CNC3D QB2 User manual

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QB2 User and Maintenance Guide –Revised 09/02/2023
QB2
QB2-V2
User guide
+
Maintenance Guide

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QB2 User and Maintenance Guide –Revised 09/02/2023
Safety precautions
Like any power tool, operating and using a CNC machine can be dangerous. Diligence must
be applied when operating any machine. It is recommended to wear appropriate PPE such
as eye protection and earmuffs for your own safety.
NEVER leave a powered machine unattended at any time!
In the event of an issue or if something doesn’t seem right, it is recommended to
immediately disconnect power to the machine and unplug it from the wall power outlet.
Contact our customer support team if you have any concerns about your machine.
Always ensure your machine is free and clear of any swarf, dust or other obstructions that
may impact the motion of your machine. We highly recommend the use of a Dust shoe and
vacuum system for keeping your machine clean and clear of swarf and dust.
Always ensure to follow the maintenance guide at the bottom of this manual after initial
assembly and setup and also periodically to ensure your machine always performs to its
optimal capacity.

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Table of Contents
Introduction Page 4
Unwrapping and Setup Page 5
Before Initial Power Up Page 8
Connecting to Your Nighthawk Page 9
Surfacing the Machine Bed Page 11
Running Your Jobs Page 14
Spindle Tramming Page 17
Getting Started With Laser Page 23
Maintenance Guide Page 25

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Introduction
Some key things with the QB2
Machine settings
Our trained team preconfigure every aspect of your machine prior to it being sent to you.
You do not need to change any settings in your controller and DO NOT load any profiles
onto your machine within the Profiles tab of our Commander software.
By default, we set soft limits to the maximum travel limits of your X and Y axis. Whenever
you first power on you MUST home your machine. If your controller is ever in an Alarm
state, you can reset it by clicking the “Unlock” button in Commander. If this fails to clear,
click the E-stop button in Commander then the unlock button.
Tramming your spindle
It is important to ensure your spindle and endmills are perfectly perpendicular to your bed,
therefore it is highly recommended to tram your spindle. This process cannot be completed
before shipping due to vibrations, bumps etc. during the shipping process.
Surfacing your bed
We do our best to ensure that your machine is perfectly square and aligned during the build
process. Bed surfacing cannot be completed before shipping due to vibrations, bumps etc.
during the shipping process. During transportation and movement of your machine certain
parts may change position meaning that surfacing needs to occur once the machine is in its
final resting location to ensure that you have a sturdy and well supported base to start using
your machine.

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Limit Switches
This section only applies to the QB2-V2
The QB2-V2 uses inductive limit switches on all axes. These switches are electronic and
require no maintenance. We have also installed crash protectors near the switches on the X
and Y axes to protect them in case of a machine crash.
These protectors should not interfere with the limit switches’ normal operation and are a
critical safety mechanism so please leave them attached.
Y1 and Y2
Crash
Protectors
X
Crash Protector

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Unboxing your Machine and Setup
1. Welcome to your new QB2! To remove the plywood crate, you will only need to
remove the screws which are painted purple, then the whole lid will slide up and off
the pallet. At this point you can also carefully remove the small parts accessories box
that is attached to the gantry. This will contain your endmills, laser goggles, Dust shoe
and other accessories you may have purchased with your machine.
2. Once your machine is exposed you can unscrew the electronics board from the front
of the pallet and slide it onto the machines spoil board for easy transport to its home
location bench or table.

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3. Now that we have everything free it is a good idea to get a friend or 3 to help move
your machine on to your table/bench. Be very careful to avoid skewing the machine
while transporting it and under no circumstances should you ever grab the ballscrews.
Always ensure the ballscrews are protected to avoid bending them. They control your
machines movement so keeping them nice and straight and under the right tension is
very important.
Some users may choose to move the entire pallet and bottom packaging onto the bench
and run the machine from there. This is OK to do also. If doing this, keep the machine
fastened to the pallet itself.
If you have removed the pallet and crate baseboard from the machine it is
recommended to use the 6 angle brackets; 3 on front, 3 on back (that secured your
machine to the pallet originally) to secure the machine down to the new bench. Start
with the 3 on the rear of the machine and check squareness of your machine. If the
machine is square, then secure the front down.
4. Once your machine is in position it is time to find a spot for your electronics. To make
it easy, you can mount the existing MDF board that has the electronics fixed to it to
the front of your machines table. This will provide easy access to the VFD and E-stop.
You can also choose to unmount the electronics from the MDF board and position
them where you like as long as the cables will reach of course. It is not recommended
to power up just yet, but we will shortly!
Mounting suggestion using the existing MDF electronics mounting board:

