my brain not have the most value?”
Scientist: “But I cured cancer! Why does my brain not have the most value?”
Politician: “It’s obvious that I’m a stable genius who is always right but just to set the record straight, why does my brain have the most value?”

So the brain assessor looks at the three friends and says... “Well both the Mathematician’s and Scientist’s brains have been almost worn out from the years of hard work... but the Politician brain is still in its “pristine, as new” condition... because it’s never been used.” ;)

My point is, if you never admit to being wrong you never learn ANYTHING.