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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QB2 User and Maintenance Guide –Revised 09/02/2023
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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QB2 User and Maintenance Guide –Revised 09/02/2023
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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QB2 User and Maintenance Guide –Revised 09/02/2023
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.