Setting Tool Parking Positions

Overview

This is a WORK IN PROGRESS and the instructions will be updated soon. Use this procedure at your own risk.

This is a basic procedure to manually dial in parking post locations for tool on Jubilee. Please note that tool pickup and drop-off moves should be “Manhattan” style (a big negative move in the Y-axis until you’re completely clear of any tools and parking posts, then a move in the X-axis) to avoid collisions with other tools or parking posts.

What You’ll Need

1. A fully functional printer tool lock and motion system (ie it homes and moves properly in X, Y, Z, and tool lock axes, and all lock/unlock/tpost/tfree macros and files have been updated to work for your machine)
2. A fully assembled tool post, with the required fasteners/tee-nuts to attach it to the X-axis frame member

What To Do

1. Power up your printer, and home all axes.
2. Take your parking post assembly and loosely fasten it to the rail approximately where you want it; you should still be able to move the parking post around to adjust it for X-axis position and parking post height.
3. Move your build plate down in the Z-axis (positive Z values) such that any tools you’re about to mount will fully clear the bed. Usually a value of Z50 or more is enough for this.
4. Jog the carriage to somewhere close to the center of the printer bed.
5. With tool T-1 selected (no active tool), manually place your tool against the lock carriage, and lock the tool onto the carriage using the tool lock macro (Do not select a tool using the Tx commands - this is critical)
6. Jog the carriage to roughly where you want to end up across the X-axis. Eyeball it, or use a measuring tape/ruler if you want to.
7. Jog the carriage forward in the Y-axis until its just in front of the parking post assembly, making sure you don’t engage the parking dowel pins just yet.
8. Line up the parking post on the rail to the tool across the X-axis.
9. Slowly jog the carriage forward in the Y-axis until the tool starts engaging the parking dowel pins.
10. Take a look to make sure everything is lined up: dowel pins, parking wings, etc.
11. Jog the carriage further in the Y-axis in small (1mm) increments until you’ve achieved a full dock. Depending on your tool mount, you may or may not have the tool actually touching the front of the extrusion that holds the parking posts.
12. Adjust the position in the X-axis to your liking using the steppers (not by hand, we don’t want to lose position).
13. Once your tool and parking post are fully engaged and in the final position you want them to be, take a note of the X and Y values reported for the printer’s current position in the web interface. This will be needed for the tpost and tfree macros for this specific tool and parking position.
14. Tighten down the tee-nuts to lock in your X-axis position for this tool.
15. Adjust your parking post height adjustment until you’re satisfied that the tool is properly supported and parallel to the Y-axis rails of your printer. Tighten down the screws for the height adjustment to lock it in.
16. Unlock the tool from the carriage using the tool unlock macro (and not using a T-1 or Tx command).
17. Jog the now-decoupled carriage backwards in the Y-axis direction until it fully clears your tool(s) and parking post(s). Take a note of this value of the Y-axis position from the web interface, as this will be close to your final choice of “Tool Clearance Limit” for all of your tfree files.
18. Update the relevant tpost and tfree files for the tool you have just set up. Make sure you’re always clearing tools in Y-axis movements first within tfree (the value of the Y-axis you reached in step 15 above) before the carriage performs any X-axis movements. You’ll also need to check that you’re fully clearing tools in the Y-axis with a tool actually locked on to the carriage (this value will change per tool, and also depends on the other tools mounted to your printer’s parking posts - you have to tailor this to your build).
19. Try out a tool change to the new parking post using the Tx command. Test both selecting a tool and parking it. While testing, check to see if your setup needs a few tweaks to make sure the lock pin fully engages the ramp (change the Y-axis value used in tpost - higher Y values move the locking carriage closer to the tool dock) upon locking. Check to see if the tool has been docked correctly after unlocking (change the Y-axis values in tfree to adjust this to your needs).