Great video - did learn a lot from this ❤

I don’t use the avid touch plate anymore. I use an opto-interrupted touch off so I don’t need any conductive wire to my CNC Depot S30C. Opto interrupt also has better repeatability. I’ve had my system drive a bit into the avid plate, thankfully it did not brake my bit.

Question: How would you identify the version of the CRP850-00E board that you have? I see physically on the board a reference to "Rev F-04" similar to the screenshots that AVIDCNC have on their support pages.

Another interesting video Jim. OPT lasers rock!

Did you have to modify the AVID laser deploy unit to use with the XT8?

Have u tried any stainless steel yet I’m gonna try to engrave some knives with my xt8 once my laser spray comes in

great, thorough review!! I have subscribed too!

Excellent video Jim, love your work. Are your Post Processors Imperial only or will they work with Metric as well?

Awsome video. Can you sheer test file Gcode? Or maybe you can re-cap in excel table as cheat sheet?

great video...Do you know if I could export from VCARVE and then open/burn on my stand-alone laser (CO2)?

Great info in this video. Thank you. You mentioned 3d carving in the beginning. I have a different issue than vibrations, mine is the screen toolpath preview not showing for large 3d toolpaths and the program crashing and shutting down. I have a i7 12700 cpu with UHD770 integrated graphics and 64gig of DDR5 ram. It only happens on toolpath gcode files larger than about 100mb. Smaller than that and the previews look great. Any thoughts on what the problem could be? Thanks!

Here in the outside world we went metric and bits in incremental 0.1 mm steps are commonplace and easy to obtain from sources all over the globe. We used to use the imperial system here in UK but things are much simpler using the metric system. 0.1 mm is plenty accurate for woodworking and for most metalworking too.

Thanks because of your review im verry interested now.

Great video and instruction, thanks. I have been highlighting vcarvings by running the laser along the vcarve toolpath. I allow the laser to move in the z axis to try and keep the focus. Thanks to your post processor. I am always learning from you.

Thanks for making the video I’ll have to try it out Was wondering what size air compressor you using for the air assist on the opt laser? I’m using a shopsabre 23 not avid, I have use laser module and laser post processor from shopsabre without and problem I’m assuming I can use that same laser post processor to do what you did in this video

I learn something new each time I watch one of our new videos Jim. Great work.

So no air compressor needed? Looks good waiting for a good atc to come out with the avid.

Do you know if there is a way to laser using the image created from the new sketch carving toolpath?

Thank you for this. I just finished wiring, mounting the XT-8, and building my new modular laser bed for my existing CNC bed. I have Aspire and know how to use it well with my spindle. I have know idea how to use the laser. Opt Laser does a poor job of providing instructions. Or if they have instructions, they need to show where to find instructions for a first-time laser user. I couldn't see the page when you showed us how to add the laser as a CNC bit. Would it be possible to show how to change and modify to a laser on the add bit page? I have a UCNCC 400ETH and a Gecko 540. Can I use your custom post-processor, or is it only for Maach4? Sorry for so many questions and requests; I want to start. I purchased my Opt Laser to complement and add capabilities/features to my Woodworking business. I often watch your videos; I built a raised honeycomb bed after noticing yours was raised. I'm curious what you think about the bed I built and whether it was worth it or overkill. If you tell me where to send photos to you, I can show you some pictures. My email is [email protected] if you wish to chat in private

This is why I went to light burn no stopping and starting just a constant speed

Great video Jim! What about Exact Stop or Constant Velocity in Mach4? Maybe you mentioned it and I missed it. Max from Argentina

Can you still use the auto z touch plate and corner finder for finding the xy of your project when this system is on our is it always fixed now?

why dont you put theauto z touch plate a lot closer? Like right next to it. Makes the whole operations always a bit faster. Thanks for the vid and cheers

Thank you very much for all this information. You have a new subscriber :)

Awesome video, as always. Much appreciated!

Hi when are you doing the full review of the PLH3D-XT8

6:24 @Jim, how did you connect your laser touch off rod to chassis ground? I just checked on mine today and there’s no continuity. Did you just connect a wire from some metal part of the laser to some metal part of the CNC gantry or something? Is there any safety issue either isolating or grounding the laser to the chassis?

Great job on the reviews on the ATC. We had them on my show when I found out about the product and am really impressed. We will be talking about your videos tonight

XL CNC, I think in South Africa, is helping to develop the RapidChange ATC Sidewinder, has a dust shoe loading and unloading station for his CNC.

Thanks for the great-and thorough-review. So, other than buying the unit, are there any other purchase you need?

