Just on the topic of the z probe, I also made a manual probe with a LED light, a couple aligator clips, a 9V battery, a 1K Ohm resistor and a L shaped metal bracket. I've been using it to help me set the spindle for the x and y axis for the stock I engrave/cut.

I've come back to this video several times over the past couple of months. It's full of great tips, particularly the painter's tape / cyanoacrylate glue trick. Thank you!

I love KZfaq and its creators so much. The fact I had no idea about cnc routing yesterday, and today after watching 100 vids I have the confidence to buy one and run it is absolutely magical. I swear I’ve learned more this year from KZfaq than I did my whole time at school.

This is so incredibly helpful! I’m going through all your 3018 videos right now and you’ve saved me HOURS of work. Thank you!!

Getting a 3018 pro for Christmas, loving the guides and cant wait to get started

Nice work James. You and Graham Bland have helped tremendously in learning the 3018 CNC.

Incredibly helpful video. I was definitely not understanding how to use the clamps that came with my Sainsmart at all! Lots of great info here, thanks!

So I have the same machine and am 3D printing stop switch sensor holders for the X, Y, and Z. I don't know if anyone else will be interested, but I am building them to be as "low pro" as possible, and capable of still keeping as much off the original 300x180 as I can. Great tips, and I will keep up with you a ton now. Thanks for all of this!

As a quick thing to reduce noise early on I've found the foam sheets that come with the cnc machine make a good mat to drown out the noise if you strip the sides and just use the large flat backs.

Great video. The introduction and link to Graham's guides alone are invaluable to this newb. Thank you!

Just found your channel. Nicely done! I had no idea about the Graham Bland advice. Thanks so much!!! Already putting these settings to work on my 3018.

James, thank you so much for this video. My machine delivers today, and I'm really looking forward to having something at home to tinker with, even if it's not quite the same as the bigger machines I've used in the past. Regarding limit switches, I do think there is a way to avoid losing bed travel - simply attach an offset in each direction that doesn't interfere with the travel and use that to register on the limit switches. This would allow you to basically max out (maybe missing a mm or so on each side for "safety factor") the travel in each direction. Not having the machine in my possession yet, this may not be possible on every axis, but theoretically it should work, and it's how higher end machines I've used before are set up.

Your videos are so helpful, and I very much dig the unagitated and friendly style that you present the information in! Thank you very much!

Excellent info on a rather incapable machine. You've brought things to my attention that I otherwise throw aside and chock up to the inferior build quality of these little things. While I look for more in depth resolutions in re-engineering the machine in it's entirety, you bring about ways of turning the inferiorities into working capabilities with much simpler and more economical solutions. Kudos!

A great video. Just what I was looking for. The Richard Bland link is excellent.

Brilliant - clear and concise tips that will really improve my machine and the work it produces...what a star

great video, thanks for sharing. I found that with my 3018 pro the steps per axis (in the grbl firmware I guess) had to be set to 800 steps to get millimeter accurate results. I just used a laser engraver to draw a ruler until it lined up with an actual ruler. Also, grow tents make good cheap and easy enclosures

Thanks, just picked up one of these machines and have run some basic V-bit engravings using Easel. Really satisfying! Looking forward to doing more.

Thanks for all your hard work , you make it easier to understand and now its not so daunting.

Absolutely amazing videos. Extremely clear, concise, and highly educational.

Good morning James, I agree entirely about the comment regarding the noise level between a spindle with a milled shaft vs a round shaft. There is a massive difference. I bought the Hanpose spindle with a solid shaft and 2 bearings, which I think makes the spindle run more smoothly.

This was great, my machine arrives in a few days and I feel way more confident about achieving a good setup, thank you!

Excellent video! I ordered my 3018 Pro and can't wait to get started and will be using your tips. I am looking to mill and cut/engrave acrylic along with wood and any information on feed rates etc will be most welcome from everyone.