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Things to check before powering on!
We’re almost there! It’s important to do some quick checks to ensure your machine is ready
to go. Sometimes in transport, things can wiggle loose. Here are some things to check.
❖Check all nuts and bolts on the machine.
❖Check the green connectors that connect all the wires. They should be firm and
secure. Try giving each wire a slight tug in each screw terminal to make sure
they are secure!
PRO TIP: You can familiarize yourself and follow the maintenance guide at the
bottom of these instructions to check that everything is nice and secure after the
machine has been moved into its home location.
❖Download and install our CNC3D Commander software if you have a Windows
computer. It can be found here:
https://www.cnc3d.com.au/commander
Let’s plug it in!
Take the single power plug lead and plug it directly into a wall socket. It is NOT
recommended to run the machine from a power board. Once powered on, your Nighthawk
controller fan will come on and so will the display on your VFD.
We highly recommend visiting the user manual for the
Nighthawk controller found here:
https://www.cnc3d.com.au/nhc

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Connecting to Your Nighthawk
There are multiple options that you can use to connect to your Nighthawk –USB, WIFI and
Bluetooth.
USB
Your first instinct may be to use USB however this is the least reliable way to control and
run your machine and it is heavily discouraged! While it’s running the spindle will create lots
of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and electrical noise which can cause the USB
connection to drop out resulting in random job stoppages or irregular machine behaviour.
WiFi
The best possible way to run your QB2 is via WiFi and connecting the machine to an existing
WiFi network such as a house or factory network.
The next preferable option is WiFi –Direct Access Point Mode which allows you to connect
directly to the Nighthawk instead of connecting the Nighthawk to an existing network. This
will be the best option if there is no network in the area where your QB2 is located or if you
are using a mesh network/WiFi range extenders as the Nighthawk cannot connect to these
networks. This works the same as connecting to a network, but the drawback is that the
computer running the machine will not have access to the internet while running the
machine.
Bluetooth
The third option is connecting to the Nighthawk via Bluetooth from a compatible PC or
Laptop (not a smartphone!)
Bluetooth works the same as USB without the physical cable so it will eliminate the risk of
EMI and unpredictable machine behaviour.
Check out this video to learn how to set up each of these
connections through our Commander software
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k07Qwe4IduU

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Initial setup steps once powered on
Our trained team preconfigure every aspect of your machine prior to it being sent to you.
You do not need to change any settings in your controller and DO NOT load any profiles
onto your machine within the Profiles tab of our Commander software.
If you get a popup asking if you have a new machine or if your machine is already set up,
please select “My Machine is Already Set Up” as we have done it for you in the factory.
Selecting “New Machine Wizard” will cause Commander to overwrite some of the critical
settings like maximum travels and axis directions and can cause your machine to crash.

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Surfacing your spoil board
It is highly recommended to surface the top of your spoil board. Surfacing the entire
working area means that your tool will always be perpendicular to your cutting tool.
To do this, follow the steps below for making a rectangle the size of your actual working
area.
First, connect to your Nighthawk controller and home the machine to clear the alarm. Next
step is to open the Create window and select Spoilboard Surfacing.
In the Spoilboard Surfacing Generator window that has opened, there is a highlighted box
with a Max Size button. When you click this button, it will insert a number into Width (X)
and Length (Y). These numbers are mathematically calculated based on numbers that are
saved on your Nighthawk controller and will be unique to your machine. You should not
need to make any more adjustments to any of these settings.
When all your numbers have been entered, click Generate and save the file that it creates
then close the Spoilboard Surfacing Generator and the Create window.
1
2

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Running the Job
To do this you will need to home your machine. Once homed, loosen off your collet nut on
your spindle and insert a 6mm collet and the 22mm surfacing bit provided with your QB2
CNC (Spindle Option Only). Please ensure the surfacing bit is inserted quite high into the
collet but not all the way in. Once in, tighten the collet nut up.
Note: Extreme force is not required to tighten your collet nut. Just make sure it is secure.
If you ordered one, attach your dust shoe and vacuum hose at this time as well.
Get a marker and squiggle some lines all over your spoil board. This will allow you to tell if
the surface has been machined or not. See photo below of areas that were missed on our
first pass trying to surface the spoil board.
Using the jogging buttons in Commander, put a piece of scrap paper under the surfacing bit
and lower the Z down until it is just touching the paper. Ensure to reduce your downward
travel distance as you get closer to the surface to ensure the machine does not crash into
the spoil board.

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Once you feel resistance when moving the paper around you can remove the paper and
discard it.