Jim, I have a 1/2 collet that was very loose and caused the bit to drop out , so I used an automatic center punch and punched the collet a couple times at the grove that holds the collet in the nut and that tighten it up enough to keep the bit from dropping out.

Watched the end. Thanks. No need to reply.

Do you have a video on the plus and minus of the dust boot? Thanks for this video.

Great review series.

Many thanks for this input

Thanks Jim, great summary?

During the cutting of the dove tails, I noticed that you had that orange and blue air nozzle. Were you blowing air during that cut? Does that help evacuate the wood chips?

Jim, I can't thank you enough for this tutorial (and the others). You have been a sanity saver for me to say the least. I'm a long time Mach3 user who added an Optlaser like you did. I found that M3 just wasn't good enough for what I wanted so I upgraded. WOW, the learning curve has been steep. Nothing is really the same, as they point out. the most frustrating thing is that my laser is working just fine in Mach3 so why can't I make it work in Mach4. I have Mach4 working a mill, but the laser addition is a lot of mystery. Hours and hours of reading and research and I've made some progress. Then i found you. Even though I'm not using the Avid version of Mach, I now have a good understanding of what I was missing. Your attention to detail has really helped me. Thanks so very much.

Thanks!

I am running vcarve pro and laser plugin. I cannot get the jtech or avid to put the m67 e1 q??? 0-100 in the gcode. How did you get yours in there. My laser wont fire unless i have the m67 e1 g 0-100 code in it.

Good to know! One more possible use for this beast.

Jim, very cool concept here! I realize this proof of concept may largely be for those without a spindle - but if you have both, you gave me an idea to combine both: burned looks awesome as a background, and then use the spindle for main shape, then laser again for deepest details. Like in your photoshop-esque program remove all detail lighter than shade x, just to capture the best shadows. Then burn that in on top of the spindle shape, to give bit more 3D effect/depth. Anyway, I love your content, thanks for opening so many concepts up to me and so many here. 👍🙏👏

Man the sound that took changer makes while loosening and tightening makes me cringe every time! It’s pretty cool though just scary sounding

Thank you for your videos on this product. Very helpful! Great information. I have a question about dust collection/boot. How does that work with this system please? Do you need a specific boot in order for this to work. Thanks again!

Hello, I’ve been investigating this issue with my own machine similar to yours. People seem to forget that the that these machines are sitting on six 1/2 inch pins to the floor. There has to be movement there. I’m considering bracing to the floor or setting up blocking to strengthen that section. Just a thought.

Thanks for your testing with this system. My hope is that they keep expanding compatibility and reliability, without selling out to some industry giant that will jack the price way up or take it off market due to having a competing product. On the subject of collets.. Chinese collets suck. Even if you check runout at the top of the shank, concentricity at the tip is often terrible. Maritool is a good middle ground between China and Lyndex for example. They are more expensive, but they are more accurate, help tools last longer, and come in all sorts of metric and standard sizes. I think half mm increments too on the metric side to fit whatever oddball tooling you have. As you know, you want a slip fit which will occur when you use a 1/2 collet with a 1/2 tool, where the tool goes in without a fight, but where it doesn't slide out. Not just for the tool changer, but for tool life, collet longevity, and accuracy too. EDIT - *tool not bit You don't use bits, you use tools. You use bits in your screwdriver. You load a drill into your collets, not a bit. Sorry. Pet peeve that was drilled into my head by an old wiley bastard of a machinist / shop owner. Hope no offense is taken. Lol😅

Hey Jim, not sure if you have said this in the past videos, does adding this take up one of your axes for the dust cover? I would hope it's more of just a trigger on/off type thing. Thanks for the great videos. Including the OPT laser videos. I got the XT-50 just before the XT8 was announced, maybe someday I'll upgrade.

Perfect timing I just got my xt8 jus waiting on my air assist to come in. Can’t wait to do some cutting

I know this is a few years old, but for anyone trying this. There is a Steps Per Unit calculator in the Mach4 Wizard menu (StepsPerUnitCalculatorBasic). Pretty intuitive. Select motor, input move distance, and velocity, click move and it does the calculations for you. Then you take the result and input in the Motor calibration Counts Per Unit.

Hi Jim, great video on this ATC. Departing if you’ve already answered this, but if say I often use more than 6 different end mills, might you get a second one of these ATC’s to set up in series end to end with the first one? Or is it easy to just slip out an end mill not in use for the current project and slip in a different endmill - idea being for any one operation, keep it to 6 different end mills, killer!