I have just received this machine from amazon . Had a issue on y axis assembly every time I secured the hex bolts it did not slide. discovered the table (aluminum) was curved after much fiddling I have temporary packed with card of various thicknesses as don't have shims stock. Your video on the spoil plate and leveling was very helpful. When my friend who runs a industrial cnc mill get back from leave we will try straighten it. I have now run one of the sample files on the mill and my spindle I am glad to say has almost no vibration. Thanks for the tips as the manual for what it is does not mention maintenance. Although with my friends on it gets cleaned daily and has built in lub pump. I live where items like the tape are not that common so will hunt for alternatives. Thanks for the brilliant tips. (zim)

Brilliant! My 3018 is together but before it goes to work I'm going to build the enclosure you've designed. This is a great channel, good work! Thanks for sharing, cheers from BC

Finally a video that explain clearly and simple and not boring

Good video James. Just what is needed for a newbie like myself

Nice video and very well explained. I actually reversed some of the bed clamps that attach the aluminium profile to the rails and gained around 40mm in X axis and 20mm. Ive been cutting aluminium and carbon fibre sheets for a while now. I however use rather expensive bits and use them in various forms. My 1300*900 should be here in jan ;)

Good knowledge James 👌 Some really useful tips in there, thank you! 👍

What a great site and always full of information I can use and presented professionally and logically. Thank you so much.

Thanks for the video. Ran into many of the same problems (bearings under table vibrating out of housing, etc.). Another tip you may offer is leveling the table. While not perfect, I was able to buy some 0.016" metal at my local hardware store and place a shim between the table and the bearing housing underneath. I was able to run a dial indicator across my table and had it within @ 0.010", but for someone without an indicator, you could take a small cut on MDF to see if it's cutting close to flat. Really appreciate your time and effort!

Thank you so much I seriously couldn’t of built this- and got it to work without your tutorial 😄

Bearing Tip! Instead of epoxy, I have had success holding all my bearings in using electronic repair tape. B-7010 is extremely adhesive and thin. I wrapped the bearing with 2 strips of tape and pressed them in. No bearings have shifted since and you'll be able to get them out if they fail. Thanks for the video and I'll be getting some aerosol dry lubricant. Great tips!

I recently purchased a CNC 3018 pro from eBay for under £100 from someone who obviously had never assembled it. It came with the woodpecker board and spiral wrap along with the offline controller. Just finished putting it together and hope to test it out tomorrow.

Good tips, thanks. I added homing switches to my 3018 and had one of the cables vibrate out of the connector on the control board, I used hot glue to keep the connectors from coming loose again. The homing switches did allow me to salvage an engraving I was working on, when it finished I realized I should have engraved deeper so I went back to Carbide Create changed the parameters to cut deeper and ran the code again, since the X and Y axis were based off the home position they retraced the original design perfectly.

this has been the most helpful videos series i have seen thank you James

Excellent content and the best I have seen on this clever little machine to date! Very many thanks. Btw, people of the world thats a Birmingham accent - a place in England famous for engineering excellence and where kids grow up naturally knowing how to make things and create loud music for some reason. Good to see a great tradition continuing.

Excellent advice, just looking at getting one of these so this will help fantastically

I don't have a CNC machine but I still watched the whole video, even considering getting one! Cheers!

I love your videos thanks for the info & taking the time to make a video for us, although i am at the stage where i am happyish with my machine and watched a lot of videos & read articles before parting with cash. I wish i came across your content before i purchased. As i am still learning an awful lot after only producing 3 different projects.

Thanks for the tips I just bought 2 weeks ago, still in the curve. I like your waste board.

I have a tiny tip: Instead of furniture pads, I used a flat piece of the packing material my Sainsmart came in and was pretty shocked at how much quieter it got right away. Even so, I'm planning on working on a bolted down solution; my "workbench" situation is not currently ideal.

Thanks for taking the time to break things down!!

SWEET! Thanks. I've had my machine for a week. I think everything you offered solutions for was something I'd found irritating.

Skipped to the part about holding material to the bed. Drove straight to Screfix, picked up some CA glue and masking tape and it worked a charm. I now have a 300x200mm piece of material on the bed, fixed and sturdy with no clamps!

Good tips thanks. For me limit switches are very useful for being able to “home’ the machine i.e. let it return to a known starting position in every axis before starting each job it’s a bit like having a a z-probe for all three axes.

Great stuff as usual. Thanks fir sharing.