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From here it is now time to upload the job and get it started!
There are two different methods depending on how you are connected to your Nighthawk.
If you are connected via WiFi then please skip ahead to the next page.
Connected to your Nighthawk via USB (Not Recommended) or Bluetooth
Back in our Commander software, Click the “Zero job” button. Then click on Load Job and
select the file you saved out of the surfacing wizard. Once loaded, hit the green run button
on your VFD and wait until the spindle is up to speed. Once at speed, turn on your vacuum
extraction (if attached) and hit the ‘Run Job’ button. See sequence here:
This will start the process of surfacing your spoil board. It may take a long time to complete
this process. If something doesn’t seem right, immediately press the E-stop button on your
control box or via our Commander software.
When the job completes, press the red button on the VFD to turn off the spindle.
Note: Using the E-stop on your Nighthawk controller or via our Commander software will
only stop your machine moving but will not stop your spindle. If you want to stop both the
spindle and machine quickly, we recommend using the mechanical E-stop on your control
box.

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If you are connected to your Nighthawk via WiFi (Direct or Existing Network)
Back in our Commander software, Click the “Zero job” button. Next, click on the “Upload
Job” button, navigate to the location of the job file you just saved and select the correct job
one, then click “Open”. This will save the job to the SD card in the Nighthawk Controller.
When the upload is successful there will be a popup box to confirm. Click OK to close.
You’re now ready to run the job! Attach your vacuum hose to the dust shoe (if fitted) turn
on the extraction system, then turn on the spindle by pressing the Green button on the VFD.
From there, all you need to do is highlight the spoilboard job in the list and click “Run SD
Job”.
1
2
3
1
2

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This will start the process of surfacing your spoil board. It may take a long time to complete
this job. If something doesn’t seem right, immediately hit the E-stop button on your power
box or via our Commander software.
When the job completes, press the red button on the VFD to turn off the spindle.
Note: Using the E-stop on your Nighthawk controller or via our Commander software will
only stop your machine moving but will not stop your spindle. If you want to stop both the
spindle and machine quickly, press the mechanical E-stop on your control box.
You may need to turn the Nighthawk off and back on after using the E-stop button in
Commander or on top of the controller. The E-stop causes the controller to reset as it’s the
fastest way to stop machine motion.
SOME GREAT NEWS!
The process you have just followed here is how every job will be run. You will be running all
future jobs like this. Saving this handy spoil board job will make it easy next time you want
to freshen up your surface OR after you replace your spoil board.

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Tramming your spindle
You may notice after surfacing you have some ridges in your spoil board. This is due to the
spindle needing some minor adjustments to be truly “flat” with your spoil board.
During assembly of your machine our team align your spindle and bracket using engineering
squares. This is fine for general tramming but extra tramming steps can be performed to
ensure you have smooth bottom results with larger cutting tools. The best way to test your
tramming is to use the new Spoil board surfacing wizard in Commander’s Creation Tool
section to make a 100x100mm rectangle and insert your supplied 22mm surfacing bit and
6mm collet.

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Tramming Side to side
Your Z axis plate has 4 bolts that hold it to your X axis plate. These bolts can be loosened off
to allow you to tilt the angle of your spindle for tramming. There is a centre locating pin
between these plates to make this process easy. It is recommended to loosen off 3 of the
bolts quite loosely while keeping one bolt slightly loose to allow some control when
tramming. The 4 bolts are located here:

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Tramming Front to back
As time goes on, CNC3D innovates and improves on our machine designs to make things like
tramming your spindle an easier and user-friendly process. One of these improvements is
the addition of a “shoulder bolt” on the big Y-axis plates. There will be some machines that
have these bolts and some that do not so ensure you are following the correct tramming
procedure for your machine.
If your gantry has a shoulder bolt
Shoulder bolts have a washer on the bolt as seen below in BLUE. If you have no washer and all your bolts are
identical then you need to follow the below guide for “NO shoulder bolt”. This bolt could be either in the top
hole or the bottom hole.
If you need to adjust your tramming front to back then we need to look at adjusting the
gantry angle.
To do this, we first need to loosen off *slightly* the shoulder bolt highlighted below in BLUE.
Once these are loose, loosen all of the bolts highlighted in YELLOW below.

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Repeat this process on the other side of the machine in the exact same pattern as the first
side. This will allow us to “twist” the gantry front to back. Make slight adjustments at a time
to both sides and re-secure the BLUE bolt first, then the YELLOW bolts. Check if it is
trammed correctly by cutting into your test piece. Repeat these adjustments until the test
piece seems to surface quite flat with no ridges showing up as it skims the surface.