GGFlex assembled, now what?

I ordered a kit late last year, and due to my living situation wasn't able to put it together until this week. There was a missing part (one of the right handed parts was included twice instead of having a pair), and 3 of the other pieces were just printed really poorly. Luckily I was able to print replacements just fine. So now I have it all assembled, but I'm curious about where to go from here....

Mine looks just like the picture here: https://ggflex.com/product/ggflex-v2a-diy, but one of the last pictures shows some extrusion going across, and that wasn't included. Was that supposed to be included from the eBay kit?

What do I do about the electronics? How do I start cutting something? Does anyone have a tutorial for where I'm at going forward?

tutorial specifically for this? no.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08K34T4Q2
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XW76584
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PPT11QN
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0798H3ZBL
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D9HRDT6
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DZB8NDW

thats more or less what you need for the electronics..

this is just an open source cnc project. because of frustration with guys thinking this was some sort of hand holding project instead of a pile of parts.. the one remaining dev appears to have bailed on use over the summer. not that i blame him. A lot of the reason the community isnt more active that it is.. once you get your feet under you... you dont really need help. you learn to be self sufficient.. all that said..

I use https://winder.github.io/ugs_website/ as my control software. now you can use the DD stuff... but i dont recommend it. learn how to do this for yourself and add value to your life. couple reasons.. you dont have a DD machine do you? this isnt a dd machine.. it will never be a dd machine.. it will interpret gcode and you can use their software... but this is like trying to ride a BMX bike in a motocross race. it aint the same.. and if you want DD easy.. spend your 3200 bucks over there instead of doing this yourself. this isnt push button. you need to approach this as the journey is more important than the destination. because it really is. if you have chosen this path for financial reasons.. panic.. if you chose it because you wanted to learn and be able to do anything yourself... use UGS and have a blast. youre in good company.


If you are running with end stops.. which i recommend for automation purposes.. (ie reproducible results are important.. you really need to be able to home and set zero from home) ... a couple tips..

before you start a cut.. home.. probe to set zero.. $21=0 to disable the hard stops from that point forward. Random EMF will trigger endstops and ruin a print or at least your afternoon as you restart it 5 times. mill with the stops disabled is the simplest reliable solution solution.. before anyone starts with the commentary... ive tried.. bridging capacitors.. rerouting the wires. different wire types.. EMF filters... dont start with me. my personal opinion is the ports are to close to together on the board. but who cares.. save yourself the rants some of these other guys post on here.

I use FreeCad https://www.freecadweb.org/ to generate my paths. i cut many other things on this machine (and by the way the first one was to small.. i recommend starting with the max spec and reinforcing the hell out of it... but i have one of each at this point).. the probe routines are a bit of a pain to write by hand even for us programmers.. but perfectly doable and create great reproducible results that really are close to the DD stuff.. bolt it in.. on the mark.. probe.. cut etc. DD will sell you their software for 10 bucks. after looking once... i no longer need it. in fact.. depending on the lower manufacturer you actually need to adjust the probe routine to get it exact. its surprising how much these things vary especially when buying cheap. get you a good set of calipers is all i have to say about that.

Code:

(swompy probe AR-15)

$H  (Home)
G10 P0 L20 X0 Y0 Z0  (set starting 0 to home)

G0 Y-65 F100 (move y over the edge of trigger well)
G0 X+48.5 F100 (move x over relative center of part)

G0 Z-15 F100 (Lower z closer to part)
(aluminum tape .0012 in or .03 mm thick)
G10 L20 P1 Z0 (probe z on edge of trigger well)
G90 G21 (G90 absolute coord, G21 mm)
G21 G91 G49
G38.2 Z-25 F100
G90 G21
G91 G21 G0 Z1.0
G90 G21
G21 G91 G49
G38.2 Z-25 F30
G10 L20 P1 Z0
G90 G21
G90 G21 G0 Z8
G90 G21 (end probe z on edge of trigger well)

(G4 P5) (wait around a bit)

G90 G21 G0 Y-42 (move y back to mag well via Yrough)
G90 G21 G0 Z-10 (lower bit into mag well)

G10 L20 P1 Y0 (set offset y for probe)
G90 G21 (G90 absolute coord, G21 mm)
G38.2 Y-25 F100
(G4 P5) (wait around a bit)
G90 G21
G91 G21 G0 Y1.0
G90 G21
G21 G91 G49
G38.2 Y-25 F80

G91 G21
G10 L20 P1 Y-6.145 ( tool width .25in. off set .125in or 6.35mm/2 = 3.175 minus .03 mm tape offset 3 mm to avoid issues on start)

G90 G21 G0 Y0 (end y probe)


(G10 L20 P1 X0) (x probe set current position center)
G91 G21 (G91 incremental coord, G21 mm)
G38.2 X+15 F80 (probe X)
G91 G21 G0 X-1.0
G91 G21 G49
G38.2 X+1.25 F20 (probe X)
G10 L20 P1 X+8.1996 (set Xrough side wall plus half width of well .324 in or 8.2296mm minus tape .03mm)
G90 G21 (mm)
G90 G21 G0 X0
G90 G21 G0 Z8 (Z safe height)

one other helpful tip. that spindle mount is complete garbage.. it doesnt hold up. this is better.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B091K5XS71

and you need a stl to print the new mount as well. my own design.. so if you dont like it.. just make your own. but not sure how i can host the file on here.

This is great, thanks! On that spindle mount, do I need to drill holes in it to match your modified version?

Yeah.. so what i did... used by drill press.. to mark the centers of those holes through the plastic. then used a smaller bit to actually drill the aluminum and taped it for an M5 20?? i cant remember how long i used.. its a 50 pitch i believe when you go to buy a tap. standard m5. just do your checking before you order something. i have a bunch of stuff sitting around.. but very few metric taps sitting around. i need to figure out how to get you that stl file for the mount. it works really well.. way strong than that other mess. i just got tired of breaking the ones included in the cad files. fyi ... the second one of these you build .. it just goes smoother... you try not to get in a hurry and lock tight everything. i fought with my first cnc like crazy getting it to work as most i guess have on here from the comments.. but second one.. youre experienced enough to plug in the stepper motors and isolate the bad driver without a bunch of panic. the second one i seriously finished wiring one night.. then the next night i had to get the enclosure around it... and milled a little wood... then away we went. changed took about an hour to update the routines and set some distances.