Hi James - I've just bought a CNC3018 Pro for a learning project during the lockdown as an entry into CNC with a view to converting what I learn onto a small milling machine for model engineering purposes. I very much like your approach to explaining things. One of the problems that I have is finding an easy way to convert 2D drawings into G code. I've been trying out various converters such as Carbide Create, Candle and different hardware manipulation programs. Currently, I'm using CNC3D Commander for the hardware control. I've been teaching myself Fusion360 but I'm finding this hard going. I'm hoping things will eventually drop into place - it's just familiarisation and perseverance! Thanks for sharing your activities - It's a valuable source of knowledge for us who are starting out.

Expecting to receive one for Christmas. Will be back to re watch & check out Brians information.... Thanks

Very informative and clear , nice ideas to start with. Thanks a lot James , any idea where to find Z probe guide bearing ,the one installed is short ,need longer one.

really enjoy your videos steve

Your videos are so helpful. Thanks for sharing.

Happy 2024! Love your videos they’ve helped me so much so far!

Great tips, I just bought a 3018 pro used on ebay and I'm really looking forward to getting to know this machine before i move on to a larger unit. Thanks for the info

Really helpful, thank you!

I just picked one up - I think they watch your videos. Now included is a brush, wire looms, offline controller and improved spindle.

Thank you! A really useful and informative guide - much appreciated!

Thanks for a brilliant video. Just set up my 3018 Pro and am reading as much as I can and watching your (and others) videos. One thing that baffles me slightly as I’m only at the very beginning with Gcode is how would you let your machine know to make a rough cut and then stop for a change to a finer tool. Please excuse my ignorance if it’s obvious but a push in the right direction would be much appropriated. Thanks.

Great content mate thanks

Excellent advice. I'm getting the 3018 ProVer today. Looking forward to some fun

Hi James, just bought my first 3018, thanks so much for your videos, I really like your spoil/clamping base, do you have a template for it you would share?

Hi there. I just subscribed to your channel. The two cents of an old CNC user: 1. on the 3018, after all the "upgrades" you made, the remaining vibrations may come from the backlash in the screws (see Openbuilds' anti-backlash nuts), from the bearings (which are wear parts that needs to be replaced along the way. You may not have glued them in place. Shims may make the trick. Find today some replacement carriages as long as the 3018 is still produced. Just an advice.), from the plastic parts, and from the unsupported guides. So you can't eliminate all the vibrations. 2. the furniture pads keeps the vibrations inside the machine, this is not a good idea because you work on noise, not on vibrations that affects the cut quality. There's two ways to damp vibrations. First is mass, because vibration decreases through some dense and massive materials. Second, a trap where vibrations won't be able to propagate. You can fill the aluminum profiles with granite epoxy. Then you want to fix the machine on a heavy base, like a thick metal plate or a heavy concrete tile. You don't want any pad or rubber thing between the machine and its base plate or the vibrations won't propagate. Sand makes a good vibration trap. So you can fill a tray with at least 1" fine sand layer and land your machine and its base over the sand. You can also use the bottom of an enclosure as a tray. 3. dry lubricants works fine with lead-screws, but not as well for guides or ball-screws. The way you do on your guides don't brings any lubricant inside the bearings because there's a sealed joint that won't allow the lubricant to came in. Like any dust or debris by the way. You bring a small amount of lubricant on the guides which is wiped away by the bearings. You really want some lithium grease deep in the bearing balls paths. Pro tip: one linear bearing at a time, block one end with your finger. use a syringe to force lithium grease inside the bearings until the grease fills all the ball paths inside the bearings and squeeze out of the bearing. That's a necessary messy job. Once you bring the bearing over the guide, the excess grease is removed and a fair amount of grease stays in the bearing. That will lubricate the guides at each pass without building some grease outside. You want to do the same way for ball-screws nuts.

Okay. You win. Best 3018 videos out there.

I enjoyed that James, Thanks!

Thankyou so much very helpful, really appreciate you. I have bought one of these, as i want to go bigger, wanted to learn from small first.

nice to share tips and tricks that have been out there for years.....thanks

That tip about pointing those clamps downward is super important.. was good of you to point out, it's a common mistake

I couldn’t get a 3080 because of scalpers so I just settled with the 3018. It’s pretty neat and I’m finally doing something that isn’t sitting on my computer

Awesome video very informative

Hi ! Thanx for your great video! I ordered a 3018 pro (not arived yet) with offline controller. From your video I know its not recommended for z-probe profiles. I need it for for cutting pcb and with probe mask. So the question is: can I use the cnc without the offline controller to get my probe mask ?

My 3018 just arrived today, I will use your series as a guide. Thanks!

Hey James. I have bought one of these since watching your videos. Love it. Sometimes my bolts on the X and Y work loose halfway through a job. Would you recommend Loctite Blue Threadlocker on those to keep them in place?

RE Linear bearings. Instead of epoxy, screw thread lock compound works well and comes in different strengths so you can lock the bearing in place yet still remove it later.

A must watch video for first timers that bought a 3081-Pro

Really good videos I built one of these a few years ago but sad to say I havent figured out the Gcode yet although I use fusion 360 a lot. I am wanting to engrave some small lettering on to a plastic disk that used as an indicator of a vintage radio so I will probably ask your advice on that. Thanks for sharing regards Chris

Hi James, love the videos and they have really helped me dial in my 3018 this week. One thing I'd love to do is make a wasteboard like your with the cuts to allow the mounting clamps. Any chance of a tutorial on how you made yours?

Thank you for this video. Can you tell us where to find resources on adding that extra code you mentioned you didn't want to get into? I bought an offline controller, but I really need to do that Z-axis mapping. I'm not sure how to do it with the controller.

Nice tuto.Thank you so much

Great video !!

Thanks for the vids James, would you happen to have a video on your spoilboard?

I have been experimenting with the baking soda and water trick here is what I found - 1tbs to 1 cup warm water mix until disolved then apply 2 - 3 coats with brush let dry, I set power to 20% and speed 18000 on a 2.5w laser, results amazing much darker, and cleaner burn on wood.

Thanks very much James. I must have looked at 100s of reviews of 3018 Pro machines and it’s amazing how many people expect it to work at it’s best ‘out of the box’. These people generally give the product 1 or 2 stars out of 5! I think people’s expectations are too high. If they would only watch your videos first I’m sure they would be far happier with their purchase. I’m just about to buy a 3018 Pro-Max and these videos are a massive help. Just one question. Did you make your spoil board and how does it connect to the bed? Thank you.

I really like your videos on the 3018 Pro! Very helpful and educational! Is the stl file for the 3D variant for vacuum hose available somewhere?

Excellent tutorials

im slowly working my way thru your tutorial videos a great help i must say thankyou i do like the bed protecter i assume you used a router for the slots and how thick is the protecter ?

Hi great video thank you. Do you have a link of the spindle you purchased with the full stem please?

Enjoying your vids. Good content for the newbie 3018 owner. Hope to have mine assembled soon. One thing - those are carriage bolts not coach bolts; very different in features.

Could you please tell me the size of the coach bolt you recommend? Thank you so much for this amazing video!

Good subject. Thanks from Orlando

Great video. Have you considered using Loctite 243 on the bearings instead of epoxy? Also good to use on the screws as it will prevent them vibrating loose, but will still allow you to remove them if needed.

Thanks for all the content dude. It really helped with setting up my new 3018 Pro. Don't suppose you have plans for your spoil board? I had a look at Grahams docs you shared, he mentions it but I can't find any plans. I'd rather not doing too much until I have one installed.

Hello James Thanks a lot for your videos, they are really very clear and helpful. Regarding the chucks - how are they mounted or taken off? I have got a motor with 8mm shaft separate from the chuck. The chuck‘s hole is about 0.1mm narrower. Should I use some press or heat the chuck to get it on to the motor? To which degree to heat?

Regarding vibration, I have my 3018 sitting on some scrap polystyrene from a flatpack... works well enough.

Hi James. I thought I had cracked my problem as I found my spindle connection into the stepper motor wasn’t seated properly. Rectified this and ran job. Got halfway through and then the bit moved to a new position but didn’t retract and cut across the piece and snapped the bit. So still ruining my pieces.

Lol it's nice to know I'm not the only KZfaqr whose dog barks when I'm trying to make videos!

Brilliant! TY very much.

Hi. Thanks for some awsome videos. You are my best source of learning for my new 3018Pro. I have one question: How is your spoilboard attached to the bed? Glue, tape, bolts...?

Thanks, very helpful.

Helpful. Thanks.

thx mate alot useful info